Job change without changing job? Exploring job crafting in Spain

Abstract

The working paper explores job crafting and their convergent validity with work engagement and proactive personality in Spain. Based on the Job Demands-Resources model with four dimensions (increasing structural job resources, decreasing hindering job demands, increasing social job resources, and increasing challenging job demands) the working paper validates a job crafting scale using a sample of 896 employees working for firms in Spain. The results of the confirmatory factor and invariance analyses suggest that the four-factor model satisfactorily describes the dimensional structure of the 21-item scale, with Cronbach’s alpha reliability indices between 0.70 and 0.79. Regarding convergent validity, the factors increasing structural job resources, increasing social job resources, and increasing challenging job demands correlate positively with the three sub-scales of Work Engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and with the Proactive Personality Scale. In contrast, the factor decreasing hindering job demands correlates negatively with the sub-scales of work engagement and not at all with proactivity. These results essentially point towards potential interventions that employees could make to influence their skills, learning and professional development; the interaction with and inspiration drawn from supervisors and colleagues; the proactivity in terms of developing new job demands; and reducing job-related mental and emotional intensity and difficulties.