The challenge of maintaining work ability, defined as the capacity to continue performing one’s job despite increasing demands, has become more significant in today’s increasingly demanding work environment and aging population. Approach job crafting has been identified as a key strategy for enhancing work-related resources, which are critical for managing such demands. This study draws on relevant theories on job resource and aging to explore the relationship between job crafting and work ability among younger and older workers. By addressing gaps and ambiguities in existing literature, it examines potential reciprocal effects between job crafting and work ability, clarifies their causal direction, and assesses the impact of aging on the prevalence and effectiveness of job crafting. Utilizing a random intercept cross-lagged panel approach, we analyzed data from 1,940 German office workers surveyed four times over two years. Findings indicate positive within-person cross-lagged effects of work organization, adoption, and metacognition on work ability in the overall sample, especially among younger workers. Reciprocal within-person effects of work ability on adoption and metacognition were observed only for younger, but not for older workers. Overall, this study suggests that specific job crafting strategies can serve as practical and self-driven approaches to enhance work ability, particularly for younger workers.
