Psychological Science ›› 2014, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 190-196.

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Job Crafting: the New Path For Meaningful Work and Personal Growth

1,2,cheng GUO1   

  1. 1.
    2. School of Education, Huaibei Normal University
  • Received:2013-03-11 Revised:2013-11-05 Online:2014-01-20 Published:2014-01-20
  • Contact: cheng GUO

工作重塑:获得意义性工作与个人成长的新途径

赵小云1,2,郭成3   

  1. 1.
    2. 淮北师范大学教育学院
    3. 西南大学
  • 通讯作者: 郭成

Abstract: For a long time, employees have been viewed as passive performers of their assigned job tasks. Recently, several scholars have argued that job design theory needs to address the influence of employees on their job designs. In this view, employees are seen as also being responsible for their work outcomes. This is an important switch in job redesign theory. So the concept of job crafting which the new research perspective in Organization Behavior appeared. Based on combing the theoretical and empirical study literature of related job crafting systematically, this article summarized and analyzed the interpretation of the concept of job crafting, the way and method of job crafting, the prediction factors of job crafting and its effections to the individual and organization so that its abundant theoretical connotation and practical value can be realized and understood. Specific content as follows: First,on the concept of job crafting, based on the scholars point of view, this article think that job crafting enables individuals to shape their own work identities and work roles through personal construction of their jobs, and its core purpose is that the employees redesign their work to get a higher job satisfaction, job involvement and resiliency, etc., and then work happily. Second,on the way and method of job crafting,Tims & Bakker(2010)framed job crafting in terms of the JD–R model in order to guide job crafting research. They think that the employees may craft these aspects of the job in three ways according to this model: (1) The employee may increase the level of job resources available at work. (2)The employee may increase the level of job demands at work. (3)The employee may decrease the level of job demands at work. In addition, Berg, Dutton, & Wrzesniewski ( 2013) think that the employees may craft their job through changing tasks (adding tasks, emphasizing tasks, redesigning tasks), changing relationships (building relationships, refeaming relationships, adapting relationships) and changing perceptions ( expanding perceptions, focusing perceptions, linking perceptions). Third, on the antecedents of job crafting, this article report the characteristics of the work situation such as person–job misfit、high levels of autonomy and task independence could facilitate employees’ job crafting behaviors, and also report the characteristics of employees such as high levels of proactive personality, self-efficacy and focus on promotion lead employees to engage more readily in job crafting. Forth, on the effections to the individual and organization, many studies confirmed that job crafting leads to positive outcomes for the employee (e.g. person–job fit, enhanced meaning, job /life satisfaction, work engagement) as well as for the organization (e.g. commitment, high performance, reduced personnel turnover) . Finally, the article gives some suggestions for further research, that is the studies on job crafting should keep focusing on the enrichment and perfection of its theoretical construction, pay attention to individual and group differences of job crafting, strengthen the studies on the role of organization in job crafting as well as deepen the relationships between job crafting and organization.

Key words: job crafting, job design, initiative behavior, meaningful work, organization/ individual development

摘要: 工作重塑是组织行为学中新近出现的一个热点话题,是指员工通过自己对工作进行重新建构来形塑自己的工作认同以及工作角色,其核心目的就是员工对他们的工作进行再设计以获得较高的工作意义感、工作投入以及工作满意度等,进而快乐地工作。在系统梳理有关工作重塑的理论与实证研究文献的基础上,从工作重塑概念的解读、工作重塑的方式与方法、工作重塑的预测因素、工作重塑对个体与组织的影响以及工作重塑的培养策略等方面进行了综述,以便人们更深入地体会其丰富的理论内涵和实践价值;最后,该文指出未来工作重塑的研究应继续注重理论建构的丰富与完善、关注工作重塑的个体与群体差异性以及深化工作重塑与组织之间的关系研究。

关键词: 工作重塑, 工作设计, 主动性行为, 意义性工作, 组织/个体发展