Business|01-06-2026
Career advancement through job crafting
Many career moves fail not because of talent, but because of the fit between role and person. The interesting question is therefore: Can employees shape their work in ways that give them more energy, learning opportunities, and satisfaction while reducing the risk of burnout? An empirical study from work and health psychology provides a clear, practical answer.
What is job crafting?
Job crafting refers to self-initiated changes to one’s own work. In this study, it was measured as four specific bundles of behavior:
- Increasing structural resources (for example, actively learning something new)
- Increasing social resources (for example, asking colleagues for advice)
- Increasing challenging demands (for example, starting new projects when capacity allows)
- Reducing hindering demands (for example, organizing work so that peak strain is smoothed out)
How was the study conducted?
The study was carried out at a chemical plant in the Netherlands using a three-wave design (one month between each wave). At the start (T1), demands, resources, as well as engagement, job satisfaction, and burnout were assessed. One month later (T2), researchers measured how much job crafting employees had engaged in during the previous month. Afterwards (T3), the baseline variables were measured again. Data usable across all three waves were available for 288 participants.
What did the study find?
The core results can be summarized in three sentences:
- Those who crafted resources measurably increased their structural and social resources, and this increase was associated with higher engagement and job satisfaction as well as lower burnout.
- Crafting challenging demands did not reliably increase the measured demands, but it showed direct positive effects on well-being (more engagement, less burnout).
- Crafting aimed at reducing hindering demands showed no clear link in this setting to lower demands or improved well-being.
Practical takeaway
If you want to use job crafting as a career tool, the most effective sequence is not “less stress,” but “more resources and well-matched challenges”:
- Start with resources, not problems: Choose one structural resource (autonomy, variety, learning opportunities) and one social resource (feedback, coaching, support) that you will deliberately increase over the next 14 days.
- Define two micro-experiments instead of big resolutions: Examples: “one learning slot per week” (structural) plus “one targeted request for advice” (social). These are exactly the kinds of behaviors captured by the scale items.
- Add a challenge that makes visible what you stand for: A small, clearly bounded extra task that signals competence and offers a good learning return fits the finding on “challenging demands.”
- Track impact via energy and output: Do a brief weekly check of energy (engagement), satisfaction, and exhaustion. These were the outcomes examined in the study.
- If you are a manager, steer job crafting rather than leaving it to chance: The authors infer that leadership should frame job-crafting behavior so it aligns with personal and organizational goals, and that greater autonomy can make job crafting easier.
The article appeared in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, which is listed by Scopus as a Q1 journal.
Source:
Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2013). The impact of job crafting on job demands, job resources, and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 18(2), 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032141