The effect of employee STARA awareness on job crafting: exploring the moderating role of positive stress mindset

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how and when employee smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) awareness affects job crafting through challenge appraisal and threat appraisal and provides positive stress mindset as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach The survey data was collected from 319 employees in four Chinese companies. The hypotheses were tested using Mplus 7.0 and regression analysis. Findings The results indicate that STARA awareness positively prompts approach job crafting via challenge appraisal and also positively predicts avoidance job crafting via threat appraisal. Meanwhile, positive stress mindset enhanced the mediating effect of challenge appraisal and weakened the mediating effect of threat appraisal. Practical implications Leaders should prioritize hiring high-positive-stress mindset candidates for jobs, and organizations should also cultivate employees’ positive stress mindset. Originality/value Building on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this study reveals the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions behind the linkage of STARA awareness and job crafting.