The effect of self-leadership strategies on the formation of job crafting with the mediating role of leader's empowering behaviors and job independence

According to the new findings of organizational behavior in the area of job redesign, job crafting positions should be provided to the members of the organization; Because job crafting brings many benefits to the organization at the individual and organizational level, and according to research, several factors such as job independence, leadership style, and leadership behaviors can help to realize job crafting. In this regard, Liu et al (2023) investigated how self-leadership promotes job crafting, and the results showed that self-leadership, directly and indirectly, promotes job crafting. Kula (2022) investigated the relationship between mental peace, self-leadership, job autonomy, and person-job fit, and the results indicated a positive relationship between self-leadership and job autonomy. Taboli et al. (2023) designed a model to predict job crafting and the results showed that factors such as job independence and leadership styles can be considered as precursors of job crafting. Based on this, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of self-leadership strategies on the formation of job crafting with the mediating role of a leader's empowering behaviors and job independence.

Design/Methodology/Approach: 

The type of research is descriptive-correlation and the statistical population included 445 employees of Kashan University that through Morgan's table, 220 people were selected as a sample. The research tool was four questionnaires of self-leadership strategies, job crafting, leader's empowering behaviors & job independence. The validity of the questionnaires was checked in the form of content, construction, convergent, and divergent. The reliability of the questionnaires was estimated through Cronbach's alpha for self-leadership strategies at 0.82, job crafting at 0.77, empowering leader behaviors at 0.88, and job independence at 0.78. Data analysis was done at the descriptive and inferential level using SPSS version 26 and Smart PLS statistical software.

Findings showed the mean variable of self-leadership (3.94), job crafting (3.27), job independence (3.53), and empowering leadership behavior (3.36). The path coefficients showed that the effects of self-leadership on job independence, job crafting, and empowering behavior of the leader were positive and significant. Also, the effects of job independence and empowering leader behavior on job crafting were positive and significant, and the mediating role of leader empowerment behaviors and job independence in the effect of self-leadership strategies on job crafting was confirmed.

The results showed job crafting positions should be available to the members of the organization, and the path that can facilitate this process is to create a context for their self-leadership; Because organizational leaders in the process of self-leadership of people, empower them with their empowering behaviors and grant them independence so that they can play a role in designing their jobs. Considering the effect that self-leadership has on job crafting, the behavior of organizational managers should be directed towards the direction of paying attention to the development of people and investing self-leadership skills in them. In this regard, organizational training should be provided to people to know themselves better, to know and believe in their capacities, to set goals for themselves, and to control and evaluate themselves to achieve them. Considering the role of empowerment and job independence in the relationship between self-leadership and career crafting, the organization and its managers should provide behaviors to empower the workforce, trust them, and provide them with the opportunity to grow and progress. When the workforce understands the empowering behavior of the leader and the organizational support provided, more internal motivation will be formed in them and they will be psychologically empowered. This context helps them to distance themselves from the many work pressures that can exist in the organization's environment and focus their attention on their duties and shaping them more effectively.