Dealing with the demands of work intensification: the role of job crafting

Job crafting captures what employees do to redesign their job by actively performing changes in tasks, relations and perceptions to foster positive outcomes (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). The purpose of the current study is to investigate the role of job crafting in work intensification demands such as tight deadlines, shortage of time to finish a task and high work speed. The current study followed a mixed methodology design, implemented in two phases. Study 1 was the qualitative phase that explored employees’ experiences regarding work intensification and their coping mechanisms. By conducting twenty semi-structured interviews with office-based employees, Study 1 allowed for the development of a research model and hypotheses. The emerged themes of Study 1 were work intensification; resource loss, gain and investment; task, relational and cognitive crafting; organisational practices and well-being outcomes. Study 1 showed that work intensification could be experienced as a positive phenomenon by employees that perceive it as a challenging stressor. As a result, they experience resource gains and engage in task crafting behaviours. This was a critical finding indicating that the level up to which an individual experiences a stressor is less significant than the way it is perceived, as either hindering or challenging. Study 2 was the quantitative phase that investigated the assumed relationships of the model between work intensification perceptions, work-related resources, task crafting, flexible working practices and job satisfaction, using 255 office-based employees, with a two-lag longitudinal online survey design. Study 2 confirmed all hypotheses of the model indicating that, even in intensified working environments work-related resources motivate higher engagement in task crafting which increases job satisfaction over time. Additionally, remote working was identified as a facilitator for employees to engage in task crafting behaviours. The current study aims to promote job crafting as an approach for employees to take the initiative to redesign their jobs so that it would better fit their skills and interests thus, to enhance positive well-being outcomes, especially within work intensified circumstances. To sum up, the study highlighted the importance of work-related resources and organisational practices as top-down approaches to be perceived by employees as opportunities that spark their engagement in bottom-up approaches such as job crafting.