Work engagement, job crafting and innovativeness in the Indian IT industry

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of work engagement on job crafting and innovativeness in the Indian information technology (IT) industry. The authors also theorized and examined the moderating effect of perceived supervisory support (PSS) and openness-to-experience (OTE) in aforementioned relationships respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors base their arguments on the job-demands and resource (JDR) theoretical model and broaden-and-build theory. Field data from 377 working IT professionals were collected using the survey method. The model was tested using partial least squares (PLS) technique.

Findings

Results support the main effects hypothesis. The authors find a significant and positive relationship between work engagement and job crafting behavior and innovativeness.

Research limitations/implications

The study makes a reasonable contribution to existing knowledge on work engagement and its outcomes. However, the use of cross-sectional data may constrain causal inferences.

Practical implications

Innovativeness and job crafting behaviors are valuable to most organizations, but more critical in IT organizations. As illustrated in this paper, work-engaged employees display higher levels of innovativeness and job-crafting behavior. These results suggest that IT organizations should focus on work-engagement for better productivity and faster growth.

Originality/value

This study is an attempt towards a better understanding of work engagement and its micro level individual outcomes which have not been examined earlier.

Citation

Sharma, A. and Nambudiri, R. (2020), "Work engagement, job crafting and innovativeness in the Indian IT industry", Personnel Review, Vol. 49 No. 7, pp. 1381-1397. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2019-0607