Contextualized job crafting model: a quantitative study in the context of Pakistan

One of the most widely studied topic in the educational research is teacher's wellbeing and rightly so, as resilient and well-supported teacher serves as an essential pillar for creating an effective and durable educational system. Researchers have long been engaged in critically reflecting on which dimensions must be encompassed within the conceptual framework of 'wellbeing'. A great body of research has been done to study several aspects of wellbeing yet no simple combination of such factors has been identified which can readily constitute the most important factors, which shows that it is still a highly subjective area.

In this research, which is a quantitative in nature, the influence of job crafting has been observed impacting on three dimensions of wellbeing; job satisfaction, work life balance and burnout, whereas work environment has been observed as the mediator. This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional research design. Data were collected through an adapted self-administered questionnaire from200 private high school teachers teaching international syllabi in schools across Karachi. Participants were selected through stratified sampling, while the schools were approached cluster-wise from the five major divisions of the city. All participating teachers had more than 10 years of teaching experience. The questionnaires were sent to them through emails after seeking permission from their respective school heads. The results have been analyzed through SPSS and AMOS.

Study results indicate that job crafting significantly improves teachers' work environment and job satisfaction while reducing burnout. Surprisingly, job crafting and a positive work environment were both found to have a significant negative impact on work-life balance, identifying a critical area for further research. Mediation analysis revealed that while the work environment does not significantly mediate job crafting's effect on burnout or work-life balance, it serves as a significant mediator for job satisfaction.

The study suggests that a supportive work environment strengthens the positive impact of job crafting on teachers' job satisfaction.