Resilience and work engagement: the mediating role of job crafting behaviours

Introduction Despite growing recognition that resilience and work engagement are central to employee wellbeing, the mechanisms through which resilience is associated with engaged work behaviour remain underexplored. Grounded in Conservation of Resources theory, this study examined task, cognitive, and relational job crafting as parallel mediating mechanisms in the resilience-work engagement relationship. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected from 332 employees at a large financial services organisation operating across South Africa and Namibia. Resilience, job crafting, and work engagement were assessed using validated measures. A parallel mediation model was tested using PROCESS macro Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Results Resilience significantly predicted all three crafting behaviours and work engagement. All indirect effects were statistically significant. Cognitive crafting showed the largest estimated indirect effect, followed by relational and task crafting. The model explained 34% of variance in work engagement, with crafting behaviours accounting for approximately 45% of the total effect of resilience on engagement. The direct effect remained significant, indicating partial mediation. Discussion Resilient employees actively reshape their work through behavioural, cognitive, and relational crafting, and this proactive activity meaningfully explains how resilience generates engagement. Cognitive reframing of work as purposeful and meaningful emerged as the most potent pathway. Findings carry practical relevance for resilience training, leadership practice, and organisational job design.