International Journal of Stress Management

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1 International Journal of Stress Management Regular Versus Cutback-Related Change: The Role of Employee Job Crafting in Organizational Change Contexts of Different Nature Paraskevas Petrou, Evangelia Demerouti, and Despoina Xanthopoulou Online First Publication, April 7, CITATION Petrou, P., Demerouti, E., & Xanthopoulou, D. (2016, April 7). Regular Versus Cutback-Related Change: The Role of Employee Job Crafting in Organizational Change Contexts of Different Nature. International Journal of Stress Management. Advance online publication. dx.doi.org/ /str

2 International Journal of Stress Management 2016 American Psychological Association 2016, Vol. 23, No. 2, /16/$ Regular Versus Cutback-Related Change: The Role of Employee Job Crafting in Organizational Change Contexts of Different Nature Paraskevas Petrou Erasmus University Rotterdam Despoina Xanthopoulou Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Evangelia Demerouti Eindhoven University of Technology The present study addresses how job characteristics (e.g., autonomy, workload, and their interaction) relate to employee job crafting (i.e., seeking resources, seeking challenges, and reducing demands), and whether job crafting relates to employee work-related well-being (i.e., work engagement and exhaustion) across 2 distinct organizational change contexts: a context of threatening, cutback-related change (i.e., due to the financial recession in Greece) and a context of regular change (i.e., due to reorganization in the Netherlands). In both contexts, workload related positively to seeking resources when job autonomy was low, suggesting that employees seek resources to deal with the demanding context of organizational change. Furthermore, seeking resources and seeking challenges were generally associated with better work-related well-being, while reducing demands related positively to employee exhaustion only in the context of regular change (i.e., Dutch sample). Promising avenues for future research are discussed and practical recommendations are proposed to managers who deal with excessive (regular or cutback-related) organizational change. Keywords: exhaustion, financial crisis, job crafting, organizational change, work engagement Although, traditionally, it has been suggested that organizational factors determine the success of implemented organizational change (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999), recently more attention is given to what employees can do themselves to deal effectively with change at work. Job crafting, a proactive employee behavior targeted at seeking job resources and challenges and Paraskevas Petrou, Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Evangelia Demerouti, Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology; Despoina Xanthopoulou, School of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Paraskevas Petrou, Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. petrou@fsw.eur.nl 1

3 2 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU limiting job demands (Tims, Bakker, & Derks, 2012), is addressed as a strategy employees can use to adjust to organizational change (Petrou, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2016). This is because job crafting strategies enable new work roles to emerge that help employees to deal with changing situations (Griffin, Neal, & Parker, 2007). What, however, remains unclear in the literature is whether this proposition applies to different types (i.e., regular vs. cutback-related) of organizational change. On the one hand, organizational change concerns the efforts that change agents (e.g., managers or chief executive officers) exert to bring employees to new behaviors that benefit the organization (van der Ven, 2011). On the other hand, due to the global financial recession, organizational change often does not target at better organizational functioning but simply at survival (Russell & McGinnity, 2014). For the aims of the present study, we define regular organizational change as the change implemented by an organization with the aim to improve organizational functioning. In contrast, we define cutback-related organizational change as the type of change implemented by an organization to cope with the financial recession and concerns resource reservation or restraints within the organization (Kiefer, Hartley, Conway, & Briner, 2014). While the first type of change could trigger average levels of uncertainty, the second type may result in more pronounced and salient levels of uncertainty (Chung, Bekker, & Houwing, 2012). The central aim of this study is to explore whether the links of job crafting with job characteristics and work-related well-being that have been found previously in contexts of regular organizational change (Petrou, Demerouti, Peeters, Schaufeli, & Hetland, 2012; Petrou et al., 2016) apply to contexts of cutback-related change as well. In other words, is the proposed beneficial role of job crafting applicable under conditions where organizational resources are threatened (e.g., via layoffs or pay cuts) or are such contexts too unfavorable to allow for the beneficial role of job crafting to emerge? Thus, this article concerns two types of change, namely, one implemented by the management (i.e., regular or cutback-related organizational change), and one implemented by employees in order to improve their work conditions (i.e., job crafting). To capture cutback-related organizational change, we approached employees working in Greek organizations undergoing major change to survive financial turmoil (Economou et al., 2013). To capture regular change, we approached Dutch employees undergoing a reorganization aiming at organizational development. We test a research model on the contextual correlates of job crafting and its links with employee well-being (see Figure 1) across the two samples. In line with previous research, we propose that job crafting is more likely to take place in active work environments. According to Karasek s (1979) occupational health framework, active jobs are characterized by high demands but also by high autonomy to deal with these demands.

4 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 3 Figure 1. The hypothesized model. Such jobs stimulate employees motivation to learn and develop, and, thus, to display job crafting behaviors in the face of organizational change (Petrou et al., 2012). Furthermore, we investigate the associations between job crafting and employee well-being by focusing on two work-related well-being indicators that are relevant during organizational change: work engagement and

5 4 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU exhaustion (Van den Heuvel, Demerouti, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2010; Bordia, Hunt, Paulsen, Tourish, & DiFonzo, 2004). As explained, the main aim of the study is to test the invariance of the hypothesized mechanisms across organizational change contexts of different nature (regular vs. cutback-related) and not across countries. To this end, we use opportunities provided by the circumstances present in the two countries to examine two different organizational change contexts that would be hard to find within the same country. Although cross-cultural comparisons would also be of interest, the fact that we did not collect data from similar national samples (i.e., in terms of public and private sector representation) that implement both types of change does not allow for such comparisons. Job Crafting in Organizational Change Contexts of Different Nature Empirical evidence indicates that job crafting is a useful employee strategy in the face of small-scale organizational change (Petrou et al., 2012). By anticipating challenges (Ghitulescu, 2013) and by experiencing meaning (Berg, Dutton, & Wrzesniewski, 2013) and person job fit (Tims, Derks, & Bakker, 2016), job crafters dealing with controllable organizational change can find their place in the new situation (Petrou et al., 2016). However, theoretical arguments and qualitative evidence (Kira, Balkin, & San, 2012; Kira, Van Eijnatten, & Balkin, 2010) suggest that job crafters may also survive the uncertainty of major and unexpected organizational change. Thus, we formulate specific and uniform hypotheses with regard to the correlates of job crafting and we explore whether the proposed relationships are invariant across organizational change contexts of different nature (i.e., across both samples). This test of invariance is exploratory yet important from a theoretical point of view. Support of invariance will add to the external validity of the theoretical assumptions regarding job crafting during organizational change, while rejection of invariance would imply need for theory refinement that should take the nature of change into account. In the present article, we follow recent conceptualizations (e.g., Petrou et al., 2012) defining job crafting as three distinct behaviors, namely, seeking resources (e.g., asking the supervisor or colleagues for advice), seeking challenges (e.g., asking for more responsibilities) and reducing demands (e.g., eliminating emotionally, mentally or physically demanding job aspects). Unlike other definitions that address job crafting as exceptional episodes reported one to two times per year (e.g., Lyons, 2008), our conceptualization is reported as a daily employee behavior during organizational change (Petrou et al., 2012). By disrupting work routines and producing uncertainty, organizational change challenges employee well-being (Callan, 1993; Terry, Callan, &

6 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 5 Sartori, 1996). In line with organizational change frameworks (Oreg, Vakola, & Armenakis, 2011; Van den Heuvel et al., 2010), we conceptualize workrelated well-being in times of change in the form of work engagement (i.e., a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003) and employee exhaustion (i.e., a state of intensive physical, emotional and cognitive strain; Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001). Which Jobs Stimulate Job Crafting? Job crafting occurs when employees have the reasons (i.e., high workload) but also the discretion (i.e., autonomy) to craft (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). An active work environment is defined as the environment that entails not only workload but also adequate autonomy to deal with these demands (Karasek, 1979). Such environments are likely to stimulate job crafting aimed at expanding the scope of the job, because they motivate employees to go beyond their task requirements and to learn new skills and develop (Karasek & Theorell, 1990). In other words, workload should empower rather than impede employees to develop at their work when they experience high job autonomy (Lovelace, Manz, & Alves, 2007), because autonomy transforms workload from an obstacle to a learning opportunity. Indeed, Petrou et al. (2012) showed that on days that employees experience higher autonomy than usual, their workload relates positively to seeking resources. However, in the same study, this combination of daily workload with daily autonomy related negatively to reducing demands. Employees with active jobs are not particularly eager to reduce their demands because they have what it takes (i.e., autonomy) to deal with these demands effectively. Furthermore, an active job empowers employees (Laschinger, Finegan, Shamian, & Almost, 2001) and fosters skills acquisition (De Witte, Verhofstadt, & Omey, 2007). Therefore, it should encourage employees to take on new challenges. Hypothesis 1: Workload relates positively to seeking resources and seeking challenges and negatively to reducing demands when job autonomy is high rather than low. The Role of job Crafting for Work Engagement and Exhaustion Seeking Resources Individuals strive to accumulate resources to conserve existing resources (Hobfoll, 2001). By seeking job resources, employees expand their pool of

7 6 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU resources, which boosts work engagement and protects them from exhaustion (Bakker, Demerouti, & Euwema, 2005). This is because job resources enhance intrinsic motivation and provide tools to reduce the costs of dealing with job demands (Demerouti et al., 2001). Indeed, Tims, Bakker, and Derks (2013) found that seeking resources leads to actual increase in perceived job resources, which leads to higher work engagement and lower burnout (of which exhaustion is one component). Job resources are particularly beneficial during organizational change because they help employees to deal with the uncertainty and stress stemming from change (Robinson & Griffiths, 2005; Terry et al., 1996). Hypothesis 2: Seeking resources relates positively to work engagement and negatively to exhaustion. Seeking Challenges Challenges increase employee motivation by enhancing positive emotions and problem-solving skills (Podsakoff, LePine, & LePine, 2007). Taking on more responsibilities improves employee work engagement because it contributes to an active job environment (Petrou et al., 2012) and a positive self-image. The motivating role of challenges is also highlighted in flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Accordingly, work-related flow (i.e., an optimal experience characterized by high levels of intrinsic motivation and work enjoyment, and total immersion in the task at hand) is more likely to occur when employees are involved in challenging activities, while they possess the necessary skills to meet these challenges. Employees, who craft their job by seeking challenges, actually look for challenges that match their level of skills. As such, seeking challenges may enhance their motivation and engagement with their work. Increasing one s job challenges is not exhausting because challenges do not deplete one s energy. Tims et al. (2013) found seeking challenges to relate negatively to burnout, while Petrou, Demerouti, and Schaufeli (2015) found support for the same relationship in an organizational change context. Job challenges mobilize one s coping resources (Lazarus, 1993), empower employees (Spreitzer, Kizilos, & Nason, 1997), and diminish anxiety (Holman & Wall, 2002), thereby, facilitating employee adjustment to organizational change (Amiot, Terry, Jimmieson, & Callan, 2006). Hypothesis 3: Seeking challenges relates positively to work engagement and negatively to exhaustion.

8 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 7 Reducing Demands Dealing with one s workload is a job crafting behavior that was originally assumed to benefit employees (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001; Tims et al., 2012). However, subsequent research seems to suggest that the beneficial effects of reducing demands are doubtful (e.g., Petrou et al., 2016). Task avoidance, which is a way to reduce one s demands, is a withdrawal-oriented coping response (Parker & Endler, 1996). Such responses entail a rigid, disengaging approach to new situations and are ineffective in coping with organizational change (Amiot et al., 2006). Because demands contribute to the experience of a challenging job environment (Podsakoff et al., 2007), reducing demands may indicate low motivation and has therefore been suggested to be an unsuccessful strategy to adapt to change (Petrou et al., 2012). Also, a longitudinal study among police officers undergoing an organizational change revealed a positive and reciprocal relationship between reducing demands and employee exhaustion (Petrou et al., 2015). In other words, exhausted employees, who deal with change, reduce their job demands, which then relates to more exhaustion, thus creating a vicious circle. A possible interpretation for this finding could be that avoiding one s tasks (which may follow from the way reducing demands has been conceptualized) leads to accumulation of demands, which increases time pressure and exhaustion on the long run (Salmela-Aro, Tolvanen, & Nurmi, 2009). Empirical research so far has led to somewhat ambiguous results regarding the effects of reducing demands on employee functioning, which have been found to be either negative (Petrou et al., 2012, 2015, 2016; Tims, Bakker, Derks, & Van Rhenen, 2013) or nonsignificant (Tims et al., 2012; Tims et al., 2013). By addressing the effects of reducing demands across regular and cutback-related organizational change, we examine whether the role of such crafting behaviors is the same across different situations. For example, do the negative effects of reducing demands supported previously hold true when organizational change is threatening and perhaps asks for avoidance strategies? An answer to this question may shed light to the ongoing discussion about the effects of reducing demands. Thus, we formulate the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 4: Reducing demands relates negatively to work engagement and positively to exhaustion. Method Participants and Procedures The Dutch sample consisted of 583 employees from a Dutch city council, undergoing a reorganization that was unrelated to the financial crisis but

9 8 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU aimed at organizational development (i.e., relocations of employees and implementation of technological innovations and flexible work practices). Respondents voluntarily participated in an online survey to which they were invited via (response rate 57%). The mean age of the participants was 45.5 years (SD 9.8), their mean organizational tenure was 13.2 years (SD 10.8), while 314 of them were men (54%) and 269 were women (46%). The Greek sample consisted of 383 employees working in the public (59%) or the private sector (41%). Respondents voluntarily participated in an online survey to which they were invited via (response rate 41%). Data collection took place at the midst of the financial crisis right after the Greek government signed the first memorandum of agreement resulting in a series of austerity measures that forced both public and private organizations to introduce cutback-related changes. We collected data via network sampling, which is a useful technique with the potential to increase ecological validity of the data (cf. Demerouti & Rispens, 2014). Respondent mean age was 39.4 years (SD 9.7), their mean organizational tenure was 9.3 years (SD 8.4), while 117 of them were men (31%) and 266 were women (69%). About half of the respondents (193; 50%) indicated that they had colleagues who had been laid-off, 312 (82%) experienced pay cuts and 207 (54%) experienced a decrease in the available resources needed to complete their tasks. Our contact persons at the Dutch organization reassured us that no such changes were experienced by respondents from the Netherlands. Measures Job workload and job autonomy were measured with three items each from Karasek s (1985) Job Content Questionnaire with an answering scale ranging from 1 never to 5 always. Sample items are I have much work to do and I can decide myself how I execute my work, respectively. Job crafting was measured with a short version (Petrou et al., 2016) of the scale developed by Petrou et al. (2012) with an answering scale ranging from 1 never to 5 always. An example item is I ask others for feedback on my job performance. Seeking challenges included three items, such as I ask for more tasks if I finish my work. Reducing demands included four items, such as I try to ensure that my work is emotionally less intense. The three-factor solution displayed better fit to the data than an alternative two-factor solution collapsing seeking resources with seeking challenges, for Greece: 2 (2) , p.001; and Netherlands: 2 (2) , p.001, and a one-factor solution, for Greece: 2 (3) , p.001; and for the Netherlands: 2 (3) , p.001. The three-factor solution

10 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 9 had a good fit to the data from the Netherlands, , df 41, p.000, comparative fit index (CFI) 0.94, goodness-of-fit index (GFI).95, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA).07, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR).05, but marginal fit to the data from Greece ( , df 41, p.000, CFI 0.86, GFI.93, RMSEA.09, SRMR.09). Table 1 presents the job crafting items and their factor loadings across samples. Work engagement was measured with the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9; Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006), which consists of three items per subscale: Vigour (e.g., At my work, I feel bursting with energy ), Dedication (e.g., I am enthusiastic about my job ), and Absorption (e.g., I am immersed in my work ). The answering categories ranged from 0 never to 6 always. Schaufeli and Bakker (2003) provide validation data of the UWES from both Greek and Dutch samples, while Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Kantas, and Demerouti (2012) supported the validity and factorial invariance of the UWES across Greece and the Netherlands. Exhaustion was measured with the exhaustion subscale from the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (Demerouti et al., 2001). Demerouti, Bakker, Vardakou, and Kantas (2003) have validated a six-item version of this scale in Greece, while Demerouti and Bakker (2008) have validated an eight-item version in the Netherlands. To be consistent, we used the 6-item version in both the Greek and the Dutch survey. A sample item is During my work, I often feel emotionally drained and the answering scale ranged from 1 totally disagree to 4 totally agree. Table 1 The Job Crafting Items and Their Respective Standardized Factor Loadings in the Greek (N 383) and Dutch (N 583) Samples The job crafting scale Greece Netherlands Seeking resources I ask others for feedback on my job performance I ask colleagues for advice a I ask my supervisor for advice a I try to learn new things at work Seeking challenges I ask for more tasks if I finish my work I ask for more responsibilities a I ask for more odd jobs a Reducing demands I try to ensure that my work is physically less intense I try to ensure that my work is emotionally less intense I make sure that my work is mentally less intense a I try to simplify the complexity of my tasks at work a Items had different factor loading across samples according to pairwise parameter comparisons.

11 10 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU Analytical Approach To test our hypotheses, we performed multigroup structural equation modeling analyses using AMOS, across the two samples. We used a partial disaggregation model (Bagozzi & Edwards, 1998) by creating item parcels for all endogenous variables with more than three items (i.e., seeking resources, reducing demands, and exhaustion). The latent variable work engagement was operationalized by the mean scores of vigor, dedication, and absorption. The latent interaction variable was operationalized by three observed interaction terms, each calculated as the interaction between the standardized item of autonomy and the respective item of workload (i.e., first item of autonomy with first item of workload and so forth; Marsh, Wen, & Hau, 2004). Because in the Greek sample women and younger employees were overrepresented compared to the Dutch sample, we controlled for the effects of gender and age to all dependent variables. First, we built a model (Model 1), which included all structural paths and correlations of the hypothesized model apart from the interaction effects. Specifically, it contained all synchronous correlations and the effects of the control variables to all dependent variables. The correlations between the interaction term and the product terms (workload and autonomy) were constrained to zero. Furthermore, the model included the main effects of workload and autonomy to job crafting, as well as the effects of job crafting to work engagement and exhaustion. Because workload and autonomy are found to relate to employee motivation and health (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), we also included paths from autonomy and workload to engagement and exhaustion. In addition to the paths of Model 1, our hypothesized model (Model 2) introduced the effects of the interaction latent variable to the job crafting variables. Because job demands and job resources interact with each other in predicting employee health and motivation (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), we also included structural paths from the interaction variable to engagement and exhaustion. Our hypotheses imply that job crafting may be a linking mechanism between job characteristics and work-related well-being. Therefore, we also examined the indirect effect of job characteristics on work engagement and burnout through job crafting across samples by performing bootstrap analyses. Results Test of Invariance Before testing our hypotheses, we conducted multigroup confirmatory factor analyses to test the measurement invariance of the job crafting instru-

12 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 11 ment across the two samples (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000) because the job crafting scale has not been validated in a Greek sample before. We compared a configural invariance model (i.e., the same number of factors best represents the data for both groups) to a metric invariance model (i.e., all participants, irrespective of their group, respond to the items in the same way). The former model had no constraints, while in the latter model all factor loadings were constrained to be equal across groups. A CFI higher than.01 indicates a significant change in the fit of the model (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002). Because the metric invariance model had a marginally worse fit to the data than the configural invariance model ( CFI.02), we examined a revised model of partial metric invariance. Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998) suggest that when full metric invariance is not satisfied in practice, partial metric invariance is an adequate alternative. First, we rerun the configural invariance model and we used pairwise parameter comparisons (z tests provided by AMOS) to inspect which items had equal factor loadings across samples (see Table 1). Consequently, we built the partial metric invariance model by constraining the factor loadings of these items to be equal across groups. The partial metric invariance model fit equally well to the data compared to the configural invariance model. These results provide (partial) support for the invariance of the job crafting scale across samples. Model Testing Table 2 presents descriptive statistics and mean comparisons (i.e., t tests) of the study variables among the Greek (i.e., cutback-related organizational Table 2 Means, Standard Deviations, Internal Consistencies (Cronbach s Alphas), and Mean Comparisons for the Study Variables in the Greek (N 383) and Dutch (N 583) Samples Dutch sample Greek sample Comparison M SD a M SD a t Test Autonomy ** Workload ** Seeking resources ** Seeking challenges ** Reducing demands ** Vigor Dedication ** Absorption ** Exhaustion ** ** p.01.

13 12 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU change) and Dutch sample (i.e., regular organizational change), while Table 3 presents intercorrelations between the study variables. Hypothesis 1 predicted that workload relates positively to seeking resources and seeking challenges and negatively to reducing demands when job autonomy is high. Hypotheses 2 4 predicted that seeking resources and seeking challenges have positive links with work engagement and negative links with exhaustion, while reducing demands has a negative link with engagement and a positive link with exhaustion. Our hypothesized model (Model 2; see Figure 2) displayed good fit to the data ( 2 1,088.00, df 424, p.000, CFI 0.93, GFI.92, RMSEA.04, SRMR.05) 1 and better fit than Model 1, which was the model without the interaction effects, 2 (10) 31.58; p.001. In the Greek sample (i.e., the cutback-related change context), the interaction term between workload and autonomy related significantly only to seeking resources. Plotting the interaction (see Figure 3) revealed that workload related positively to seeking resources when autonomy was 1 SD below the mean (simple slope estimate.20, p.001) and it was unrelated to seeking resources when autonomy was 1 SD above the mean. In other words, the high-strain job (i.e., high workload and low autonomy) condition, rather than the active job (i.e., high workload and high autonomy) condition, related positively to seeking resources. This finding did not support Hypothesis 1. Seeking resources related positively to work engagement but not to exhaustion, providing partial support to Hypothesis 2. Seeking challenges related positively to work engagement but was unrelated to exhaustion, providing partial support to Hypothesis 3. Reducing demands was unrelated to exhaustion and to engagement, rejecting Hypothesis 4. In the Dutch sample (i.e., regular change context), the interaction between workload and autonomy related significantly to seeking resources and reducing demands. Similar to the Greek sample, workload related positively to seeking resources when autonomy was 1 SD below the mean (simple slope estimate.25, p.001) and it was unrelated to seeking resources when autonomy was 1 SD above the mean (see Figure 4), which did not support Hypothesis 1. Furthermore, workload related negatively to reducing demands when autonomy was 1 SD above the mean (simple slope estimate.32, p.001) and was unrelated to reducing demands when autonomy was 1 SD below the mean (see Figure 5), which provides support to Hypothesis 1. Although not hypothesized, workload also related positively to work engage- 1 Results revealed that one indicator of seeking resources had nonsignificant error variance in the Greek sample and one indicator of reducing demands had negative error variance in the Greek sample. Following advice on how to deal with such cases, referred to as Heywood cases (McDonald, 1985), we constrained the error variance of both of these two indicators to be equal across the two groups.

14 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 13 Table 3 Intercorrelations for All Study Variables in the Greek (N 383) and Dutch (N 583) Samples Age ** **.17 **.21 **.10 * 2. Gender.24 ** Autonomy * * **.49 **.45 **.34 ** 4. Workload **.24 **.27 ** **.21 **.25 **.28 ** 5. Seeking resources.13 ** **.19 **.32 ** **.24 **.22 ** Seeking challenges.15 **.13 ** ** **.27 **.37 ** Reducing demands ** ** * *.13 * Vigor **.22 **.21 **.09 *.16 **.83 **.78 **.49 ** 9. Dedication.10 * **.22 **.25 ** **.78 **.85 **.44 ** 10. Absorption.09 * **.19 **.19 ** **.71 **.80 **.38 ** 11. Exhaustion.10 * **.22 **.15 **.13 **.19 **.46 **.34 **.31 ** Note. Intercorrelations for the Greek sample are presented above the diagonal and for the Dutch sample below the diagonal. * p.05. ** p.01.

15 14 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU Figure 2. Results for the hypothesized model. Coefficients concerning the Greek sample are reported first; paths that were found to be nonsignificant in both samples are not reported; controlling for age and gender is not presented for the sake of clarity; dotted lines represent nonhypothesized significant effects. * p.05. ** p.01.

16 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 15 Figure 3. The relationship between workload and seeking resources moderated by autonomy (Greek sample). ment only when autonomy was 1 SD above the mean (simple slope estimate.37, p.01). Seeking resources related positively to work engagement and related negatively to exhaustion, providing full support to Hypothesis 2. Seeking challenges did not relate significantly with engagement or exhaustion, failing to support Hypothesis 3. Reducing demands related positively to exhaustion and had no significant relationship with engagement, providing partial support to Hypothesis 4. Pairwise parameter comparisons conducted for the paths that were significant across both samples revealed that the negative relationship between autonomy and exhaustion was stronger in the Greek sample and the positive relationship between autonomy and engagement was stronger in the Greek sample. To test for indirect effects of the interaction variable to engagement and exhaustion via job crafting we performed bootstrap analyses over 2,000 samples among both samples but none of the indirect effects was significant. Finally, we conducted additional multigroup analyses (private vs. public sector) only for the Greek sample (because the Dutch sample only comprised public sector employees). Out of the three significant hypothesized paths, two were generalizable across sectors (i.e., the interaction effect to seeking resources and the positive link between seeking challenges and work engagement). The positive link between seeking resources and work engagement was significant for the private sector group and marginally significant for the public sector group.

17 16 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU Figure 4. The relationship between workload and seeking resources moderated by autonomy (Dutch sample). Discussion The present article addressed employee job crafting and its links with job characteristics, engagement and exhaustion across two change contexts: in a context of regular organizational change aiming at organizational development, and a context of cutback-related change amid the financial recession. Taken together, our results revealed that although there are some differences on how job crafting manifests across the two contexts, there are also similarities. For example, seeking resources was pronounced under the condition of a high-strain job (i.e., characterized by high workload and low autonomy) in both contexts. This is in contrast to our expectations and Petrou et al. (2012) who found that seeking resources was more pronounced in conditions of active jobs (i.e., characterized by high workload and high autonomy). Unlike the present study, however, Petrou et al. (2012) examined organizational change of a small scale (e.g., new tasks, new work methods, new clients). Therefore, when change initiatives affect the organization in a larger scale either via planned reorganizations (i.e., Dutch sample) or organizational cutbacks following austerity measures (i.e., Greek sample), seeking resources seems to function as a coping strategy that employees use to substitute the lack of autonomy and deal with demands and uncertainty (Robinson &

18 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 17 Figure 5. The relationship between workload and reducing demands moderated by autonomy (Dutch sample). Griffiths, 2005). Another similarity was that seeking job resources had favorable implications for employees in both regular and cutback-related change situations (cf. Petrou et al., 2012; Petrou et al., 2015). The fact that Greek employees had to deal with changes that were implemented in order for the organizations to survive in times of austerity perhaps explains why they perceived the items of the job crafting scale in a somewhat different way than Dutch employees. For example, while seeking advice could mean a way to develop oneself (Noe, Wilk, Mullen, & Wanek, 1997) in a context of regular organizational change aiming at development, it could be a way to address feelings of insecurity (Morrison, 2002) in an uncertain change environment, such as the one experienced by the Greek sample. In a similar vein, while asking for more responsibilities could be a common way for Dutch employees to enact challenges or develop themselves, for Greek employees such behaviors could target at increasing the chances of retaining one s job. Another difference between the two contexts was that an active job condition (i.e., characterized by high workload and high autonomy) related negatively to reducing demands only in the Dutch sample. This finding is in line with the findings of the diary study by Petrou et al. (2012). Employees, who undergo a regular organizational change (i.e., the Dutch respondents) and experience both workload and autonomy, are not

19 18 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU likely to reduce their job demands. This is because demands are an essential part of what Karasek and Theorell (1990) called an active job, which is a job that stimulates employees to learn, grow and develop. However, in a setting of cutback-related organizational change (i.e., Greek sample), the contextual correlates of reducing demands perhaps can be captured better in the form of other change-related variables that we did not include in our model. An example could be the impact of the implemented change that has been found to predict reducing demands (Petrou et al., 2015). In relation to seeking resources and challenges, a few notable differences occurred across the two contexts. Specifically, seeking resources related to less exhaustion for Dutch but not Greek employees, while seeking challenges associated with higher engagement for Greek but not Dutch employees. Seeking resources in a context of major change is perhaps not always an efficient strategy to protect one s well-being. If seeking social support functions as ventilation of one s feelings rather than stimulation of problem-focused strategies, it cannot tackle distress (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). When, however, organizational change is not excessive, seeking resources could be an efficient strategy. Contrary to what one may expect, seeking challenges was a particularly favorable strategy for the engagement of Greek employees despite their already challenging situation. Perhaps in a context of cutbacks, what helps employees more is an intraindividual strategy of direct confrontation with challenges rather than an interpersonal help-seeking strategy (i.e., seeking resources). Such problem-focused strategies (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999) create mastery experiences that increase employee readiness to confront change. Finally yet importantly, the positive association between reducing demands and exhaustion was significant in the Dutch but not in the Greek sample. The financial crisis in Greece has enhanced the security orientation of employees (Markovits, Boer, & Van Dick, 2014) and has contributed to overwhelming job demands. It could be that in such contexts of major change, reducing one s demands has no effects whatsoever or that the effects are nonlinear (perhaps favorable up to a certain extent). We contribute to the literature by showing that certain relationships between job crafting, job characteristics and work-related well-being are similar across regular and cutback-related organizational change. It, thus, seems that recent literature addressing job crafting as a meaningful employee strategy to deal with organizational change (Petrou et al., 2015) is relevant and applicable also when it comes to more threatening and cutback-related change. Based on our findings we can conclude upon two affinities between the contexts of regular and cutback-related organizational change as far as it concerns the correlates of job crafting. First, in

20 JOB CRAFTING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 19 both contexts, a high-strain job can potentially be the trigger for seeking resources as a successful strategy that helps dealing with organizational change. Second, unlike self-protective job crafting (i.e., reducing demands), expansive job crafting (i.e., seeking resources or seeking challenges) may have positive implications (i.e., higher work engagement or lower exhaustion) in both contexts. Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research A first limitation of our study is that the nature of organizational change is not the only factor that varied across groups. Therefore, different findings cannot be attributed solely to the type of organizational change. For example, the recruited Dutch organization was public, while the recruited Greek organizations were both public and private. However, when controlled for sector, the findings within the Greek sample were largely invariant. Second, data were collected using different procedures across the two samples, which poses a threat to the comparisons made. Specifically, while the Dutch sample was undergoing a specific reorganization, the Greek sample comprised several organizations facing abrupt and cutback-related change following financial recession. However, we do not expect that this inconsistency has largely affected the study findings because all participating organizations in Greece underwent change of similar nature. In addition, data were cross-sectional, not allowing causal inferences. Finally, the low reliability and marginal fit indices for certain scales in the Greek sample (i.e., cutback-related change) could have affected our results. However, the fact that the same theoretically meaningful interaction effect (i.e., the link between workload and seeking resources moderated by autonomy) was found in both contexts validates our findings and somewhat reduces reliability-related concerns. Furthermore, by applying structural equation modeling to test our hypothesized effects, we have accounted for measurement error that further counteracts concerns regarding the low reliabilities of certain scales (Chin, Marcolin, & Newsted, 2003). Future validation research should explore why the concept of job crafting is perceived in a partially different way by employees within organizational change contexts of different nature and why the reliability of the subscales is lower in the Greek sample (i.e., cutback-related change). Similarly, because reducing demands had just acceptable reliability in the Dutch sample and low reliability in the Greek sample, future research could develop more specific measures of reducing demands.

21 20 PETROU, DEMEROUTI, AND XANTHOPOULOU Such measures could capture potentially constructive elements of reducing demands (e.g., time management) next to the measurement of behaviors targeted at eliminating strenuous aspects of the job. Finally, examining nonlinear effects of reducing demands could be another goal of future studies. Implications for Practice While employees should be encouraged to engage in seeking resources and challenges, reducing demands should be avoided or replaced by more successful strategies of managing demands, like, for example, effective time-management or task delegation instead of task avoidance. Job crafting interventions have been successfully implemented in organizational practice (Van den Heuvel, Demerouti, & Peeters, 2015), therefore, employee training and development can be tailored to take into account the beneficial effects of crafting behaviors, such as seeking resources and seeking challenges. Our study has particularly useful implications for organizations that lead employees through times of major change or financial recession. Although the common belief is that during such times the prevailing cynicism or insecurity impedes employees from developing, our results show quite the opposite. Through coaching, trainings, interventions or simply through empowerment, managers should encourage employees, who face organizational change, to increase actively their job resources and job challenges. As a result, job crafting during organizational change will act as an efficacious strategy diminishing feelings of helplessness and enabling employees to gain control and improve their person job fit. References Amiot, C. E., Terry, D. J., Jimmieson, N. L., & Callan, V. J. (2006). A longitudinal investigation of coping processes during a merger: Implications for job satisfaction and organizational identification. Journal of Management, 32, Armenakis, A. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (1999). Organizational change: A review of theory and research in the 1990s. Journal of Management, 25, Bagozzi, R. P., & Edwards, J. R. (1998). A general approach for representing constructs in organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 1, / Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22,

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