The active role of job crafting in promoting well-being and employability: an empirical investigation

Background: Job crafting is a proactive behavior displayed by workers to modify the boundaries of their roles, adapting them to their own needs, which is positively associated with motivational processes and negatively associated with mechanisms that compromise well-being. Methods: Starting from this framework, the objective of this study is to assess the strategic role of job crafting in the relationship between job insecurity and work engagement, psychological well-being and emotional exhaustion, and also to specifically investigate how much age impacts these behaviors and the relationship between job crafting and employability. The hypotheses were explored using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and validated using 5000 bootstrap re-samples, differentiating the models by the type of contract and organization of origin. Results: The results confirm the crucial role of job crafting in improving individual well-being and increasing processes of higher expendability in the job market and its protective role against stress mechanisms. Conclusions: Therefore, the results highlight the potentially beneficial effects of job crafting interventions, which are capable of providing tools to facilitate individual and cultural growth.