Meaningful Work and Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Perceived Opportunities to Craft and Job Crafting Behavior

Abstract

This study examines the impact of meaningful work on employees’ level of work engagement as mediated by perceived opportunities to craft and job crafting. Based on the literature on meaningful work and job crafting, we hypothesize that meaningful work has a positive relationship with an employee’s level of work engagement in two ways, directly and indirectly via perceived opportunities to craft first and job crafting second (sequential mediation). In order to test the hypothesized relations, we conducted a structural equation modeling on a sample of 1148 employees working in various occupations, organizations, and industries in The Netherlands. The results of this analysis provide support for the hypothesized relations, indicating a strong linkage between meaningful work and work engagement and a partially mediating role for perceived opportunities to craft and job crafting. The main theoretical, practical, and methodological implications of this study are discussed.