Job Crafting: How to Get the Most out of Your Job

On a grey Monday in April you may find yourself staring into oblivion, past what is waiting to be completed on your computer screen. Do you like your job? Of course. You just find it hard to stay motivated and complete tasks that aren’t always best suited to you.

The solution to this phenomenon, other than trawling through the #Mondaymotivation posts on twitter, is job crafting.

What is Job Crafting?

Job crafting is the technique ofactively altering thetaskboundaries,cognitive task boundariesandrelational boundariesof your position in order to redesign your work and achieve greater job satisfaction, without drastically changing your role.

Task Boundaries:

The type or number of tasks you have, and how you perform them.

Cognitive Task Boundaries:

How you perceive your job, or tasks within it.

Relational Boundaries:

Who you interact with within those tasks, and the nature of those interactions.

Making small changes to the boundaries of your role can make a big difference to both your day to day work life, and the direction your work could go in.

For example, you may find it particularly difficult to work with one of your colleagues on long term projects, but are perfectly happy to collaborate on shorter term ones. Therefore, you could alter the structure of your project (task boundaries) or how you perceive the structure of the project (cognitive task boundaries) to break it down into smaller chunks, which will enable you to work more effectively with your colleague in manageable portions, thus also changing relational boundaries.

Benefits of Job Crafting

Research has shown that Job Crafting has a positive effect on engagement and well-being in the workplace.

According to something called the ‘Job Demands-Resources’ model of burnout, there aretwo key areas that contribute to employee stress, and ill-health. These are…

• Job demands= aspects of a job that require sustained effort or skill i.e. the task itself

• Job resources= aspects of a job that are used to achieve work goals, reduce job demands, and/or stimulate personal growth e.g. health protecting factors such as receiving feedback and rewards, having job control, job security, support from a supervisor and the opportunity for participation in tasks

The model suggests that high demands are related toexhaustion, whereas low resources are related todisengagement. When both of these occur simultaneously, this is known asburnout syndrome. Both of these job characteristics are things that can be helped with job-crafting in order toprotect us from excessive stress.

Research shows that job crafting to increase the resources available in one’s position leads to increased job satisfaction, engagement, and decreased burnout. As it may be more difficult to craft the demands of our role directly (depending on the organisation), another study foundthat instead, viewing stressors in a positive light andseeingthem as challenges to overcome was associated with higher work engagement. Research has also shown that engaged employees work harder and are more innovative than their (less engaged) colleagues.

Job crafting is also particularly useful for navigating organisational change, and those already proficient in job crafting will find structural or technical changesmore positiveandshow a higher readiness to change.

The simple reason to job craft is so that you can mould your job, even slightly, into something that you enjoy more. This will make you more productive and motivated to perform well, and encourage your personal development.