Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Feb 10:11:6.
doi: 10.1186/s13030-017-0091-y. eCollection 2017.

Job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress among Japanese employees: a cross-sectional study

Asuka Sakuraya  1 , Akihito Shimazu  1 , Hisashi Eguchi  1 , Kimika Kamiyama  2 , Yujiro Hara  1 , Katsuyuki Namba  1 , Norito Kawakami  1
Affiliations

Job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress among Japanese employees: a cross-sectional study

Asuka Sakuraya et al. Biopsychosoc Med. .

Abstract

Background: Job crafting, an employee-initiated job design/redesign, has become important for employees' well-being. However, most studies on the relationship between job crafting and employees' well-being have been conducted in western countries; thus, it is unclear whether job crafting can be effectively applied to Asian cultures, such as Japan, which emphasizes group harmony. The aim of this study was to examine the cross-sectional associations of self-reported job crafting with work engagement and psychological distress among employees in Japan.

Method: A questionnaire survey through the internet was conducted among all employees of a manufacturing company in Japan. We analyzed the data from 894 respondents, all employees with regular employment. Job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress were assessed using the Japanese version of the Job Crafting Questionnaire, the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), and the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ), respectively.

Result: Hierarchical multiple regression showed that increasing structural job resources, social job resources, and challenging job demands was significantly and positively associated with work engagement (β = 0.31, p < 0.001; β = 0.14, p < 0.001; β = 0.36, p < 0.001, respectively). For psychological distress, increasing structural job resources was significantly and negatively associated with psychological distress (β = -0.15, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our study suggests that increasing structural job resources is associated with higher work engagement and lower psychological distress. In addition, increasing social job resources and challenging job demands are also associated with higher work engagement.

Keywords: Employee well-being; Job crafting; Job demands-resources model; Psychological distress; Work engagement.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Grant AM, Parker SK. 7 redesigning work design theories: the rise of relational and proactive perspectives. Acad Manag Ann. 2009;3:317–75. doi: 10.1080/19416520903047327. - DOI
    1. Demerouti E. Design Your Own Job Through Job Crafting. Eur Psychol. 2014;19:237–47. doi: 10.1027/1016-9040/a000188. - DOI
    1. Sekiguchi T, Jie L, Hosomi M. Determinants of job crafting among part-time and full-time employees in Japan: A relational perspective. 2014. https://ideas.repec.org/p/osk/wpaper/1426.html. Accessed 20 Sep 2016.
    1. Japanese Ministry of Health L, and Welfare. Release of Results of the Fiscal 2013 Basic Survey of Human Resources Development; 2013.
    1. Japanese Ministry of Health L, and Welfare. Service Guide (English) 2016, 2016.

LinkOut - more resources