Relational triggers of job crafting and sustainable employability: examining a moderated mediation model.

Using the Job Demands and Resources Theory, this study examines whether relational job resources (co-worker relationship quality) trigger job crafting and sustainable employability. Further, we examine whether job crafting mediates co-worker relationship quality and sustainable employability relationships in a motivational process and to what extent work uncertainty moderates these relationships using moderated mediation approach. We tested the proposed hypothesis using a structural model and self-developed process macros for AMOS to test Hayes (2018) process models 1, 7, 14, and 58 using two-wave data of 483 knowledge workers. Results of this study indicate that co-worker relationship quality triggers job crafting and sustainable employability. Mediation results indicate co-worker relationship quality initiates a motivational process through job crafting, leading to sustainable employability as an outcome of the motivational process. Further, the relationships between co-worker support and sustainable employability mediated by job crafting are strengthened in high work uncertainty. This research adds to the work design and employability literature and addresses the three research gaps in job crafting literature regarding antecedents, consequences, and boundary conditions. Altogether results of this study show that work relationships trigger job crafting and sustainable employability, and these relationships are further strengthened in the presence of high work uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]