The example in question of Relax Line, Inc., in which a luxury cruise line requires a bottom-up approach to job crafting, demonstrates the differences between job designs for varied staff. The staff of the discussed company includes the ship crew and hospitality department. Both divisions can use the methods of job crafting, and yet the requirements for them are diverse. The possible job crafting types for these workers are task crafting, relational crafting, and cognitive crafting. First of all, “task crafting refers to the process of altering those responsibilities to better align them with the unique features of one’s work personality” (Dik & Duffy, 2012, p. 135).
In turn, relational crafting implies the creation of interpersonal connections between the staff members. Finally, “cognitive crafting involves redefining one’s perception of the kinds of tasks or relationships involved in one’s job, or of the extent to which one’s job is meaningful (Dik & Duffy, 2012, p. 140). In brief, the three components of job crafting involve the change in the composition of the duties, communication with others, and the perception of the responsibility.
Not all of the job crafting types are applicable for the varied staff of the company. For example, task crafting cannot be realized for people who participate in guaranteeing the safety of the cruise since neglect or less attention paid to specific tasks can lead to catastrophe. In contrast, relational crafting would help the technicians to receive more human interactions, which they might lack due to the nature of their work. For the hospitality department, communication is abundant already, yet the work itself may seem senseless. To change this, they should use cognitive crafting so that to comprehend the importance of their service. In addition, job crafting would help distribute the workers’ talents and give them enjoyable tasks. Thus, both groups can use the bottom-up approach but apply it in different dimensions.
Moreover, the “job-crafting swap meets” approach is suitable for enhancing its employees’ wellbeing. Precisely, the method supposes that some tasks of one worker could be done by another worker if the last can perform it appropriately. The purpose for this is that employees can devote more left time to the tasks they enjoy (Wrzesniewski, 2014).
In the company’s case, the approach is applicable for the hospitality department only since tasks for technicians may require a thorough understanding of the specialized matters. In addition, development plans are helpful for both types of staff and can benefit both the company and employees (Wrzesniewski, 2014). Hence, the unique methods of job-crafting are suitable for use by Relax Line.
The second question concerns the ABC Corporation telemarketers perform well but quit the job often. The company has correctly recognized that they need to redesign the job to make it more comfortable for the workers. The strategy of job enrichment, in this case, should primarily concern such components as skill variety and task significance. According to Bauer and Erdogan (2012), skill variety means the diversity of tasks available for a worker.
In turn, task significance serves as an indicator of the social meaning of the job. The telemarketers in the example do not have other tasks than calling the customers; they might be bored by a continuous flow of mundane work. The enrichment of skills needed for work would intersperse the practice of the employees. In addition, it would motivate the workers if they could recognize the importance of their work for the customers. Thus, job enrichment would consist of improving the skill variety dimension and highlighting the task significance for the workers.
However, other job dimensions seem to be beneficial for the employees and do not need much change. Such elements include task identity, autonomy, and feedback. As explained in Griffin (2007), task identity implies the level of precise definition of a task piece. As such, telemarketers have an identifiable indicator of task: a call; so that no one is misguided. Next, autonomy presupposes the possibility of free choice for performing the task (Griffin, 2007).
The workers of the company certainly can use their own techniques for completing the most influential work. Finally, clear feedback should be available for a worker to know the results of their efforts (Griffin, 2007). Evidently, workers of the ABC Corporation receive their share for the successful completion of the task, namely, the sales caused by their work. Accordingly, task identity, autonomy, and feedback dimensions are currently up to the employees’ needs.
The third question is about the clinic for athletes where the practitioners slowly become bored of their work. Since their skills are highly specialized, not a wide variety of methods is available for solving the problem. The most appropriate strategy would be job crafting. Specifically, relational crafting advises more communication between the workers (Dik & Duffy, 2012). The practitioners would remain completing their task but could have a chance to discuss the difficulties or peculiarities of their jobs with other similar people. Thus, the rate of interest and satisfaction with the job would rise.
Job Redesign
Job Crafting
The discussed strategies, both job crafting and job redesign, have several similarities between some of their types. As such, one of the components of job enrichment, task significance, resembles cognitive crafting. Both approaches address the issue of the usefulness of the work.
Moreover, the variability of tasks is conceptually similar to that of task crafting. Namely, these techniques concern the composition of jobs, the inclusion of predominantly specific duties over others. Furthermore, job rotation is exactly the same as job-crafting swap meets strategy. Therefore, the main similarities of these methods for enhancing working conditions are changing attitudes towards the job and bringing a diversity of tasks.
Yet, the strategies are different in matters that are relatively apparent. In general, the job redesign methods handle boredom issues in changing the content of the tasks or the perceptions of them. In contrast, job crafting techniques include interaction with other people for impacting the mental state of the employees. Additionally, in job crafting, to change the workers’ dissatisfaction, it is proposed to rearrange their tasks so that everyone can individually choose the most enjoyable tasks. In turn, job redesign concentrates on changing the doers of the tasks or the enlarging of the responsibilities. Hence, the main difference between the approaches is the treating of the worker in a company and available options for them.
References
Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2012). Motivating employees through job design. Flatworld Knowledge. Web.
Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2012). Make your job a calling: How the psychology of vocation can change your life at work. Templeton Press.
Griffin, R. (2007). Principles of management. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Wrzesniewski, A. (2014). Chapter 6: Engage in job crafting. In J. E. Dutton & G. M. Spreitzer (Eds.), How to be a positive leader: Small actions, big impact (1st ed., pp. 65–75). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.