Research has shown job crafting to be an important predictor of employee well-being. We extend the literature by cross-culturally examining obsessive passion (OP) and harmonious passion (HP) as two intervening variables between job crafting and both work engagement and employee burnout in Australia and China.
Working adults from Australia (N = 367) and China (N = 228) completed questionnaires on job crafting, leader autonomy support, obsessive and harmonious of passion, as well as burnout and work engagement. A hypothesized model proposed that job crafting and leader autonomy support would represent two correlated, yet independent predictors of HP and OP, which in turn would predict burnout and engagement. Structural equation modelling supported the hypothesized model in both samples. Job crafting was positively associated with HP and OP in both samples. While HP was associated with higher engagement and lower burnout in both cultures, OP yielded more mixed findings. That is, OP was positively associated with burnout and work engagement in Australia, but not in China.
Overall findings suggest that job crafting can be used to craft adaptive and maladaptive forms of passion into employee work roles, and this may have corresponding impacts on work engagement and burnout across cultures.