Cognitive and adaptive pathways linking self-efficacy and job crafting: the moderating role of perceived organizational support among female knowledge workers in Chinese tourism enterprises
Background Female knowledge workers in tourism enterprises face intensive emotional labor, seasonal demand fluctuation, and gendered work-family expectations that shape their capacity for proactive job redesign. However, the psychological mechanisms through which self-efficacy is associated with job crafting in this population, and the boundary conditions under which contextual resources amplify or substitute for internal resources, remain underspecified. Methods Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study investigates how self-efficacy is associated with job crafting through parallel mediation by self-reflection and psychological resilience, and how perceived organizational support (POS) conditions these pathways. Survey data were collected from 576 female employees in Chinese tourism enterprises across four provinces. Analyses included confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression, and bootstrap-based moderated mediation. Results Self-efficacy shows a significant positive association with job crafting (β = 0.298, p < 0.001). Self-reflection and psychological resilience each partially mediate this association, with the psychological resilience pathway (β = 0.354) approximately 2.5 times stronger than the self-reflection pathway (β = 0.141). POS positively moderates the self-reflection–job crafting association (β = 0.077, p = 0.021), but the corresponding moderated mediation is not statistically significant. Contrary to prediction, POS significantly weakens the psychological resilience–job crafting relationship (β = −0.128, p = 0.001), and the moderated mediation index is negative and significant [Index = −0.101, 95% CI (−0.174, −0.016)], revealing a resource substitution effect. Conclusions This study contributes to the job crafting literature by distinguishing cognitive and adaptive resource pathways through which self-efficacy operates, and by demonstrating that organizational support functions asymmetrically across pathways—amplifying cognitive resource conversion while substituting for adaptive resource conversion. Tourism enterprises should balance organizational support with employees' internal resource development.