Working around: Job crafting in the context of public and professional accountability

Abstract

Professionals are expected to justify their actions to clients, disciplinary committees and courts in multiple accountability systems. Although developed to reflect professional standards, is it possible that these systems induce proactive behaviours that counteract their goals and instead serve to protect the professional? This article examines the types of stimuli professionals acquire from the public and professional accountability contexts and how these stimuli motivate engagement in specific proactive behaviours. An interpretive grounded theory study was conducted; it included 31 in-depth interviews with physicians from eight hospitals. The study revealed that accountability systems trigger and motivate professionals to engage in self-serving, proactive job-crafting behaviours. Professionals simultaneously manage their perceived accountability pressures and their personal interests. Context-specific factors that motivate individuals to craft their jobs are identified, and we reveal four distinct stimuli–motivation–job-crafting patterns that are linked to specific performance episodes (i.e., work stages). Our findings emphasize the importance of taking specific work contexts (i.e., accountability) and work stages into account when studying job-crafting behaviours. This study contributes to understanding professionals’ motivations and behaviours in the context of accountability, which is essential, as the quality and safety of their work are matters of public concern.

Building professional holding environments for crowd work job crafting through online communities

“…Approach job crafting refers to proactive changes in the work environment, solving problems, and generally positively (re‐)framing stressors. Examples of approach crafting identified in the literature include altering the scope of tasks (Fuller & Unwin, 2017), upskilling or skill‐development (Renkema et al, 2022; Vuori et al, 2012), prioritising tasks (Cohen, 2013), or job expansion to include tasks not originally associated with the worker's assignment (Berg, Grant, & Johnson, 2010). Avoidance of job crafting relates to preventing negative stimuli, eliminating adverse tasks, or reducing responsibilities (Bruning & Campion, 2018; Lazazzara et al, 2020; Tims & Parker, 2020).…”

“…Avoidance of job crafting relates to preventing negative stimuli, eliminating adverse tasks, or reducing responsibilities (Bruning & Campion, 2018; Lazazzara et al, 2020; Tims & Parker, 2020). Examples of avoidance crafting include avoiding risky situations (Renkema et al, 2022), task delegation (Gascoigne & Kelliher, 2018), or reducing social interactions at the workplace (Sturges, 2012).…”

“…Avoidance of job crafting relates to preventing negative stimuli, eliminating adverse tasks, or reducing responsibilities (Bruning & Campion, 2018;Lazazzara et al, 2020;Tims & Parker, 2020). Examples of avoidance crafting include avoiding risky situations (Renkema et al, 2022), task delegation (Gascoigne & Kelliher, 2018), or reducing social interactions at the workplace (Sturges, 2012). 3 Overall, job crafting attempts positively impact individual-level well-being (Bakker et al, 2012;Petrou et al, 2012), effectiveness (Kim et al, 2018), meaningfulness , performance and work engagement (Bruning & Campion, 2018), and organisational commitment (Leana et al, 2009).…”

School principals’ job crafting profiles and their differences during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic

“…the crisis had lasted for over a year. The frequency and pattern of job crafting behavior may change in different phases of the crisis as the increase of unique demands could cause stimuli and incentive that lead to different kind of job crafting (Renkema et al, 2023). Therefore, it is important to study whether constant changes in principals' job demands and the prolonged situation may have depleted principals' resources (Hobfoll, 1989) and affected the ways principals crafted their jobs (Lazazzara et al, 2020;Knight et al, 2021;Renkema et al, 2023).…”