Evaluating the Effects of a Job Crafting Intervention on Employee Work-Life Balance

Abstract

In 2019, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology identified work-life balance interventions as one of the top 10 workplace trends (SIOP Administrative Office, 2019). No known research has been conducted using job crafting as an intervention to improve work-life balance. As a result, the current project seeks to contribute to scientific literature in producing additional findings about how job crafting may benefit employee work-life balance. The importance of supportive supervisory behaviors was also analyzed as it has been shown to encourage employee utilization of job crafting (e.g., Kim & Beehr, 2018; Wang et al., 2016) and improve perceptions of work-life balance (e.g., Hammer et al., 2009; McMullan et al., 2018). A quasi-experimental design was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the Crafting Work-Life Balance intervention on improving work-life balance among healthcare professionals. The intervention included general education about work-life balance, job crafting, goal-setting to identify specific job crafting actions, and accountability. Perceptions of work-life balance were hypothesized to improve with increased levels of job crafting following the intervention. Supportive leader behaviors of work-life balance were also expected to have a positive relationship with job crafting efforts to improve of work-life balance. Findings from the present study did not support the expected relationship between job crafting and work-life balance. However, these findings support the need for further research on the causal relationship between job crafting interventions and work-life balance. Until then, practitioners should be cautious when using job crafting to directly improve work-life balance.