Job Crafting: Older Workers' Mechanism for Maintaining Person-Job Fit
Carol M Wong1, Lois E Tetrick1
1Department of Psychology, George Mason University, FairfaxVA, United States.
Frontiers in Psychology
|September 26, 2017
Summary
Older workers can use job crafting to adapt their roles as motives change with age. This proactive approach helps align job demands with abilities, fostering positive work identities and reducing misfit.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Psychology
- Gerontology
- Human Resource Management
Background:
- Aging workforce dynamics involve changing employee motives, abilities, and values.
- Individual aging trajectories show significant variability, impacting career paths.
- Evolving work environments can lead to person-job misfit for older workers, affecting work identities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore job crafting as a mechanism for older workers to manage person-job fit.
- To investigate how job crafting, especially cognitive crafting, aids older employees in aligning their jobs with personal needs.
- To examine the role of job crafting in maintaining positive work identities among aging workers.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical exploration based on Life Span Theory of Control.
- Analysis of individual agency in job redesign through task, social, and cognitive job crafting.
- Focus on cognitive reframing of job roles and emphasis on personally meaningful aspects.
Main Results:
- Job crafting allows employees to proactively adjust their work.
- Cognitive job crafting is particularly beneficial for older workers.
- It helps optimize resources and maintain a congruent, positive self-perception at work.
Conclusions:
- Job crafting empowers older workers to navigate career transitions and changing demands.
- Cognitive crafting enables older employees to align job features with their values, enhancing fit and identity.
- Proactive job redesign through crafting supports sustained engagement and well-being in the aging workforce.
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