Crafting your Career: How Career Competencies Relate to Career Success via Job Crafting

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether career competencies could enhance an employees subjective career success in terms of perceived employability and work-home balance via job crafting behaviors. Based on Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory, we examined a potential motivational process in which career competencies, as a personal resource, would enhance career success through expansive job crafting. The results showed that job crafting mediated the positive relationship between career competencies and both internal and external perceived employability. In addition, job crafting mediated the positive relationship between career competencies and work-home enrichment. We expected a negative association between job crafting and work-home interference, yet our results indicated that career competencies are indirectly and positively related to work-home interference via job crafting. With our findings, we add to JD-R Theory by (1) showing that career competencies may be considered a personal resource, (2) empirically examining the role of job crafting in motivational processes, and (3) showing that enhanced subjective career success can be an outcome of motivational processes. Organisations may use these findings to implement developmental HR practices aimed at increasing career competencies and job crafting.

Reorienting job crafting research: A hierarchical structure of job crafting concepts and integrative review

“…Approach crafting also benefits individuals' career, presumably because employees are able to develop their personal resources through increased learning opportunities or to translate already existing resources into other valuable assets (Kira, van Eijnatten, & Balkin, ). Empirical studies have supported that approach crafting predicts one's perceived employability (Brenninkmeijer & Hekkert‐Koning, ), career competence (Akkermans & Tims, ), career satisfaction and commitment (Kim & Beehr, ), and objective promotions (Cenciotti, Alessandri, & Borgogni, ).…”

Tales of the unexpected: Integrating career shocks in the contemporary careers literature

“…As we have argued throughout this article, it is the interplay between agency and context that enables us to more fully understand contemporary career processes. In this case, it would be highly interesting to, for example, study the interaction between career shocks and career self-management behaviours (King, 2004) and career crafting (Akkermans & Tims, 2017). In addition, it would be important to research whether certain individuals are more at risk of developing adverse reactions to shocks than others and whether individuals can be inoculated against negative career shocks, that is, whether people might prepare for and become more resilient in the face of career shocks (cf.…”

“…For example, both social cognitive career theory (Lent et al, 1994) and career construction theory (Savickas, 2005) -two of the most frequently cited career theories in recent years -are premised on the notion of preparing for decision-making and acting upon those preparations via goaldirected behaviours. Empirical research has closely followed this trend, as evidenced by an emphasis on topics such as career self-management (King, 2004), proactive career behaviours (De Vos, De Clippeleer, & Dewilde, 2009), career crafting (Akkermans & Tims, 2017) and employability (Forrier, Verbruggen, & De Cuyper, 2015;Van der Heijde & Van der Heijden, 2006). Indeed, a recent review of papers published between 2012 and 2016 in four leading career journals showed that career decision-making, career mobility, career capital, employability and proactive career behaviours are among the most popular topics in the recent careers literature (Akkermans & Kubasch, 2017).…”

The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall: Provoking the agency perspective in employability research

“…Individuals who have resources look for resourceful settings, and these settings then enable them to accumulate more resources. For example, employees who feel employable may actively pursue high quality jobs and then craft those jobs to become even more resourceful (Akkermans & Tims, ). In contrast, individuals with fewer resources are inclined to defend existing resources, even to the extent that they may not be perceptive for opportunities because this implies risking scarce resources.…”