Unpacking Proactive Job Design: How Organizational Justice and Psychological Safety Drive Work Engagement Through Expansive Job Crafting and I-Deals

Abstract: Organizations increasingly rely on proactive employees who shape their own work rather than passively accept assigned roles. This article examines how two bottom-up job design strategies—expansive job crafting and idiosyncratic deals (i-deals)—enhance work engagement through distinct psychological mechanisms. Drawing on a three-wave study of 324 Spanish employees and broader organizational research, we explore how psychological safety mediates the crafting-engagement relationship, while organizational justice mediates the i-deals-engagement pathway. These findings challenge assumptions that all proactive work behaviors operate similarly and reveal that context-sensitive interventions must align with employees' redesign strategies. For practitioners, the evidence suggests that fostering psychological safety supports employees who expand job boundaries, while procedural and distributive justice systems enable successful i-deal negotiation. Organizations that understand these nuanced pathways can cultivate engagement more strategically, retain talent more effectively, and build cultures where employees actively co-create their roles. This synthesis integrates Spanish survey data with international evidence to offer research-grounded guidance for HR leaders, line managers, and organizational development professionals navigating the shift from top-down job design to shared responsibility models.

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