Coworker support as a double-edged sword: a moderated mediation model of job crafting, work engagement, and job performance

Abstract

This research aims to test the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between job crafting and job performance, as well as the moderating effects of two forms of coworker support on the job crafting–work engagement relationship. We collected survey-based data from two South Korean samples. Study 1 was conducted on 175 flight attendants. The results of Study 1 were then replicated in Study 2 wherein 181 hotel employees reported their own job crafting and work engagement, and their supervisors rated their job performance one month later. In both studies, work engagement fully mediated the relationship between job crafting and job performance. The positive association between job crafting and work engagement was more pronounced when coworker emotional support was high than when it was low. In contrast, the positive link between job crafting and work engagement was stronger when coworker instrumental support was low than when it was high. Coworker emotional and instrumental support further moderated the indirect effect of job crafting on job performance through work engagement.

Keywords:

• Job crafting
• work engagement
• job performance
• coworker support
• emotional support
• instrumental support

Notes

1. When a moderator is a continuous variable, a common strategy for probing an interaction effect is to estimate the conditional effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable when the moderator is equal to the mean, one SD below the mean, and one SD above the mean (Aiken & West, 1991; Hayes, 2013).