Description

Although job crafting is currently a much-discussed topic in the fields of psychology and workplace health, there are very few digital crafting resources in the German-speaking world. This project aims to promote job crafting in the workforce via an experimental web application – the “crafting playbook” – thereby enabling employees to access job crafting in a way that has not yet been tested. Using the tool, digital crafting plays are developed and implemented in the playbook, i.e. short activities that foster meaning and balance at work through creative, fun and experimental impulses. The playbook is created via the interdisciplinary “crafting circle”, an open-source community that develops plays.

Starting point

The world of work is undergoing major transitions and it is important to experiment with new employment forms. However, this exploration and experimentation is not merely the responsibility of employers and organisations. Every individual employee must ask how their work and professional activities could be designed. Guidance is offered by the approach known as “job crafting”, which encourages employees to reflect on their own strengths, activities and relationships at work. It forms the basis for strengthening professional resources, including aspects such as seeking support or discussing possibilities for having a say in decision-making and their professional further development. If there is a healthy balance between resources and pressure at work, employees experience benefits in terms of well-being and productivity (Jenny et al., 2020). In addition, when employees develop their competencies, feel they are effective and part of the team, and when they strengthen their own identity, their sense of purpose and satisfaction increases (Rosso et al. 2010).

Project aims

This project promotes job crafting in employees via an experimental web application, the “crafting playbook”. With the tool, digital “crafting plays” can be developed and implemented on an ongoing basis. To write the plays, users can draw on innovative digital technologies such as chatbots or algorithm-based text analyses. Data on use and impact of a play can be collected in an automated process in order to continually improve the product. The playbook ensures that employees have broad access to job crafting, independent of paid coaching services. The playbook is created via the interdisciplinary “crafting circle”, an open-source community that develops plays. The products created are both practical and, in a positive sense, very unconventional and motivating.

Theoretical background

The concept of job crafting was introduced in 2001 with the article “Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work” (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001) that underscores the value of proactive and goal-oriented behaviours on the part of employees in redesigning their jobs. In 2012, Tims et al. linked the concept to the job demands-resources model: by job crafting, employees increase their professional resources (e.g. asking for feedback, seeking new challenges) and reduce work-related stress. These practices can also serve to optimise the fit between an individual and their (work) environment (Tims et al., 2016). The concept has later been expanded to include needs-based approaches demonstrating that the motivation for job crafting arises when there is a discrepancy between psychological needs and how well these needs are being met (de Bloom et al., 2020, Bindl et al., 2019).

Project outcomes

The “Crafting Playbook” is an app that uses short “Plays” to encourage users to reflect on and act on their work and relationships at work (i.e., to “craft” them). With a swipe, you can scroll through the individual Plays to access information, videos, questions, and input fields for crafting. 

The project partners developed a series of plays on how to deal with stress, on resources and pressures at work, on bringing personal strengths and values to work, and on mutual understanding in the team and giving appreciation. 

When they start the app, users encounter a stimulating interface, entertaining messages and reminders of plays. Approaches from visual communication and game design were used here. A blooming flower, for example, shows how often you have played which type of play. Three “superpowers” were assigned to the plays – clarity, insight and confidence, which you gain by playing. Emotions that you might feel about crafting, such as doubt, insecurity, overload or resignation, are also addressed. 

The Playbook is an open project: in addition to the app, a development package is freely available for designing plays. For example, individuals from universities and practitioners can work with a company to develop a series of plays that are made available to the workforce. Teachers can use plays to provide short knowledge impulses or to encourage students to convey a topic in the form of a play. Researchers can create mini-interventions in which the target group plays a series of plays on a topic such as “using strengths”.

After the project ended, the playbook was based at the BGM-Forum Zurich, which is supported by SUVA, among others, and both of which were involved in the project. The project partners regularly exchange ideas in the “Crafting Circle” on the further development, dissemination and financing of the playbook.

• Project page with video
• Web application

Contact

Dr. Heike Beuschlein:

Head of Centre

Click for more details.

Dr. Heike Beuschlein

Head of Centre

+41 43 305 51 77

heike.beuschlein@phzh.ch