Interactive Effects of Work Characteristics and Social Skill on Employee Job Crafting

Based on the relational perspective of work, we extend the theory of job crafting by focusing on social skill as an ability-based determinant of job crafting. Specifically, we theorize that work characteristics (job autonomy and job complexity) and social skill interact in promoting employee job crafting. Our empirical study with a sample of 309 undergraduate students working for part-time jobs in Japan revealed that job autonomy was significantly related to job crafting, job complexity moderated the relationship between job autonomy and job crafting, and social skill moderated the effect of job autonomy and the interaction between job autonomy and job complexity on job crafting. Implications and future research directions are discussed.