Job crafting- tool for better work well-being and self-management in modern sales
Having the appropriate tools and strong self-management abilities are essential in today’s workplace to cope with a fast-paced atmosphere and preserve general wellbeing. By enabling people to adjust and customize their work responsibilities to better suit their requirements and values, job crafting is a self-management tool that can serve as a motivator and promote long-term work well-being.
Thanks to technological advancements, highly trained knowledge workers can now operate more freely in a workplace that defies the conventional division of work and nonwork time. ”Job crafting” refers to the self-made changes employees make to the fundamental elements of their jobs to better fit their own needs, preferences, and abilities (Handke et al., 2024; Korunka, 2021, p.41).
This study was studied in a master’s thesis, which focused on the importance of job crafting as a self-management tool for sales employees to enhance their well-being and manage their daily work more effectively. The research explored key themes related to job crafting, including time management, stress management, hybrid and remote work, professional well-being and digitalization.
Benefits of job crafting
According to the study, the possibility and ability to craft one’s own work was seen as an important motivator for both personal engagement and overall job satisfaction. Job crafting enabled employees to manage, schedule, and adapt their work in a way that better suited their personal lives, for example, through remote work.
Employees who participate in job crafting may discover ways to give their work new meaning by changing the tasks or creating possibilities for social engagement. When workers are happy in their jobs, they could become more invested and dedicated to them. Thus, they motivate workers to achieve their objectives (Tims et al., 2015; Weigl et al., 2010).
Digitalization, remote and hybrid work and work well-being
Recent years have seen millions of individuals throughout the world transition from office work to remote employment, which has raised questions about productivity, health practices, and well-being. Technology has created a workplace that challenges the traditional separation of work and nonwork time by allowing highly skilled knowledge workers to function more freely (Srivastava et al., 2024; Korunka, 2021, p.41). The subjects of digitalization, remote work and work well-being emerged in the study as:
- Importance of having the option of remote work for better balance own work and personal life, saving time of commuting and accomplish certain task quicker.
- Having ICT tools such as Teams, CRM and AI to help with daily tasks, and enable better work results.
Organizational models that recognize and take into account the critical need to balance work and personal life with those of workplace well-being could be a strategic tool for sustainable work. Recent comparative studies indicate that flexible work schedules are one of the potentially important levers to support the balance of work, family, and private life from the perspective of sustainable work. ICTs can improve job needs and job resources by improving access to information, reducing processing mistakes and time, and allowing workers to be more flexible by removing them from centralized, fixed workplaces (Addabbo et al., 2017, p. 222; Handke et al., 2024).
Self-management, stress management and time management
Study shows that all participants acknowledged that lack of resources enabled excessive tress and lack of time. This highlighted time and stress management skills as essential abilities for coping in such working conditions. In the study participants emphasized the following as significant tool for coping:
- The importance and ability to further develop effective self-management tools for one’s own work.
- The ability to prioritize, list and delegate own tasks within working hours
- Ability and importance to focus on one task at a time, due to the often high workload
- Ability to separate work and non-work time
- Ability and will to motivate in one’s own work
In an organizational context, stress is a form of felt pressure that usually entails workload, both in terms of quantity and quality. Along with increased workload and time constraints, work is becoming denser, faster, and more intense. When job demands take precedence over employees’ personal interests and life-defining factors, increased autonomy can result in extended workdays and ultimately a loss of control (Banerjee, 2022, pp.25-26; Korunka, 2021, p. 41).
The importance of crafting one’s own work is an important tool in modern work. Employees who master the modification of their own tasks are more likely to succeed in their careers. Job crafting also affects positively on employees’ work well-being and professional growth.
Thesis in Theseus: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052013785
Picture: Microsoft Word.
This work was supported in part by the Erasmus+ ”Sustainable Well-being – Education for Personal, Professional and Planetary Well-being” (SWEPPP) -project. Project No: 2023-1-PL01-KA220-HED-000156944
References:
Addabbo, T., Ales, E., & Curzi, Y. (2017). Well-being at and through work. Giappichelli.
Banerjee, R. (2022). Stress management through mind engineering. Sage publications in India pvt, Ltd.
Handke, L., De Boeck, G., & Parker, S., K. (2024). Exploring the use of ICT as a tool for job crafting. Journal of Vocational behavior, 156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2024.104081
Korunka, C. (Ed.) (2021). Flexible working practices and approaches: Psychological and social implications. Springer International publishing AG.
Tims, M., Derks, D., & Bakker, A., B. (2015). Job crafting and its relationships with person- job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study. Journal of Vocational behavior, 92, 44-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.11.007
Srivastava, C., Murnane, E. M., Billington, S. L., & Samuelson, H. W. (2024). Impact of workplace design on perceived work performance and well-being: Home versus office. Journal of Environmental psychology, 95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102274
Weigl, M., Hornung, S., Parker, S. K., Petru, R., Glaser, J., & Angerer P. (2010). Work engagement accumulation of task, social, personal resources: A three-wave structural equation model. Journal of Vocational behavior, 77(1), 140-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.03.002