Employees engage in job crafting to achieve an optimal fit with their jobs. However, it is unknown how and when person-job fit (PJ fit) influences job crafting. Integrating need satisfaction theory, conservation of resource theory, and temporal theory, the current research seeks to explore the effect of change patterns of PJ fit on three dimensions of job crafting, resource seeking, challenge seeking, and demand reducing, and the resulting task performance. In a diary study with experience sampling method among 93 employees across 12 consecutive days, we test the hypotheses using polynomial regression and response surface analysis. The results show that stable and high (vs. stable and low) person-job fit is positively associated with task performance via resource seeking, challenge seeking, and hindrance reducing, fluctuating (vs. stable) PJ fit is negatively related to task performance via resource seeking and hindrance reducing, and decrease (vs. increase) in PJ fit is negatively related to task performance via resource seeking, challenge seeking, and hindrance reducing. Our study contributes to research on the dynamics of PJ fit and highlights the role change pattern in the effect of PJ fit on employee performance.
