Team boosting behaviors and collaborative job crafting: a multilevel examination of empowering leadership, organizational support, and psychological safety
Arnold B. Bakker, Filomena Buonocore, Davide de Gennaro, Viviana Colombi EvangelistaPurpose
Drawing on the Input–Mediator–Outcome (IMO) model and the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) perspective, this study examines how empowering leadership and perceived organizational support (POS) may foster collaborative job crafting through team boosting behaviors and how psychological safety conditions these relationships across individual and team levels.
Design/methodology/approach
A multilevel moderated mediation model was tested using survey data collected from 320 employees nested within 60 project teams in a large consulting firm. Multilevel structural equation modeling was employed to simultaneously examine relationships at the individual and team levels.
Findings
Empowering leadership and POS were positively associated with team boosting behavior, which was positively associated with collaborative job crafting. Significant indirect associations emerged at both levels. Psychological safety strengthened this association, especially at the team level. Simultaneous measurement limits these findings to conditional associations.
Practical implications
Organizations may benefit from empowering leadership, visible organizational support, psychologically safe team climates, and routines that encourage energizing interaction and collaborative reflection. Their effects should be evaluated through longitudinal or intervention designs.
Originality/value
The study integrates IMO and JD-R perspectives to explain how contextual resources are associated with collaborative job crafting through team boosting behavior. It develops a multilevel account of psychological safety as a boundary condition that empowering leadership may also shape.