A person-centered investigation of two dominant job crafting theoretical frameworks and their work-related implications

There are currently two main theoretical perspectives that explain how employees engage in job crafting, namely Wrzesniewski and Dutton's (2001) original theory and the Job Demands-Resources model framework by Tims et al. (2012). The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare these two perspectives on job crafting and operationalizations based thereon using a person-centered methodology. We also examined whether the use of different job crafting strategy combinations manifests in differences in work engagement and person-job fit. Study participants were Finnish managers (n = 419) who completed both the Job Crafting Questionnaire (Slemp & Vella-Brodrick, 2013) and the Job Crafting Scale (Tims, Bakker, & Derks, 2012). Latent Profile Analysis yielded four job crafting profiles: 1) Average crafters (47%), 2) Avoidance-oriented crafters (30%), 3) Approach-oriented crafters (19%) and 4) Self-oriented task crafters (4%). Approach-oriented crafters were significantly more engaged and fitted better to their job than those in the other profiles. Furthermore, those in the Average crafters profile were more engaged and had higher person-job fit than Avoidance-oriented crafters or Self-oriented task crafters. Overall, our findings provide new implications for the theoretical categorization of job crafting and knowledge on how the use of different combinations of job crafting strategies is related to work engagement and person-job fit. •Individuals used combined job crafting strategies in order to tailor their jobs.•Altogether four different job crafting profiles were identified.•Job crafting profiles differed in work engagement and person-job fit.•Our results support the usefulness of the person-centered approach in understanding job crafting behaviors.