Contextual antecedents of job crafting: review and future research agenda

Purpose The purpose of this study is to critically review current studies on job crafting to identify contextual factors related to employees’ job crafting and to integrate the findings to help organizations improve employees’ job crafting. Design/methodology/approach Based on the guidelines provided by Torraco (2016), the authors reviewed 44 quantitative studies on job crafting published between 2001and 2020. Findings The authors identified 35 contextual antecedents of job crafting at the job (11), group (6), leadership (12) and organizational (6) levels. The findings reveal that a significant number of studies have focused on contextual aspects related to employees’ job crafting. In particular, multiple studies discussed the important role of empowering leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership, leader-member exchange in job crafting. Originality/value The authors emphasize contextual factors influencing job crafting including job, group, leadership and organizational levels. Based on the review, the authors suggest a future research agenda on job crafting in terms of job, group, leadership and organizational antecedents.