An evidence-based approach to manage processes of change in organizations. The contribution of crafting research.

The goal of the symposium is to present recent evidence from research on crafting behaviors spanning different organizational and cultural contexts. Defined as an individual, self-initiated strategy to change the levels of perceived demands and resources to better align these with one’s own abilities and preferences, job crafting represents an effective strategy to improve employees’ adjustment to change, enhancing work-related wellbeing. While much research has been conducted to investigate the antecedents of job crafting, we still have a limited knowledge on the common and unique dynamics underlying crafting behaviors. Understanding the role of different situational and dispositional factors influencing individuals’ engagement in such behaviors is key if proactive changing behaviors are to be effectively stimulated and managed in organizations. Moreover, while the construct of crafting originates in the working context, there is no compelling psychological reason why it should be restricted to employees. In this symposium, we zoom into the concomitant dynamics of dispositional and situational predictors of job crafting and how they unfold as a process over time, investigate the role of job crafting on the process of newcomer socialization, test the validity of crafting behaviors during the study experience, and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at stimulating crafting behaviors in an organization setting. These studies provide evidence on both the intra- and inter- individual processes underlying job crafting, and on the role of job crafting as a process itself to be managed in order to have beneficial organization outcomes and improve quality of working life. Besides, by providing evidence from research on the role of specific training interventions enhancing job crafting and on the effectiveness of crafting behaviors in different contexts, these studies provide the link between the contribution of research to the applied needs of current organizations.