The quality of working life from a person-centred perspective: linking job crafting, work environment types and work engagement

Purpose The current study inspects pathways through which job crafting relates to the quality of employees' working lives. To date, this has been mostly done either by linking job crafting to individual job characteristics or by investigating its association with separate aspects of occupational well-being (such as work engagement), whereas empirical evidence about how it may affect one's overall work situation remains scarce. Design/methodology/approach To address this question, the authors conducted latent profile analyses based on selected job resources and job demands, which allowed the authors to derive distinct work environment patterns prevailing in a heterogeneous sample of 1,064 employees. Four patterns were identified denoting a passive, high-strain, low-strain and optimally balanced work environment types. The authors then tested the hypothesis that job crafting would relate to employees' odds of exposure to these patterns and that the latter would differentiate between high and low work engagement. Findings Approach job crafting was related to higher odds of being exposed to a favourably balanced work environment, and the reverse was true of avoidance crafting. Work engagement differed as a function of the quality of the work environment. Furthermore, the results suggested a potentially indirect link between approach job crafting and work engagement via exposure to different work environment types, whereas avoidance crafting related to lower work engagement only directly. Originality/value The findings contribute to theory testing and practice by providing a holistic representation of the work environment and then interlinking its features with employee proactivity and engagement.