Gender And Job Crafting: Understanding The Role Of Gendered Behaviours In The Abilities And Motivations To Proactively Craft Work

Job crafting, the proactive redesign of individual work, is an important managerial tool enabling increased engagement, wellbeing and individual performance. Despite increased academic understanding of antecedents and results, the important role of gender is yet to be integrated. Employing mixed method research, this paper aims to contribute to job crafting literature to recognise gender as an important force within an individuals ability and motivations to proactively craft their job. Through quantitative methods, it was observed that gendered behaviours can predict job crafting at a significant level. When further explored through qualitative enquiry, it was found that motivations to craft work and the role of an individuals social network within those behaviours differed based upon gender. Thus, important managerial considerations must be made regarding engagement, enforced gender stereotypes and social networks within organisations.