Job Crafting when Dealing with Technology Adoption and Job Insecurity: Effects on Employees’ Perceived Productivity

Companies aspire to achieve heightened productivity and competitive advantages through the implementation of new technologies. However, technology adoption can be accompanied by negative consequences like job insecurity and reduced productive behaviors when the reshaped work does not align with employees’ needs and skills. Job crafting, defined as self-initiated work adjustments, is a potentially important process in this context with which employees proactively contribute to shaping their work. This study focuses on employees affected by changes due to technology adoption, exploring the role of job crafting in employees’ perceived productivity and in mitigating adverse effects of potential job insecurity. Data were collected via an online survey with employees from industrial companies. Results show that employees’ approach-oriented job crafting was positively and job insecurity was negatively related to their perceived productivity. Moreover, moderation analysis suggests that approach-oriented job crafting can counteract this negative effect. Consequently, companies could benefit from facilitating job crafting.