The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Relational Crafting on Job Well-Being.

Shanshan Li,Bin Meng,Qingjin Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.713737

Shanshan Li, Bin Meng + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.713737

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Abstract

Is relational crafting always beneficial? Despite the increasing research on the positive outcomes of relational crafting, some evidence still indicates its dysfunctional consequences. The current study proposed a double-edged sword effect of relational crafting on job well-being, including work dynamics and emotional exhaustion, with an integrative perspective from the resource loss and resource acquisition perspectives based on the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory. By conducting a two-stage questionnaire survey on 323 employees, the results demonstrate that: (1) On the one hand, relational crafting induces emotional exhaustion through increased work load; (2) On the other hand, relational crafting also displays positive effect on increasing work dynamics and decreasing emotional exhaustion by fostering supervisor-subordinate guanxi. By analyzing the double-edged sword effect of subordinates’ relational crafting on job well-being from the two processes of resource loss and resource acquisition effects, a more complete influencing mechanism between relational crafting and job well-being is constructed, which improves the understanding of relational crafting, enriches the literature on proactive behavior and provides a more integrated theoretical basis for researchers and managers.

Highlights

With the development of society, economy, science, and technology, the nature of work has become vaguer and more complex (Womack, 2018), requiring employees to adapt to dynamic jobs effectively (Slemp and Vella-Brodrick, 2013)
The results demonstrated that the first emerging factor accounted for 14.83% of the explained variance, indicating that Common method variance (CMV) was not a significant problem in the present study
The study was built on the JD-R model and the COR theory to examine how subordinates’ relational crafting impacted their job well-being

Summary

Introduction

With the development of society, economy, science, and technology, the nature of work has become vaguer and more complex (Womack, 2018), requiring employees to adapt to dynamic jobs effectively (Slemp and Vella-Brodrick, 2013). With the progress of studies, job crafting scholars have indicated different crafting orientations, such as approach avoidance or promotion prevention (e.g., Bruning and Campion, 2018; Zhang and Parker, 2019). Relational crafting depicts employees’ behaviors to change relational boundaries, involving activities of seeking, building, and/or maintaining better relationships with preferred individuals in the workplace (Bruning and Campion, 2018). This behavior has been found to help employees have more supportive and rewarding interactions, resulting in various positive outcomes (Jutengren et al, 2020). We believe that further studies on relational crafting will be a meaningful and important topic in the contemporary Chinese context

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