How control and commitment HR practices influence employee job crafting

PurposeBased on the socioemotional selectivity theory, this study aims to explore the differential influences of control and commitment human resource (HR) practices on employee job crafting as well as the mediating role of occupational future time perspective (OFTP).Design/methodology/approachThis study used a two-wave design to survey 53 HR managers and 339 employees of 53 Chinese firms. The hypotheses were tested by conducting multilevel structural equation modeling in Mplus 7.4.FindingsThe results show that control HR practices are negatively related to job crafting, while commitment HR practices are positively related to job crafting. Further, control HR practices are negatively associated with the remaining opportunities dimension of OFTP, whereas commitment HR practices are positively associated with remaining opportunities. However, both types of HR practices have no significant relationship with the remaining time dimension of OFTP. Finally, remaining opportunities mediate the relationships between both types of HR practices and job crafting.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware of how to promote or inhibit employee job crafting by implementing different HR practices.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the job crafting research by demonstrating that the relationship between HR practices and job crafting depends on the type of HR practices in use, as well as contributing to OFTP research by showing that different types of HR practices have differential relationships with the remaining opportunities dimension of OFTP.