The Relationship between Job Crafting and Burnout in University Teachers: Moderated Moderation by Social Load and Time Pressure

Abstract

This study examined whether job crafting was associated with burnout and whether social load and time pressure jointly moderated the relationship of job crafting and burnout in a sample of university teachers. Using a cross-sectional research design, the researchers collected data from N=328 university teachers who completed the Job Crafting Questionnaire (JCQUT, Makhdoom, 2021), Challenging Job Demands Scale (CJDS, Makhdoom et al., 2022) and Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI, Demerouti et al., 2010). The primary objective of the study was to find out whether the moderated relationship of job crafting and burnout through social load changed across varied levels of time pressure. Model 3 of Hayes’ PROCESS Macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2022) applied moderated moderation on the data that revealed social load moderated the relationship between job crafting and burnout such that the negative relationship of job crafting and burnout was strengthened when there was high social load. Further, the results of moderated moderation were found significant as the social load moderated the relationship only when time pressure was low. In the end, the researchers discussed implications of these results for teachers and researchers working in fields of organizational behaviour and occupational health, as well as for the employers working in higher education institutes.