No abstract

<strong>Orientation:</strong> For a long time, employees have been viewed as passive performers of their assigned job tasks. Recently, several scholars have argued that job design theory needs to address the influence of employees on their job designs.<p><strong>Research purpose:</strong> The purpose of the study was to fit job crafting in job design theory.</p><p><strong>Motivation for the study:</strong> The study was an attempt to shed more light on the types of proactive behaviours of individual employees at work. Moreover, we explored the concept of job crafting and its antecedents and consequences.</p><p><strong>Research design, approach and method:</strong> A literature study was conducted in which the focus was first on proactive behaviour of the employee and then on job crafting.</p><p><strong>Main findings:</strong> Job crafting can be seen as a specific form of proactive behaviour in which the employee initiates changes in the level of job demands and job resources. Job crafting may be facilitated by job and individual characteristics and may enable employees to fit their jobs to their personal knowledge, skills and abilities on the one hand and to their preferences and needs on the other hand.</p><p><strong>Practical/managerial implications:</strong> Job crafting may be a good way for employees to improve their work motivation and other positive work outcomes. Employees could be encouraged to exert more influence on their job characteristics.</p><p><strong>Contribution/value-add:</strong> This article describes a relatively new perspective on active job redesign by the individual, called job crafting, which has important implications for job design theories.</p><p><strong>How to cite this article:</strong><br /> Tims, M., &amp; Bakker, A.B. (2010). Job crafting: Towards a new model of individual job redesign. <em>SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 36</em>(2), Art. #841, 9 pages. DOI: 10.4102/sajip.v36i2.841</p>

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.

The article examines the role of proactive personality in predicting work engagement and job performance. On the basis of the literature on proactive personality and the job demands-resources model, we hypothesized that employees with a proactive personality would be most likely to craft their own jobs, in order to stay engaged and perform well. Data were collected among 95 dyads of employees (N = 190), who were working in various organizations. The results of structural equation modeling analyses offered strong support for the proposed model. Employees who were characterized by a proactive personality were most likely to craft their jobs (increase their structural and social job resources, and increase their job challenges); job crafting, in turn, was predictive of work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption) and colleague-ratings of in-role performance. These findings suggest that, to the extent that employees proactively adjust their work environment, they manage to stay engaged and perform well.

This diary study investigated whether and how supervisors' leadership style influences followers' daily work engagement. On the basis of leadership theories and the job demands-resources model, we predicted that a transformational leadership style enhances employees' work engagement through the mediation of self-efficacy and optimism, on a day-to-day basis. Fortytwo employees first filled in a general questionnaire, and then a diary survey over five consecutive workdays. The results of multilevel analyses offered partial support for our hypotheses. Daily transformational leadership related positively to employees' daily engagement, and day-levels of optimism fully mediated this relationship. However, daily self-efficacy did not act as a mediator. These findings expand theory and previous research by illuminating the role of transformational leaders in fostering employee work engagement.