Smart technology and service employees’ job crafting: Relationship between STARA awareness, performance pressure, receiving and giving help, and job crafting

Owing to the rapid spread of smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms (STARA), service jobs are being replaced by these technologies. Despite the potential effect of STARA awareness on employee outcomes, surprisingly few studies have explored its role service employees' work outcomes. Addressing this gap, our research assessed the mediating relationship between STARA awareness, performance pressure, and job crafting, as well as the moderating effects of help-receiving and help-giving on this relationship. We conducted a quantitative study for 301 South Korean service employees using surveys collected at two points in time. The results indicated that service employees' STARA awareness positively affected job crafting through performance pressure. Furthermore, the association between STARA awareness and performance pressure was more prominent for higher levels of help-receiving than for lower levels of help-receiving. Help-receiving further moderated the indirect effect of performance pressure on the STARA awareness and job crafting relationship. While the mitigating effect of help-giving was not supported, we observed a significantly positive association between STARA awareness and performance pressure only when help-receiving was high and help-giving was low. These findings contribute to the literature on technology in the retailing sector by uncovering how STARA awareness affects service employees’ performance pressure and job crafting and the roles played by help-giving and help-receiving in this relationship.