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.