Linking Strengths‐Based Supervisor Feedback to Job Crafting: The Moderating Role of Self‐Efficacy

ABSTRACT Strengths‐based supervisor feedback focuses on identifying, appreciating, and utilizing employees' unique qualities at work. Building on Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) theory, we hypothesize that strengths‐based supervisor feedback is positively related to employee job crafting through employee work engagement. Moreover, we challenge the idea that strengths‐based supervisor feedback is equally beneficial to all employees, introducing employees' personal resources (self‐efficacy) as a boundary condition. The results of a time‐separated study using reports from 244 employees showed that T1 strengths‐based supervisor feedback was positively related to T3 employee job crafting through T2 work engagement. Moreover, results demonstrated that receiving strengths‐based supervisor feedback was especially important for employees low (vs. high) in self‐efficacy. For employees who already strongly believed in their abilities to successfully perform their work tasks (i.e., who had high levels of self‐efficacy), strengths‐based supervisor feedback did not contribute to their work engagement and job crafting. The indirect effect between strengths‐based supervisor feedback and job crafting via work engagement was replicated in a second time‐separated survey study among 280 employees.