The impact of job crafting on job demands, job resources, and well-being.

Abstract

This longitudinal study examined whether employees can impact their own well-being by crafting their job demands and resources. Based on the job demands-resources model, we hypothesized that employee job crafting would have an impact on work engagement, job satisfaction, and burnout through changes in job demands and job resources. Data was collected in a chemical plant at three time points with one month in between the measurement waves (N = 288). The results of structural equation modeling showed that employees who crafted their job resources in the first month of the study showed an increase in their structural and social resources over the course of the study (2 months). This increase in job resources was positively related to employee well-being (increased engagement and job satisfaction, and decreased burnout). Crafting job demands did not result in a change in job demands, but results revealed direct effects of crafting challenging demands on increases in well-being. We conclude that employee job crafting has a positive impact on well-being and that employees therefore should be offered opportunities to craft their own jobs.

Job design under lean manufacturing and the quality of working life: a job demands and resources perspective

“…The findings of this study demonstrate the relationship between both daily seeking challenges and seeking resources and daily work engagement. Contrary to expectation, yet similar to Tims et al (2013), no relationship was found between reducing demands and work engagement. Mean levels of day-level reducing demands were the highest of all crafting dimensions (4.39), demonstrating that employees reduced their job demands on a daily basis.…”

“…autonomy) and social (e.g. support) resources over a two month period (Tims, Bakker & Derks, 2013). Similarly Leana and colleagues found that work discretion was positively related to individual job crafting for teachers and their aides (Leana, Appelbaum & Shevchuk, 2009).…”

“…active jobs) at the daily level was associated with increased levels of seeking resources and decreased levels of reducing demands. Tims et al (2013) also found that employee crafting of structural and social job resources led to an increase in perceived structural (e.g. autonomy) and social (e.g.…”

“…creating opportunities for learning and development, taking on interesting projects), they cultivate greater meaning from their work and are therefore more engaged. In addition, a number of authors have established a positive relationship between proactive behaviours such as job crafting, personal initiative, feedback-seeking and self-development, and positive outcomes such as work engagement and positive emotion (Anseel et al, 2013;Bakker et al, 2012;Hyvonen et al, 2009;Ko, 2012;Tims et al, 2013). In terms of evidence regarding the relationship between daily job crafting and daily engagement, Petrou et al (2012) found a significant positive relationship between day-level seeking challenges and day-level work engagement and a significant negative relationship between day-level reducing demands and day-level work engagement.…”

“…Therefore, on the basis of person-environment fit theory (Edwards, 2008), this congruence between needs and environment achieved through job crafting is expected to promote employees' engagement at work. In addition, a number of authors have established a positive relationship between proactive behaviours such as job crafting, personal initiative, feedback-seeking and self-development, and positive outcomes such as work engagement and positive emotion (Anseel, Beathy, Shen, Lievens & Sackett, 2013;Bakker et al, 2012;Hyvonen, Feldt, Salmela-Aro, Kinnunen & Makikangas, 2009;Ko, 2012;Tims et al, 2013).…”