Managing the risks of job crafting: Three-way interaction model of job crafting on job performance

Very little is known about whether job crafting (JC) reduces employee job performance (JP), and if it does, how such unintended consequences could be lessened. By fusing ideas from situational strength theory and behavioral decision theory into a multilevel framework, we investigate how risk propensity interacting with organizational control mechanisms affects the performance benefits of JC in hospitality businesses. Using a sample of 388 frontline hospitality employees included in 82 teams, we conducted multilevel path analyses via Mplus software and found that the performance benefits of JC were weakened among employees with higher levels of risk propensity. Such a moderating effect was amplified when employees had high levels of job autonomy, while it was weakened for teams with a strong accountability context. Our study offers new theoretical and practical insights by identifying risk propensity as a preventative antecedent to the benefits of JC, with organizational control mechanisms as a crucial qualifier of such effects. •Risk propensity buffered the relationship between job crafting and job performance.•This buffering effect was intensified when employees had high levels of job autonomy.•This buffering effect was weaker in teams with a strong accountability context.