Individual Job Crafting and Supervisory Support: An Examination of Supervisor Attribution and Crafter Credibility

PURPOSE: Drawing upon attribution theory, this study investigates the mediating role of supervisor-attributed motives in the relationship between employees’ job crafting and supervisory support, as well as the moderating effect of crafter credibility on leaders’ attributional process, which in turn determines leaders’ willingness to support. METHODS: A total of 264 employees and 61 supervising managers participated in the two-wave dyadic survey. To test our hypotheses, we performed the hierarchical regression and conducted bootstrapping analyses using Hayes PROCESS Model. RESULTS: Findings indicated that approach (avoidance) job crafting has a positive (negative) indirect relationship with supervisory via the supervisor’s prosocial motives (egoistic intentions) attribution. In addition, the crafter credibility strengthens (weakens) leaders’ positive (negative) attribution and support for approach (avoidance) job crafting, revealing a significant moderated mediation. CONCLUSION: In summary, the present research advances our understanding of the social consequences of individual job crafting and explains the potential risks and rewards of individual job crafting by identifying supervisors’ differential attributions for this working behavior. In addition, it enhances the knowledge of the contingency of managers’ responses to employees’ job crafting by examining the moderating role of crafter credibility.