A multilevel study on servant leadership, job boredom and job crafting

an article by Lotta K. Harju (Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland), Wilmar B. Schaufeli (Utrecht University, The Netherlands; University of Leuven, Belgium) and Jari J. Hakanen (Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland; Helsinki University, Finland) published in Journal of Managerial Psychology Volume 33 Issue 1 (2018)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine cross-level effects of team-level servant leadership on job boredom and the mediating role of job crafting. Cross-level moderating effects of team-level servant leadership were also investigated.

Design/methodology/approach
This longitudinal study employed a multilevel design in a sample of 237 employees, clustered into 47 teams. Servant leadership was aggregated to the team-level to examine the effects of shared perceptions of leadership at T1 on individual-level outcome, namely job boredom, at T2. In addition, mediation analysis was used to test whether team-level servant leadership at T1 can protect followers from job boredom at T2 by fostering job crafting at T2. Cross-level moderating effects of team-level servant leadership at T1 on the relation between job crafting at T2 and job boredom at T2 were also modeled.

Findings
Job crafting at T2 mediated the cross-level effect of team-level servant leadership at T1 on job boredom at T2.

Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that team-level servant leadership predicts less job boredom by boosting job crafting.

Originality/value
This study is the first to assess the effects of servant leadership on job boredom and the mediating role of job crafting. This paper examines job boredom in a multilevel design, thus extending knowledge on its contextual components.

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Crafting a Calling: The Mediating Role of Calling Between Challenging Job Demands and Turnover Intention

an article by Tiago Esteves and Miguel Pereira Lopes (University of Lisbon, Portugal) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 44 Issue 1 (2017)

Abstract

Despite the emerging interest in the job crafting construct, researchers know little about its dimensions and their potential benefits for organizations.

In a quantitative investigation, using a self-report questionnaire among a group of 189 Portuguese nurses and nursing assistants, we analyze how job crafting can be strongly related to workers’ sense of calling and turnover intention.

The results indicate that sense of calling totally mediated the negative relation between the increase in challenging job demands and turnover intention. Although traditional assumption is that a sense of calling leads workers to craft their jobs, we theorize about the potential reverse path, given that our results support the possibility that sense of calling may be triggered when workers increase their own challenging job demands.

We recommend further research to provide additional insight into job crafting formation mechanism.

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Evidence for the need to distinguish between self-initiated and organizationally imposed overload in studies of work stress

an article by Gregory A. Laurence (University of Michigan, Flint, USA), Yitzhak Fried (Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA) and Steffen Raub (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Delémont) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 30 Issue 4 (2016)

Abstract

This study attempts to enhance our understanding of the inconsistencies reported in the literature concerning the relationship between work overload and work outcomes.

We tested the proposition that work overload should be divided into two constructs based on its source: self-initiated overload (SIO), and organization-imposed overload (OIO). Based on the work stress and job crafting literatures, we expected that SIO and OIO would tend to relate differentially to the work outcomes of job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, work–family conflict, job performance, and helping organizational citizenship behaviours.

A study was conducted using three samples, the first consisting of full-time employed students in three countries (N = 116), the second consisting of the nursing staffs of six private hospitals in Switzerland, and the third consisting of 161 middle manager-supervisor dyads in Switzerland.

Two different measures of SIO and OIO were used. SIO was found to have a more beneficial relationship with the work outcomes than OIO, general supporting our hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Job crafting and motivation to continue working beyond retirement age

an article by Philipp Wolfgang Lichtenthaler and Andrea Fischbach (Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei, Munster, Germany) published i Career Development International Volume 21 Issue 5 (2016)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting impacts the motivation of older employees to continue working beyond retirement age. The authors hypothesised that promotion-focused job crafting (i.e. increasing social and structural job resources, and challenging job demands) relates positively and prevention-focussed job crafting (i.e. decreasing hindering job demands) relates negatively with motivation to continue working after reaching the official retirement age, and that these relationships are sequential mediated by work sense of coherence and burnout.

Design/methodology/approach
Data from 229 older employees (mean age=55.77) were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Findings
Promotion-focused job crafting was positively and prevention-focused job crafting was negatively related with employees’ work sense of coherence, which was predictive of employees’ burnout, which in turn was predictive of motivation to continue working beyond retirement age.

Research limitations/implications
Despite the cross-sectional study design, the results unfold how promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting are related with motivation to continue working beyond retirement age through work sense of coherence and burnout.

Practical implications
Given today’s ageing and shrinking workforce, older employees working beyond their official retirement age are a necessity for organisations’ functional capability. The results suggest that organisations should encourage employees’ promotion-focused job crafting and limit prevention-focused job crafting. Promotion-focused job crafting facilitates employees’ work sense of coherence, which keeps them healthy and motivates older employees to continue working beyond retirement age.

Originality/value
This study adds to the literatures on job crafting and motivation to continue working beyond retirement age and explicates intervening processes in this relationship.

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How can we make organizational interventions work? Employees and line managers as actively crafting interventions

an article by Karina Nielsen (University of East Anglia, UK) published in Human Relations Volume 66 Number 8 (August 2013)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the processes of organisational interventions when evaluating the outcomes on employee health and well-being. Nevertheless, process evaluation is still in its infancy and primarily consists of checklists inspired by the public health intervention literature.

In these frameworks, employees are seen as passive recipients whose reactions to pre-developed interventions should be evaluated. Current organisational intervention design rests on a participatory approach and recent process evaluations reveal that employees and line managers influence the implementation and the outcomes of organisational interventions.

Following the current foci of current frameworks we may miss out on important information on the influence of both the participatory process and the line managers on intervention outcomes.

I argue that current evaluation frameworks suffer from four limitations:

1. they are not aligned with state-of-the-art research and practice;
2. and therefore they fail to apply theory to explain how and why human agents influence intervention implementation and outcomes;
3. they do not offer suggestions as to how such agency can be measured; and
4. nor do they discuss how we may use knowledge obtained from process evaluation proactively when designing future organizational interventions.

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Crafting a balance between work and home

an article by Jane Sturges (King’s College London, UK) published in Human Relations Volume 65 Number 12 (December 2012)

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that explored the unofficial techniques and activities that individuals use to shape their own work–life balance.

It theorises that this behaviour may be usefully conceptualised as physical, relational and cognitive work–life balance crafting. It identifies the physical, relational and cognitive techniques that young professionals employ to manage their work–life balance and shows that distinct approaches to work–life balance crafting exist, each of which features a specific range of techniques.

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The development and validation of a job crafting measure for use with blue-collar workers

an article by Karina Nielsen (National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark) and Johan Simonsen Abildgaard (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 26 Issue 4 (November 2012)

Abstract

Job crafting describes a set of proactive behaviours in which employees may engage to shape their work in order to minimise hindering job demands and maximise resources and challenging demands.

Such behaviours may be particularly important among blue-collar workers whose jobs are characterised by poor working conditions and low well-being.

We present the development and adaptation of a job crafting measure that may be used among blue-collar workers, based on an existing scale by Tims, Bakker, and Derks (2012) that was not specifically developed for blue-collar workers.

We test the validity and reliability of the measure in a longitudinal study based on multiple source information from mail delivery workers in Denmark (N=362 at Time 1; N=408 at Time 2).

Results indicate the presence of five job crafting dimensions:

• increasing challenging demands,
• decreasing social job demands,
• increasing social job resources,
• increasing quantitative demands and
• decreasing hindering job demands.

These can be reliably measured with 15 items. The measure shows acceptable discriminant and criterion validity, and test-retest reliability. The findings extend the application of the original questionnaire. They also add to knowledge of the job crafting behaviours in which blue-collar workers engage and link them to well-being outcomes.

Full text available through Taylor & Francis Open Access programme (HTML)

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Proactive personality and job performance: The role of job crafting and work engagement

Arnold B Bakker, Maria Tims and Daantje Derks (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) published in Human Relations Volume 65 Number 10 (October 2012)

Abstract

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 hypothesised 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 organisations.

The results of structural equation modelling analyses offered strong support for the proposed model.

Employees who were characterised 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 (vigour, 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.

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