Research On The "Double-Edged Sword" Effect Of Negative Career Shocks On Job Crafting

The rapid changes in business models and economic formats have driven the changes in the demand structure of the labor market.In this context,employees’ career has become more complex,volatile and unpredictable.Negative career shocks(NCS)such as organizational change,promotion rejection continue to disrupt and restrict,and even subvert individual career development,causing serious interference and destruction to individual routine work and life.As an active behavior of individuals to redesign their work,job crafting can help individuals adapt to changes in professional work situations,and is one of the necessary working abilities for individuals to successfully control their career,and may help individuals cope with the career development difficulties caused by NCS.Through literature review,it was found that NCS are events that have a negative impact on an individual’s career.Most studies have shown that NCS can lead to negative employee cognitive and behavioral outcomes.However,a few studies have found that NCS have potential positive effects on employee cognition and behavior.Are these different research perspectives contradictory? Therefore,it is necessary to re-examine the relationship between NCS and employees’ cognition and behavior.This study systematically analyzes the impact mechanism of NCS on employees’ work-related rumination and job crafting,as well as the regulatory effect of perceived organizational support,in order to explore the reasons for the inconsistency of existing research conclusions,and focus on how negative occupational shock events drive positive cognitive and behavioral changes in employees,providing some enlightenment to follow-up research and management practice.According to the Cognitive Appraisal Theory,individuals will choose different coping styles according to the relationship between the event and their own interests,as well as their own degree of control over the event,thus forming differentiated behavioral results.Therefore,individuals may be forced to adopt the emotion-focused coping strategy,namely affective rumination,or problem-focused coping strategy,namely problem-solving pondering.Through two types of work-related rumination,NCS may lead to the behavioral results of individuals approaching or avoiding job crafting.At the same time,the Cognitive Appraisal Theory points out that the coping resources owned by individuals are also related to the choice of coping styles.As an organization-level coping resource,organizational support may be the key condition for negative occupational impact events to affect employees’ cognition and behavior.On this basis,this study constructs a competitive model that NCS under different perceived organizational support indirectly affect job crafting through problem-solving pondering and affective rumination.Through structural equation model,the empirical analysis of 314 two-stage employee questionnaires shows that:(1)NCS have a "double-edged sword" effect on employees’ job crafting behavior.On the one hand,NCS have a positive impact on job crafting through the mediating role of problem-solving pondering,on the other hand,they have a negative impact on job crafting through the mediating role of affective rumination.(2)Perceived organizational support positively regulates the relationship between NCS and problem-solving pondering,as well as the relationship between NCS and job crafting through problem-solving pondering;Perceived organizational support negatively regulates the relationship between NCS and affective rumination,and the relationship between NCS and job crafting through affective rumination.The research conclusion enriches relevant research in the field of career development,integrates previous research findings with Cognitive Appraisal Theory,clarifies the mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact of NCS,and proposes that NCS can also drive positive cognitive and behavioral changes in employees.At the same time,this study enlightens organizations and employees to have a comprehensive understanding of the "double-edged sword" role of NCS in practice:Employees need to carry out self-motivation and rumination management to get rid of negative emotions,and drive their job crafting through problem-solving pondering;Organizations also need to give employees some support to actively guide their work-related rumination and promote their job crafting behavior,Help them properly cope with NCS.