Shaping the Role, Shaping the Self: Job Crafting through the Lens of Public and Private Sectors of Pakistan

Abstract

In this dynamic era of social revolution, rigidity in performing the role is tedious generating the path of the concept of Job Crafting, an individualistic approach of employees to reshape their jobs aligning to their strengths for efficient performance. This study examines job crafting activities executed and their relationship to proposed individual and organizational outcomes in the public and private sectors of Pakistan. Based on existing literature the study hypothesizes that employees who proactively craft their jobs are most likely to exhibit higher job satisfaction, job performance, organizational commitment, work engagement, and work-life balance. The model of job crafting and its outcomes is three-dimensional (task crafting, relational crafting, and cognitive crafting) with its five proposed outcomes. The data was collected through adopted questionnaires from 211 respondents (104 government employees; and 107 from the private sector). The results identified a positive relationship between job crafting and its outcomes including job satisfaction, job performance, organizational commitment, work engagement, and work-life balance. It was found that in government institutions, job satisfaction is insignificant with job crafting. Whereas in the private sector, all outcomes are significant but the relational crafting has no relationship with any of the outcomes. This study paves a pathway for organizations to understand the importance of job autonomy of employees to craft their job’s holistic view, their tasks, and their relationships to improve their performance, work engagement, stress management, the work-life balance.