Abstract
Abstract : The manner in which employees approach their work and carry out their particular job tasks can have serious implications for both their wellbeing and performance at work, and, in turn, affect the overall functioning of the organisations for which they work. Moreover, the types of behaviours that employees engage in may be a function of who they are as individuals, that is, their unique personality traits. In the current study, an investigation was undertaken to explore two specific employee behaviours that have shown to differentially affect important work outcomes such as job performance, namely job crafting and self-undermining behaviour. Job crafting is a self-initiated type of employee behaviour that involves employees proactively shaping their job, whereby they may change both the physical and cognitive boundaries of the job. Self-undermining, on the other hand, is a type of maladaptive employee behaviour (e.g., purposefully working slow, creating conflict with colleagues) that creates obstacles for the individuals at work and which subsequently hinders their job performance. To date, there has been limited research that has investigated the individual antecedents and outcomes of these two particular employee behaviours, especially in the South African working context. Furthermore, the instruments (i.e. scales) used to measure these behaviours have predominantly been applied in European (e.g., Netherlands) and Western (e.g., USA) parts of the world, leaving important questions unanswered regarding the psychometric soundness of these instruments in the South African work context. Accordingly, the overarching aim of the current research was to explore individual personality as an antecedent to job crafting and self-undermining behaviour, and the subsequent effects on important workplace outcomes, such as job performance, person‒job fit and basic needs satisfaction.
D.Phil. (Industrial Psychology)