Crafting a Better Job Considers for a moment a midlevel manager at a multi-national 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. Ideally, she’d like 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 toward job “crafting, “which is the process of deliberately reorganizing your job so that it better fits your motives, strengths, and passions. The core of job crafting is creating diagrams of day-to-day activities with a coach. Then you and the coach collaboratively identify which tasks fit with your personal passions, and which tend to drain motivation and satisfaction. Next the client and coach work together to imagine ways to emphasize preferred activities and de-emphasize those that are less interesting. Many people engaged in job crafting find that upon deeper consideration, they have more control over their work than they thought. 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 toward 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 likely to seek workable solutions when they are not satisfied. Research leads us to believe Fatima will be successful in her customized job and that she will experience increased well-being. to the extent possible. then, all employees should feel encouraged to the proactive in creating their best solutions.

Questions:

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

2. Are the principles of job crafting describes 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?