An exploratory study examining the impact of job crafting and the factors which influence crafting leading to the benefits or/and drawbacks to the individual and organisation

The nature of most work as changed in a way that puts the employee at the centre of job design rather than on the fringes (Petrou et al., 2015). The new power position within the job design process is referred to a job crafting in the literature. Crafting allows the proactive employee reshape task, relationship and cognitive boundaries of their job to best fit their preferences (Demerouti., 2014). In an ever-changing economic landscape organisations look for ways to add competitive advantage to their brand, job crafting could provide that advantage (Van Wingerden et al., 2017). Crafting allows the crafter to anticipate and in some cases cause change (Grant and Parker., 2009). The organisation will rely on their people’s talent to drive the business, crafting will allow innovative employees flourish (Grant and Ashford., 2008). Much of the theory suggest crafting in done on an individual level without organisational approval (Wrzesniewski and Dutton., 2001). The JD-R model is used by most scholars when discussing job crafting. The model describes job characteristics, which are divided up into job demands and job resources (Petrou et al., 2015). Hindering and challenging demands are also discussed within the model (Tims et al., 2013). All having different affects on the individual dependent on the mix applied at any given time. Qualitative research was chosen for the primary research carried out by the author. This approach is particularly suited to this topic as it allows patterns to emerge not attempting to have the binary view of dependent and independent variables (Patton, 2015)