Seeing the future or losing it? The roles of STARA awareness and career crafting in shaping perceived employability

Purpose Rapid advances in smart technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) are reshaping the nature of work and raising concerns about employees' employability. Drawing on the theory of purposeful work behavior, our study examines how individuals' future work selves promote perceived employability through career crafting and how STARA awareness moderates these relationships. Design/methodology/approach A multi-wave survey was conducted with full-time employees (N = 341), collecting data at 3 time points to test the proposed moderated mediation model. Findings The results show that future work self positively predicts perceived employability through career crafting. Furthermore, STARA awareness weakens the positive relationship between future work self and career crafting, thereby reducing the indirect effect of future work self on perceived employability. Originality/value This study advances career research by revealing how future work self promotes perceived employability through career crafting under technological disruption. By identifying STARA awareness as a critical boundary condition, we extend TPWB by showing that the translation of future work self into career crafting depends on employees' interpretations of technological change. Our findings provide a more dynamic understanding of employability development in the digital era.