Short answer

Designers and managers should recognize that employees are not passive recipients of change. Proactive support for job crafting, aligned with individual employee mindsets and communication quality, can significantly improve adaptation and engagement during organizational transitions.

Field: Innovation & Design
Source: Journal of Management (2016)
Method: Quantitative, longitudinal study
Sample: 368 participants
Evidence: Moderate effect

Employees can proactively shape their roles through job crafting behaviors to better adapt to organizational changes, influenced by their individual focus on promotion or prevention. This innovation & design research insight is drawn from a 2016 study published in Journal of Management. Using Quantitative, longitudinal study with 368 participants, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: Designers and managers should recognize that employees are not passive recipients of change. Proactive support for job crafting, aligned with individual employee mindsets and communication quality, can significantly improve adaptation and engagement during organizational transitions.

Study

Innovation & DesignHigh ImpactModerate effect

Employee Proactivity in Organizational Change: Job Crafting as a Strategic Response

Employees can proactively shape their roles through job crafting behaviors to better adapt to organizational changes, influenced by their individual focus on promotion or prevention.

Journal of Management · 2016

Key Findings

01Adequate change communication encourages job crafting in promotion-focused employees.
02Inadequate change communication encourages job crafting in prevention-focused employees.
03Seeking job resources positively impacts work engagement.
04Seeking job challenges positively impacts adaptivity.
05Reducing job demands negatively impacts work engagement.

Application

Design takeaway

How to apply

When implementing organizational change, develop communication plans that acknowledge different employee needs and provide opportunities for employees to seek out beneficial resources and challenges within their roles.

Project actions

01Consider how users might proactively adapt to a new product or system.
02Explore how different communication styles affect user adoption.
03Investigate how users seek out resources or manage demands related to a product.

Method & Evidence

AimTo investigate how employee job crafting behaviors (seeking resources, seeking challenges, reducing demands) mediate the relationship between organizational change communication and employee adjustment (work engagement, adaptivity), considering individual regulatory focus.

MethodQuantitative, longitudinal study

ProcedureA three-wave longitudinal survey was administered to collect data on change communication, regulatory focus, job crafting behaviors, work engagement, and adaptivity. Data were analyzed using a latent change score analytical approach.

Sample368 participants

ContextOrganizational change management, specifically within a police officer context.

Variables

IV["Quality of organizational change communication","Employee regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention)"]

DV["Employee job crafting behaviors (seeking resources, seeking challenges, reducing demands)","Work engagement","Adaptivity"]

CV["Participant role (police officers)","Time points of data collection"]

Strengths & Limitations

Strengths

+Longitudinal design allows for examination of change over time.
+Use of a robust analytical approach (latent change score).

Limitations

The context of police officers might be very specific. Self-reported data can be biased. The study focuses on adjustment, not necessarily the success of the change itself.

Reliability & validity

The longitudinal design and latent change score analysis contribute to the study's validity by capturing change over time and accounting for measurement error. Reliability would depend on the psychometric properties of the scales used.

Think critically

How might a designer proactively design a system that encourages beneficial job crafting behaviors from its users, rather than simply reacting to user needs?

Design Principles

"Empower employees to actively shape their work environment during change by providing resources and communication that align with their individual motivational drivers."

Understanding how employees self-manage their work in response to change allows organizations to design more effective change communication strategies and support systems. This insight is crucial for fostering adaptability and engagement during periods of transition.

What This Means for Your Design

When companies change, employees can make their jobs better by actively looking for helpful things (resources), taking on new tasks (challenges), or getting rid of difficult ones (demands). How well they do this depends on how the company communicates the change and whether the employee is more focused on achieving goals or avoiding problems.

How to use in your project

1.Use this research to justify designing for user proactivity and adaptive behaviors.
2.Cite this study when discussing how user communication impacts adoption and engagement.

Add to My Project

Quick Cite

Paragraph starter

This study highlights the importance of employee proactivity in organizational change, demonstrating that job crafting behaviors are key to successful adjustment. By actively seeking job resources and challenges, employees can enhance their work engagement and adaptivity. This suggests that design projects should consider empowering users to proactively shape their interaction with a product or system, and that communication strategies should be tailored to individual user needs and motivational drivers to foster adoption and engagement.

Source

Journal of Management

Crafting the Change: The Role of Employee Job Crafting Behaviors for Successful Organizational Change

journal · 2016

View source

Questions About This Research

What does the research say about employee proactivity in organizational change: job crafting as a strategic response?: Designers and managers should recognize that employees are not passive recipients of change. Proactive support for job crafting, aligned with individual employee mindsets and communication quality, can significantly improve adaptation and engagement during organizational transitions. Evidence: Journal of Management (2016).
Why does "Employee Proactivity in Organizational Change: Job Crafting as a Strategic Response" matter for design?: Understanding how employees self-manage their work in response to change allows organizations to design more effective change communication strategies and support systems. This insight is crucial for fostering adaptability and engagement during periods of transition.
How can designers apply this research?: Designers and managers should recognize that employees are not passive recipients of change. Proactive support for job crafting, aligned with individual employee mindsets and communication quality, can significantly improve adaptation and engagement during organizational transitions.
What were the main findings?: Adequate change communication encourages job crafting in promotion-focused employees.. Inadequate change communication encourages job crafting in prevention-focused employees.. Seeking job resources positively impacts work engagement.. Seeking job challenges positively impacts adaptivity.
What research method was used?: Quantitative, longitudinal study with 368 participants.
How strong is the evidence?: Evidence strength is rated Moderate effect, based on a 2016 journal from Journal of Management.
What should I do differently in my next project?: When implementing organizational change, develop communication plans that acknowledge different employee needs and provide opportunities for employees to seek out beneficial resources and challenges within their roles.
What are the limitations?: Findings are specific to the context of police officers and may not generalize to all industries. The study relies on self-report measures.