Date of Award
5-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Committee Chair/Advisor
Robert Sinclair
Committee Member
Thomas Britt
Committee Member
Mary Anne Taylor
Committee Member
Patrick Rosopa
Abstract
As the gig work sector of the workforce continues to grow, organizational psychologists must actively contribute to raising the bar for gig drivers (e.g., ride-hailing, food delivery) so that they are not merely surviving but also thriving through their work. In my dissertation, I tested cognitive crafting as a positive meaning-making process that helps gig drivers make sense of their interactions with customers, generates positive, motivating states such as work engagement, and promotes positive outcomes such as work-related well-being and job satisfaction. My dissertation employed a mixed-methods design. The daily diary built on qualitative data results that identified interesting - and perhaps even counterintuitive - themes about gig drivers' experiences and perceptions of their work. The daily diary results demonstrated that daily positive customer interactions were positively related to daily cognitive crafting and work engagement, and daily negative customer interactions had a negative relationship with daily cognitive crafting. These relationships were moderated by psychological capital. The serial mediation effects and the moderated serial mediation effects were not supported. This study provided insight into the customer interactions – cognitive crafting relationship at the daily level. Additionally, the results supported that individual differences in psychological capital explained which gig drivers cognitively crafted in light of customer interactions. As a whole, this dissertation provides important contributions to the literature by examining cognitive crafting and well-being in the unique context of gig driving with a positive organizational scholarship lens.
Recommended Citation
Watson, Gwendolyn Paige, "Meaning Matters: Cognitive Crafting as a Sensemaking Mechanism and Motivational Process to Enhance Gig Driver Well-being" (2023). All Dissertations. 3347.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3347
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-8838-4277