No abstract

PurposeThe study focuses on intraindividual trajectory of job crafting change over time. Integrating the self-regulation and demands-resources perspectives, this study examines how career support from family and friends interacts with job autonomy to influence the change pattern of job crafting.Design/methodology/approachFour waves of self-report survey data were collected in a semester from 324 university professors and instructors in China. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine intraindividual change of job crafting and conducted latent interaction analysis to test the joint effect of autonomy and career support from family and friends on job crafting change.FindingsThere was a general declining trend in job crafting over the course of a semester. Career support from family and friends moderated the association between job autonomy and job crafting maintenance. Specifically, when career support was low, job autonomy was negatively associated with job crafting maintenance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study showed that job crafting maintenance over time is distinct from the typical between-person conceptualization. Further, job crafting maintenance was predicted from a self-regulatory perspective. However, the unique context of college faculty from China may limit generalization of the findings.Practical implicationsManagers should recognize the challenges in maintaining job crafting over time. In addition to providing autonomy at work, organizations may benefit from establishing channels for employees to receive career support from non-work domains.Originality/valueThe authors adopt a self-regulation perspective to understand intraindividual change in job crafting over time and situate the current investigation in the cyclical nature of university faculty’s job.

Careless responding, also known as insufficient effort responding, refers to survey/test respondents providing random, inattentive, or inconsistent answers to question items due to lack of effort in conforming to instructions, interpreting items, and/or providing accurate responses. Researchers often use these two terms interchangeably to describe deviant behaviors in survey/test responding that threaten data quality. Careless responding threatens the validity of research findings by bringing in random and systematic errors. Specifically, careless responding can reduce measurement reliability, while under specific circumstances it can also inflate the substantive relations between variables. Numerous factors can explain why careless responding happens (or does not happen), such as individual difference characteristics (e.g., conscientiousness), survey characteristics (e.g., survey length), and transient psychological states (e.g., positive and negative affect). To identify potential careless responding, researchers can use procedural detection methods and post hoc statistical methods. For example, researchers can insert detection items (e.g., infrequency items, instructed response items) into the questionnaire, monitor participants’ response time, and compute statistical indices, such as psychometric antonym/synonym, Mahalanobis distance, individual reliability, individual response variability, and model fit statistics. Application of multiple detection methods would be better able to capture careless responding given convergent evidence. Comparison of results based on data with and without careless respondents can help evaluate the degree to which the data are influenced by careless responding. To handle data contaminated by careless responding, researchers may choose to filter out identified careless respondents, recode careless responses as missing data, or include careless responding as a control variable in the analysis. To prevent careless responding, researchers have tried utilizing various deterrence methods developed from motivational and social interaction theories. These methods include giving warning, rewarding, or educational messages, proctoring the process of responding, and designing user-friendly surveys. Interest in careless responding has been growing not only in business and management but also in other related disciplines. Future research and practice on careless responding in the business and management areas can also benefit from findings in other related disciplines.

Research on training has accumulated knowledge of factors influencing transfer of training. However, little is known about how these factors interact to impact training activity level and training transfer. Based on recent advances in the contingency approach to personality, we examine person–situation interaction by testing how task‐contingent conscientiousness influences trainees to utilize supervisor support differently during training and transfer. We situate the current investigation in hybrid management training courses where a field sample of employees (N = 200) first attended required in‐person workshops and then received voluntary online modules. Results show that task‐contingent conscientiousness moderated both the linkage between supervisor support and training activity level and the linkage between training activity level and transfer of training. Specifically, for trainees with higher task‐contingent conscientiousness, supervisor support tended to have a stronger association with training activity level, and training activity level tended to translate into more transfer of training. Our findings provide unique insights into when supervisor support may be more beneficial depending on trainees' individual differences. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this research.