Weekly job crafting and leisure crafting: Implications for meaning-making and work engagement

The present paper addresses two crafting strategies employees may display in different life domains in order to attain desired outcomes. On the one hand, job crafting is targeted at increasing social and structural job resources and challenging job demands. On the other hand, leisure crafting is the proactive pursuit of leisure activities targeted at goal setting, human connection, learning, and personal development. We hypothesized that job crafting relates positively to employee work engagement and meaning-making, especially when occupational role salience is high. Furthermore, we hypothesized that leisure crafting relates positively to meaning-making, especially when job crafting opportunities are low. Using a sample of 105 Dutch employees and a weekly survey with three measurements, we found support for most of our hypotheses. All job crafting dimensions related positively to work engagement when occupational role salience was high. Also, increasing structural resources related positively to meaning-making when occupational role salience was high. Leisure crafting related positively to meaning-making when job crafting opportunities were low. We discuss directions for future research on work and leisure, and suggest how employees and organizations may benefit by encouraging job and leisure crafting. Practitioner points: Employees can proactively build their own work engagement using job crafting, especially when they view their work as a source of personal satisfaction and development. In workplaces where opportunities to craft are low, employees could focus on their leisure time as a source of meaning and self-reflection. Managers can empower and coach employees to proactively seek growth and self-fulfilment both at work and outside work, via job crafting and leisure crafting. Organizations and managers should encourage employees to flourish not only at work but also during leisure time, communicating that work and leisure are two life domains that can help and complement each other.

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