The impact of role overload on job crafting from the perspective of construal level theory

Purpose Previous studies have vague views about whether employees who are required to complete large amounts of work (i.e. role overload) would proactively create a change in their job characteristics (i.e. job crafting), because the cognitive mechanism underlying the nexus between role overload and job crafting is unclear. The aim of this study is to identify why and when role overload has an impact on job crafting. Design/methodology/approach This study builds a second-stage moderated mediation model. Using a two-wave panel field study of 213 employee–supervisor matched data, this study examines the proposed hypotheses. Findings Results show that role overload decreases construal level, which can determine the tendency of employees to focus on the feasibility (low level of construal) or desirability (high level of construal) of behaviors. Goal self-concordance is the degree to which employees pursue their personal goals based on feelings of personal interests and values. The authors find that goal self-concordance guides employees who have higher levels of construal to exert more effort in job crafting. The authors further find that goal self-concordance moderates the mediating role of construal level. Specifically, for employees in pursuit of self-concordant goals, role overload reduces their construal level, resulting in less effort in job crafting. For employees who do not pursue self-concordant goals, role overload decreases their construal level, thereby improving job crafting. Originality/value The findings of this study enrich the literature on role overload and job crafting by revealing the mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between role overload and job crafting.