Exploring the dark side of job crafting

Abstract

In the current literature job crafting has been found to have many beneficial effects on work outcomes. However, job crafting seems to be mostly used in its broadest sense and little attention is paid to its underlying intentionality/motivation. Since in previous research the beneficial effects of proactive personality on outcomes seemed to be fully mediated by job crafting, the question arises if the same is true for dark triad personality characteristics and undesirable work outcomes. Therefore, the dark side of job crafting will be explored by studying the relation between dark triad personality and work outcomes as mediated through job crafting. Further, an extra motivational dimension has been added to existing job crafting scales to create a bright (organization-centered) and dark (self-centered) version. Results showed that job crafting does fully mediate the effects of dark triad personality traits for positive work outcomes when it is organization-centered, and for some negative work outcomes when it is self-centered. This shows that there is merit to adding dimensions such as intentionality/motivation to job crafting and further research could expand further on this theme.