Job Crafting as a Social Activity: The Roles of Identity Leadership and Team Identification

Abstract This research focuses on the roles of identity leadership and team identification in the process of crafting social job resources. Because identity leadership enhances group identity, which in turn promotes cooperation and support, we hypothesized that identity leadership increases the crafting of social job resources via enhanced team identification among teammates. We performed three studies to test these relationships. In a two-wave correlational Study 1 ( N = 777), we collected self-reported data from employees regarding their supervisor’s leadership styles as well as their own team identification and job crafting efforts. We observed a positive link between identity leadership and the social job crafting via team identification. Additionally, identity leadership directly predicted seeking social job resources but not structural job resources or challenging job demands. The dimensions of identity leadership linked with social job crafting included identity entrepreneurship and impresarioship. By manipulating identity leadership in experimental Study 2 ( N = 287), we showed that, compared with the control condition, identity leadership increased subordinates’ team identification. Finally, in Study 3 ( N = 785), we manipulated both identity leadership and team identification, demonstrating that both increased intentions to craft social job resources. We conclude that identity leadership influences employees' crafting intentions and behaviors positively with respect to social job resources and should be promoted among managers to increase proactivity and the exchange of social resources.