Individual job redesign: Job crafting interventions in healthcare

In two quasi-experimental studies – Study 1 among medical specialists (N=119) and Study 2 among nurses (N=58) – we tested the impact of a general and a specific job crafting intervention on health care professionals' well-being and (objective and subjective) job performance. Both groups of participants received training and then set personal job crafting goals for a period of three weeks. The results of a series of repeated measures analyses showed that both interventions were successful. Participation in the job crafting intervention groups were associated with increases in job crafting behaviors, well-being (i.e., work engagement, health, and reduced exhaustion), and job performance (i.e., adaptive, task, and contextual performance) for the medical specialists and nurses relative to the control groups. Though we did not find a significant intervention effect for objective performance, we conclude that job crafting is a promising job redesign intervention strategy that individual employees can use to improve their well-being and job performance. •Organizations can train employees in job crafting to increase work meaning and significance.•Job crafting is a cost-effective way to improve employees' functioning at work.•Job crafting is a valuable alternative to traditional top-down job redesign strategies.•Two job crafting interventions among health care professionals are evaluated.•We show that these interventions positively enhance employee well-being and performance.