Supervisor–subordinate fit need for autonomy and subordinate job crafting: a moderated mediation model

Employees often change various aspects of their jobs to their liking (i.e., job crafting), yet little is known about how different aspects of supervisor-subordinate fit influence this behavior. This paper investigates the extent to which supervisor adaptive personality predicts subordinate job crafting and the complex processes that affect this relationship. We found (1) there is a positive relationship between supervisor adaptive personality and subordinate job crafting, (2) subordinate need for autonomy fulfillment mediates this relationship, and (3) the indirect effect of supervisor adaptive personality on subordinate job crafting (via subordinate need for autonomy fulfillment) is stronger when there is high supervisor-subordinate value-congruence. We conclude that organizations can develop selection tools that can assess supervisors' adaptivity, making them enablers of employee-oriented changes that create more opportunities for workplace challenges, growth, and engagement.