From job crafting to home crafting: A daily diary study among six European countries

Abstract

The actions that individuals take to proactively craft their jobs are important to help create more meaningful and personally enriching work experiences. But do these proactive behaviors have implications beyond working life? Inspired by the suggestion that individuals aim for a meaningful life we examine whether on days when individuals craft their jobs, they are more likely to craft non-work activities. It also seems likely that characteristics of the home environment moderate these cross-domain relationships. We suggest that crafting crosses domains particularly when individuals gain resources through high autonomy and high workload at home. We partly supported our model through a daily diary study, in which 139 service sector employees from six European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, UK) reported their experiences twice a day for five consecutive workdays. Home autonomy and home workload strengthened the positive relationship between seeking resources at work and at home. Moreover, home autonomy strengthened the positive association between seeking challenges at work and at home, and the negative relation between reducing demands at work and at home. These findings suggest that the beneficial implications of job crafting transcend life boundaries thereby providing advice for how individuals can experience greater meaning in their lives.