The double-edged sword of job crafting: The effects of job crafting on changes in job demands and employee well-being

Job crafting is theorized to operate via changes that employees make to their work designs, yet this critical mechanism has remained scarcely tested. This study examined whether job crafting facilitates changes in two types of challenge demands, namely workload and job complexity, and hindrance demands and whether these changes explain why job crafting may have both positive and negative implications for employee well-being. We utilized a two-wave sample of 2,453 employees to examine the relationships between job crafting and within-person changes in job demands, work engagement, and burnout. The findings showed that approach type of job crafting was related to increases in work engagement via increased job complexity. However, approach crafting was also associated with increases in burnout via increased workload. Avoidance type of job crafting, in turn, was related to increases in burnout and decreases in work engagement via decreased job complexity. The findings imply that job crafting may both promote and mitigate employee well-being depending on how it changes specific features of work design and that also approach crafting may deteriorate well-being. We discuss the practical implications of different types of job crafting on work design and employee well-being.