The Influence of Future Time Perspective, Goal Orientation, and Self-Leadership on Job Crafting and Goal Progress among Academics in Ghanaian Higher Education

Tetteh, Samuel Doku (2024) The Influence of Future Time Perspective, Goal Orientation, and Self-Leadership on Job Crafting and Goal Progress among Academics in Ghanaian Higher Education. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This study addresses the limited research of the motivational antecedents of job crafting, with a particular focus on its associations with goal orientation and future time perspective (FTP). Although job crafting is generally viewed as a goal-directed behaviour, empirical research has yet to establish its relationship with goal orientation, and the mechanisms linking FTP to job crafting remain underexplored in organisational literature. The present research examined the relationships between FTP, goal orientations, and job crafting. Additionally, the study examined the mediating roles of self-leadership, and perceived workplace support in the relationship between FTP and job crafting. It further explored the relationship between job crafting and goal progress, with a focus on the mediating role of approach crafting in the relationship between self-leadership and goal progress, and between perceived workplace support and goal progress.

A quantitative longitudinal survey design is employed, with data collected in three waves over a ten-month period from academics in Ghana (T1: n = 402; T2: n = 143; T3: n = 122), maintaining an average interval of two months between waves. Despite notable attrition, analyses of non-random sampling reveal no significant differences between the initial (T1) and final (T3) samples. Structural equation modelling is used in Study 1 to examine cross-sectional relationships among study variables at T1, while Study 2 applies time-lagged autoregression analysis across the three waves to evaluate the temporal stability of these relationships. Study 3 uses cross-lagged autoregressive modelling to explore potential reciprocal causal relationships among the variables.

Findings show that the direct associations between extended FTP and approach crafting, as well as between limited FTP and avoidance crafting, are not statistically significant in Studies 1 and 2. However, in Study 1, self-leadership and perceived workplace support mediate the relationship between extended FTP and approach crafting, though this mediating effect is not observed in Study 2. In contrast, Study 3 reveals that approach and avoidance crafting are directly associated with extended and limited FTP, respectively, over time. With respect to goal orientation, results indicate that approach goal orientation is not significantly related to approach crafting in either Study 1 or 2. Avoidance goal orientation is significantly associated with avoidance crafting in Study 1, but this association is not replicated in Study 2. These results suggest that goal orientation does not reliably predict job crafting over time. Furthermore, self-leadership, perceived workplace support, and approach crafting are significantly associated with goal progress in Study 1, but these relationships are not observed in Study 2. In Study 3, goal progress is reciprocally related to job crafting, supporting a bidirectional association.

Overall, this research advances understanding of the dynamic processes underlying job crafting among academics in Ghana, highlighting the changing nature of these relationships over time.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
Depositing User:	Kitty Laine
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2025 12:19
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2025 12:19
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99462
DOI:

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