Mills, K M (2025) A qualitative descriptive study on job crafting. EdD thesis, Grand Canyon University, USA.
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study explored how skilled-trade employees in the Southwest Florida’s, Sarasota and Charlotte counties, home-building industry describe and use job crafting at work, guided by the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory. (RQ1) How do skilled-trade employees in the home-building industry report the nature and level of their job-crafting behaviors?; (RQ2) engaging in new activities?; (RQ3) actively avoid emotionally challenging tasks?; (RQ4) maximizing feedback from others?; (RQ5) assist others in the workplace?; and (RQ6) attempts to organize work to be less stressful? Data were collected from completing the JCS questionnaire for blue-collar workers and semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and reflexive thematic analysis. Nine themes were discovered; 1) employees job craft by proactively attempting to be assigned; (2) proactively learning new skills or processes; (3) engaging in behaviors to de-stress during the workday; (4) behaviors to mitigate challenging social interactions; (5) utilization of social behaviors and social interactions; (6) desire to perform job tasks well and provide overall satisfaction; (7) utilizing coworkers as a resource; (8) balancing and alternating between job tasks; and (9) workday conditions require modifications to their plans. This research offers a nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationship between job demands and resources, revealing creative and proactive strategies that individuals use to reshape their work to foster personal and professional well-being. Future research should explore varying tenures and trades of skilled-trade workers.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Wenzlau, K |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | skills; feedback; learning; professional; thematic analysis; employee; interview |
| Index terms: | questionnaire, thematic analysis, social behaviour, well-being, interview, strategy, building industry, social interaction, tenure, job demand, statistics, satisfaction |
| Subjects: | mental health and wellbeing, mathematical modelling, data collection methods, real estate economics, project delivery, management, methods and analysis, sociology, industry analysis, behavioral psychology |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Project Management, Urban Studies, Human Resources, Business Strategy, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 CTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here