Job Crafting (Management on the Cutting Edge)

A practical and timely guide that shows employees how to craft the jobs they want and managers how to shape their organizations in ways that are conducive to such job crafting.

Job Crafting is a rigorous, modern take on job redesign that empowers workers to transform the jobs they have into the ones they want. Through the process of job crafting, a worker proactively alters their job to emphasize tasks that better align with their skills or that allow opportunities to learn new skills, with the help of executives who are willing to transform their organizations into supportive work environments. Offering practical guidance grounded in empirical evidence, British researcher Benjamin Laker and coauthors Lebene Soga, Yemisi Bolade-Ogunfodun, and Adeyinka Adewale describe the steps necessary for businesses and organizations to facilitate that support.

Rather than passively receive job titles and role descriptions, job crafters harness meaning at work through three primary avenues:

• exercising greater control over tasks,
• determining the way tasks are perceived, and
• shaping social context.

Based on data from a previous study in which structured interviews were conducted with one thousand business leaders and two thousand of their workers around the world, the authors' clear, four-step framework shows managers how to maximize staff engagement and productivity by building the systems, structures, and processes that empower workers to job craft. As new principles of stewardship, authenticity, and empowerment redefine the old command-and-control leadership approach, and generations Y and Z seek autonomy and purpose at work, job crafting offers a potential silver bullet to many workforce problems. Aimed at managers, executives, scholars, and executive education students, Job Crafting rejuvenates discussions of job design, leaving readers informed and ready to discuss how to improve their performance and satisfaction in all sectors.

About the Author

Benjamin Laker is a former government adviser turned scholar who is currently serving as Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, University of Reading, and Visiting Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London.

Lebene Richmond Soga is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management Practice at Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University; a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and a multi-award-winning academic. His research interests include technology-mediated practices, entrepreneurship ecosystems and leadership. He publishes in high-ranking academic journals and has delivered his insights to government agencies as well as managers at a Fortune-200 organisation. His research is featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Forbes, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Global and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, among others.

Yemisi Bolade-Ogunfodun is an Associate Professor in Organisational Behaviour at the Global Business School for Health, University College London, as well as a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Her research interests take a cultural perspective of organisations and focus on contexts of diversity and change, exploring interactions in values and meaning systems, social aspects of work, as well as effects of cultural incongruence on the experience of work. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Organizational Research Methods, Journal of Business Research, MIT Sloan Management Review and Harvard Business Review. She also frequently contributes to published volumes with major publishing houses such as Emerald Publishing and Edward Elgar Publishing.

Adeyinka Adewale is Associate Professor of Leadership Ethics and Entrepreneurship and Director of Studies in the department of Leadership Organisations and Behaviour at the Henley Business School. He is an award-winning researcher, keynote speaker, and global leadership development consultant whose body of work continues to impact organizations, societies, and nations around the world. He is published in both academic and practitioner outlets on themes around Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Ethics. Adeyinka is a member of global think-tanks and continues to serve on the board of exciting start-ups and charities. He has a strong passion to leverage his research and knowledge for building the people that will build enterprises that will change the world for better.