Reference no: EM132243321

Consider for a moment a midlevel manager at a multinational foods company, Fatima, who would seem to be at the top of her career. She’s consistently making her required benchmarks and goals, she has built successful relationships with colleagues, and senior management has identified her as “high potential.” But she isn’t happy with her work. She’d be much more interested in understanding how her organization can use social media in marketing efforts at all levels of the organization, for example, but her job doesn’t allow her to work on this idea. She wants to quit and find something that better suits her passions, but in the current economic environment, this may not be an option. So she has decided to proactively reconfigure her current job. Fatima is part of a movement towards job “crafting,” which is the process of deliberately reorganizing your job so that it better fits your motives, strengths, and passions. So how did Fatima craft her job? She first noticed that she was spending too much of her time monitoring her team’s performance and answering team questions, and not enough time working on the creative projects that inspire her. She then considered how to modify her relationship with the team so that these activities incorporated her passion for social media strategies, with team activities more centered around developing new marketing. She also identified members of her team who might be able to help her implement these new strategies and directed her interactions with these individuals towards her new goals. As a result, not only has her engagement in her work increased, but she has also developed new ideas that are being recognized and advanced within the organization. In sum, she has found that by actively and creatively examining her work, she has been able to craft her current job into one that is truly satisfying. As you may have noted, Fatima exhibited a proactive personality – she was eager to develop her own options and find her own resources. Proactive individuals are often self-empowered and are, therefore, more open to seeking workable solutions when they are not satisfied. Research would lead us to believe Fatima will be successful in her customized job. In fact, it is quite possible her employer never would have helped her craft a better job had she not sought help, and that her proactivity is responsible for her success. To the extent possible, then, all employees should feel encouraged to be proactive in creating their best work situations.

Sources: A. B. Bakker, M. Tims, and D. Derks, “Proactive Personality and Job Performance: The Role of Job Crafting and Work Engagement,” Human Relations (October, 2012), pp. 1359–1378; A. Wrzesniewski, J. M. Berg, and J. E. Dutton, “Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want,” Harvard Business Review (June 2010), pp. 114–117; A. Wrzesniewski and J. E. Dutton, “Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work,” Academy of Management Review 26 (2010), pp. 179–201; and J. Caplan, “Hate Your Job? Here’s How to Reshape It,” Time (December 4, 2009), www.time.com.

Questions

1. Should organizations work to create jobs that are satisfying to individual employees?

2. Are the principles of job crafting described here relevant to your job or studies? Why or why not?

3. Are there any potential drawbacks to the job crafting approach? If so, how can they be minimized?