How does organizational AI adoption affect employees’ job crafting behaviors? An approach-avoidance perspective
Citation. Liu, Q., Tian, Q., Li, X., & Tan, H. (2026). How does organizational AI adoption affect employees’ job crafting behaviors? An approach-avoidance perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1690238. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1690238
Summary. This three-wave survey study examines how organizational AI adoption shapes employees’ approach and avoidance job-crafting behaviors through motivational reactions. It finds that AI-supported autonomy mediates a positive path to approach job crafting, while AI anxiety mediates a positive path to avoidance job crafting. AI knowledge sharing moderates these motivational paths and their indirect relationships with job crafting.
Key claims
- Organizational AI adoption was associated with both approach and avoidance job-crafting paths rather than a uniformly positive or negative employee response.
- AI-supported autonomy mediated the positive relationship between organizational AI adoption and approach job crafting.
- AI anxiety mediated the positive relationship between organizational AI adoption and avoidance job crafting.
- AI knowledge sharing moderated the effects of organizational AI adoption on motivational reactions and the corresponding indirect effects on approach and avoidance job crafting.
Evidence & limitations
- Three-wave survey of 650 employees from five AI-using enterprises in China, with 487 valid responses; analyses used SPSS and Mplus.
- The observational survey design supports the tested mediated and moderated associations but cannot establish causal effects, and its Chinese enterprise sample may limit generalizability.