Job crafting paving the way towards workplace innovation. Testing the effect of a workplace intervention based on job crafting.

Purpose. Workplace innovation focuses on ensuing that developed and implemented practices improve the quality of working life and organizational performance. Building on the definition of job crafting as a bottom-up job redesign approach starting with the initiative of the employee, we argued and tested the assumption that job crafting interventions constitute a practical application of workplace innovation, in that they collocate at the interception between organizational processes that either structurally or culturally enable employees to participate in organizational change and renewal, which represent the core aspects of workplace innovation. Design/Methodology. To test this assumption, we verified the impact of a job crafting intervention based on the dimensions of workplace innovation, on social workers’ work engagement and subjective work performance. Results. Job crafting behaviors measured before the intervention were positively associated with post measures of work engagement and individual contextual performance. Participation in the intervention was associated with increase in work engagement. Research/Practical Implications. These results imply that workplace innovation can be promoted by supporting employees’ ownership of their work engagement and performance through job crafting interventions.