TY - JOUR
T1 - Providing Services During Times of Change
T2 - Can Employees Maintain Their Levels of Empowerment, Work Engagement and Service Quality Through a Job Crafting Intervention?
AU - Hulshof, Inge L
AU - Demerouti, Evangelia
AU - Le Blanc, Pascale M
N1 - Copyright © 2020 Hulshof, Demerouti and Le Blanc.
PY - 2020/1/28
Y1 - 2020/1/28
N2 - By means of a quasi-experimental study, the effects of a tailor-made job crafting intervention for employees of a Dutch unemployment agency were evaluated. The intervention was designed to prevent a decrease in employee empowerment, work engagement and employee performance (i.e., the provision of services) due to organizational changes. Seventy-four employees received a 1-day training in which they set four job crafting goals for the subsequent weeks. After 6 weeks a reflection session was organized. Repeated measures ANOVA's showed that the intervention prevented a decrease in employees' feelings of empowerment. Furthermore, pre-post comparison tests showed that the control group (N = 89) experienced a significant decrease in work engagement, whereas the intervention group did not. Results showed no effect on customer-rated employee service quality. However, 1 year after the intervention, customer ratings of employee service quality were significantly higher for the intervention group compared to the control group. Although further research is needed, our results demonstrate that a job crafting intervention may be a promising tool to combat a decline in employee empowerment and work engagement during times of organizational change.
AB - By means of a quasi-experimental study, the effects of a tailor-made job crafting intervention for employees of a Dutch unemployment agency were evaluated. The intervention was designed to prevent a decrease in employee empowerment, work engagement and employee performance (i.e., the provision of services) due to organizational changes. Seventy-four employees received a 1-day training in which they set four job crafting goals for the subsequent weeks. After 6 weeks a reflection session was organized. Repeated measures ANOVA's showed that the intervention prevented a decrease in employees' feelings of empowerment. Furthermore, pre-post comparison tests showed that the control group (N = 89) experienced a significant decrease in work engagement, whereas the intervention group did not. Results showed no effect on customer-rated employee service quality. However, 1 year after the intervention, customer ratings of employee service quality were significantly higher for the intervention group compared to the control group. Although further research is needed, our results demonstrate that a job crafting intervention may be a promising tool to combat a decline in employee empowerment and work engagement during times of organizational change.
KW - customer ratings
KW - empowerment
KW - job crafting intervention
KW - organizational change
KW - service quality
KW - work engagement
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00087
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00087
M3 - Article
C2 - 32047468
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
SN - 1664-1078
M1 - 87
ER -