Work disengagement refers to an individual’s emotional, cognitive, and physical distance form their work, which leads to decreased employee morale and productivity, as well as increased turnover and accidents. Despirte being a persistent issue in or...
Work disengagement refers to an individual’s emotional, cognitive, and physical distance form their work, which leads to decreased employee morale and productivity, as well as increased turnover and accidents. Despirte being a persistent issue in organizations, work disengagement has received less attention regarding a way of alleviating. This study aims to explore mechanisms to alleviate work disengagement through resource expansion and mitigation of resource loss, with a focus on career adaptability. Guided by the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this research examines the relationships between career adaptability, job crafting, role ambiguity, and work disengagement. It investigates how career adaptability and job crafting contribute to resource expansion, thus reducing resource losses such a role ambiguity and work disengagement.
To achieve these objectives, two technical goals were established: (1) verifying the relationship between role ambiguity and work disengagement, and (2) verifying the mediating and sequential mediating effects of job crafting and role ambiguity within that relationship. Data were collected through a survey of 320 office workers from various domestic companies, with a final sample of 313 respondents. The study employed suitability tests of measurement tools, descriptive statistics, and frequency analysis of the questionnaire items, and tested four hypotheses using the Process macro model 6.
The findings and their implications are as follows: First, career adaptability negatively affects work disengagement both directly and indirectly. Second, job crafting serves as a negative mediator in the relationship between career adaptability and work disengagement. Third, while role ambiguity does not have a simple mediating effect in the relationship between career adaptability and work disengagement, it does have a sequential mediating effect through job crafting. These results indicate that career adaptability and resource conservation theory not only alleviate negative attitudes like work disengagement but also facilitate resource expansion through job crafting. However, reducing negative situational perceptions like role ambiguity alone is insufficient; active resource expansion through job crafting is necessary to mitigate these perceptions.
This study is significant as it confirms and elucidates the mechanisms of resource interaction, such as resource expansion and loss mitigation, for career adaptability based on the COR theory. Furthermore, it concretizes the discussion on career adaptability by examining its impact on individual attitudes, situational perception, and behaviors like work disengagement. Ultimately, this research is expected to contribute to organizational strategies for alleviating work disengagement.