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On Job Crafting

4/30/2018

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If you have a formal job description, how closely does it match what you actually do? How much flexibility do you have to alter how you do your job, or what you do? How closely do your co-workers follow job descriptions? 
 
Studying people who cleaned hospital rooms, Amy Wrzesniewski (Yale) and Jane Dutton (Michigan) found two groups: one did things by the book, the other added tasks or made other adjustments to their jobs that made their jobs as hospital cleaners more meaningful. Wrzesniewski & Dutton (2001) coined the term “job crafting”—“the process of employees redefining and reimagining their job designs in personally meaningful ways.” For nearly two decades they have led research on job crafting. 
 
So how do people alter their jobs? Here is a summary in a nutshell:.
  • Changing tasks: adding tasks, emphasizing some tasks over others, changing how a task is done.
  • Changing relationships: building new relationships, reframing an existing relationship, recrafting a relationship by helping or supporting another.
  • Changing perceptions: expanding perceptions (broaden view of the job); focusing perception on most meaningful aspects of the job, linking or associating separate activities with each other to make more meaningful. 
The work of Wrzesniewski and associates suggests people who job craft have more meaning in their work and have higher job satisfaction. Given the intuitive appeal of job crafting and the need in organizations to improve employee engagement, job crafting should be of increasing interest. A Google trend search using “job crafting” is shown below. This graph shows an upward trend for searches for job crafting worldwide.

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On the other hand, doing a Google search for “job crafting” just in the United States does not show an increase. As seen in the graph below, interest in job crafting as indicated by Google searches has remained fairly consistent in the U.S. ​​​

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My take-aways:
 
1. Early in my professional career I did work analyses across multiple locations. I learned quickly that there were significant differences between tasks and responsibilities in job descriptions and what people actually did. As Wrzesniewski and Dutton found, some people adjusted to their positions by emphasizing certain aspects over others. Intentionally or not, they made their jobs more interesting. Many times they were not aware of how they had changed their jobs.
 
2. My guess is that individual differences play a large role here. Some people are going to find ways to make their jobs more meaningful. Others are just going to do what they are assigned to do, the way they were trained to do it. We craft our jobs by the choices we make, and the choices we are allowed to make.

3. Leadership can play a role. While many employees will shape their jobs to add meaning, others will not unless it is made clear by managers that they do have some flexibility. Also, people doing the same job may do the job differently. Meetings where this information is shared may improve performance for others – or avert potential problems. Job crafting would also benefit by beneficiary contact. 
 
4. I have no ideas why the Google search results for worldwide and for the U.S. vary. I expected to see a positive trend for both. Job crafting can be done in many different ways. That flexibility and the individual nature of reshaping one’s job would suggest job crafting should be a topic in which leaders are well versed.
 
Berg, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2013). Job crafting and meaningful work. In B. J. Dik, Z. S. Byrne, & M. F. Steiger (Eds.), Purpose and meaning in the workplace (pp. 81-104. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
 
Wrzesniewski, A., Berg, J. M., & Dutton, J. E. (2010). Managing yourself: Turn the job you have into the job you want. Harvard Business Review, 88(6), 114-117.
 
Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179-201.

Image of trends for these leadership approaches made using Google Trends™ tool. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission. 
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=job%20crafting
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=job%20crafting
 
"Unsung Hero" by Margo Wright. USAF photo. Obtained from http://www.tinker.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000458057/
Public domain. https://guides.library.upenn.edu/c.php?g=475958&p=3255326
​
© John Ballard, PhD, 2018. All rights reserved.
 
Author of Decoding the Workplace, BEST CAREER BOOK Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2016.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless – how to relate to others in the workplace, the psychology of groups and teams, the use (and abuse) of power and influence, and how to manage stress. Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, in-press.
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On Managers and Coachable Moments

4/24/2018

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How is the manager as coach viewed in your organization? Does your organization have a training program to help managers develop or improve their coaching skills? If so, how effective is it? Is coaching done formally or informally?  The consultant and practitioner literature is replete with ideas to enhance the manager as coach. One idea that management scholars have rarely studied is "coachable moments."
 
In 2015 Christina Turner (Queensland University of Technology) and Grace McCarthy (University of Wollongong) published a study examining “coachable moments.” They defined a coachable moment as “an informal, usually unplanned or unexpected opportunity for a manager to have a conversation with an employee aimed at facilitating the employee to problem solve or learn from a work experience” (p. 5). They wanted to determine what factors determined whether or not managers took advantage of coaching moments in the daily business of the workplace. To that end, they interviewed ten managers in depth. This is a small sample but it is twice as large as Mintzberg’s study of CEOs that gave us interpersonal, informational, and decisional managerial roles. 
 
Their review of previous research found:
  • most managers do not coach much
  • managers often don’t have the skills to be effective coaching employees
  • some managers see coaching as micro-managing
  • some managers prefer traditional controlling and directing
  • benefits of coaching: “learning, self-awareness, cost savings, and enhanced commitment” (p.2)
  • characteristics of coachable moments: impromptu, short, timely, spontaneous, quick, focused
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From their interviews Turner and McCarthy identified six themes (In italics are comments from managers):
  1. Coach’s awareness: Managers have to size up a situation as a coaching opportunity and then assess the risk. Decisions to coach are “conscious and deliberate”. “It’s triage – critical decision-making about whether to coach.”
  2. Type of employee:  Managers don’t see all employees as being coachable. “Some employees just don’t want to be coached – they just want direction.”
  3. Relationship: To be effective, there has to be a relationship of “mutual trust and respect.” “If there’s no rapport, it won’t work.”
  4. The situation presenting: Just not enough time. Too busy. Benefits not offset by time lost.
  5. Physical environment or location: Most coachable moments were informal, not in the workplace per se, e.g., having coffee, sharing ride. “The office reminds you of status.”
  6. Coach’s skills: Managers varied in how competent they felt coaching. “There are some issues and people I just don’t feel competent enough to tackle by coaching.”
 
Coachable moments involve managers assessing risk: 
  • risk that the employee will react negatively
  • risk that the employee will not like feedback
  • risk that coaching will lead to conflict
  • risk that the relationship will be damaged
 
My take-aways:
 
1.  In my managerial positions, I found coachable moments contributed greatly to building my work force. The conversations were usually in the workplace, private and off-the-cuff. They complemented formal workplace training programs. I saw large individual differences, from the employee who just wanted all the coaching I could provide to the employee who wanted none. 
 
2. I think some managers are capable of little more than an occasional coaching moment, at best. It’s just not their personalities. This does not mean that cannot be effective managers and leaders. This is just not a skill in their tool kit and they probably wouldn't use it if it were. On the other hand, some of us could benefit by training, especially training that includes practice in effective coaching. 
 
3. Turner and McCarthy’s study identified risk assessment as a major factor affecting the use of coachable moments. In many situations the manager’s assessment of risks is probably a key factor – along with just not enough time. Identifying the importance of managerial risk assessment in coachable moments is a major contribution of this study. 
 
4. We need more qualitative studies like Turner and McCarthy’s. There is a richness of ideas in good depth interviews. These ideas can enrich qualitative and quantitative studies that further our understanding of coachable moments -- and how to use coachable moments in the workplace.
 
Previous blogs on coaching:
A Leader and Managerial Skill: The Importance of Coaching
The Manager as Coach
Manager as Coach: Aptitude, Trust, Time

Mintzberg, H. (1975). The manager’s job: Folklore and fact. Harvard Business Review, March-April, 49-61.

Turner, C., & McCarthy, G. (2015). Coachable moments: Identifying factors that influence managers to take advantage of coachable moments in day-to-day management. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 13(1): 1-13. 
 
Untitled image. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/en/discussion-restaurant-business-2822066/
Public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
​
© John Ballard, PhD, 2018. All rights reserved.
 
Author of Decoding the Workplace, BEST CAREER BOOK Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2016.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless – how to relate to others in the workplace, the psychology of groups and teams, the use (and abuse) of power and influence, and how to manage stress. Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, in-press.

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