Enabling task crafting to enhance promotion prospects

This study reports the results from a longitudinal survey of 241 university staff that aimed to bridge the gap between the job design and career development literatures. The study examined antecedents of task crafting, and their relation to promotion. Structural equation modelling was used to examine a range of antecedents of task crafting including leader-member exchange (LMX), autonomy, uncertainty and climate for crafting, and logistic regression was used to analyse longitudinal effects of task crafting on promotion. We hypothesised that autonomy would be associated with task crafting but this would be moderated by uncertainty; that a climate for crafting, along with LMX would be positively associated with task crafting. Finally we hypothesised that task crafting would be positively associated with employee promotion. Our results confirmed that autonomy and a climate for crafting were positively associated with task crafting. However, contrary to expectations we found that uncertainty did not operate as a moderator, instead having a direct effect on task crafting. We also found that LMX only affects task crafting through the pathways of both autonomy and a climate for crafting, rather than directly. In addition, we found a positive and longitudinal relationship between task crafting and promotion that stood separate from the effects on promotion of the other study variables. This
study offers insights for employers into how to create opportunities for employees to task craft and goes some way towards providing evidence of the beneficial effects, for employees and employers, of task crafting.