Job Crafting and Employee Engagement Among Employees in Public Organisations in Malaysia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/tur.6102.2025Keywords:
Job crafting, Employee engagement, Malaysia, Millennials, Public organisationsAbstract
Organizations are continuously seeking ways to make jobs more meaningful to improve employee engagement and productivity. It is important to understand public sector employee perceptions of job crafting and engagement as this group represent a significant number of the workforce, and their engagement directly influences organisational performance. This study investigates the relationship between job crafting and employee engagement among employees in public organisations in Malaysia. A cross-sectional, quantitative research approach was employed with a self-administered survey questionnaire disseminated among employees from two public organisations in Malaysia (N = 114). The respondents comprised of 65 millennials and 49 non-millennials. Findings from an independent sample t-test showed no significant differences in employee engagement levels between millennials and non-millennials. The job crafting dimensions (increasing structural resource and social resources, increasing challenging job demands, and decreasing hindering job demands) were significantly associated with employee engagement. Public organisations and human resource development practitioners can leverage these insights to design interventions and formulate policies that encourage job crafting behaviours thereby fostering a highly engaged workforce
References
Akçayır, M., Dündar, H., & Akçayır, G. (2016). What makes you a digital native? Is it enough to be born after 1980? Computers in Human Behavior, 60, 435–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.089
Audenaert, M., George, B., Bauwens, R., Decuypere, A., Descamps, A.-M., Muylaert, J., Ma, R., & Decramer, A. (2020). Empowering leadership, social support, and job crafting in public organisations: A multilevel study. Public Personnel Management, 49(3), 367–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019873681
Baghdadi, N.A., Farghaly Abd-EL Aliem, S.M. & Alsayed, S.K. (2021). The relationship between nurses’ job crafting behaviours and their work engagement. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(2), 214-219. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13141
Bakker, A.B. & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands‐Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309-328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2014). Job demands-resources theory. In P. Y. Chen & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Work and wellbeing (pp. 37–64). Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118539415.wbwell019
Bakker, A. B., Rodríguez-Muñoz, A., & Sanz-Vergel, A. I. (2016). Modelling job crafting behaviours: Implications for work engagement. Human Relations, 69, 169–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715581690
Brenninkmeijer, V., & Hekkert-Koning, M. (2015). To craft or not to craft: The relationships between regulatory focus, job crafting and work outcomes. Career Development International, 20(2), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-12-2014-0162
Brightenburg, M. E., Whittington, J. L., Meskelis, S., & Asare, E. (2020). Job engagement levels across the generations at work. In B. Christiansen (Ed.), Global applications of multigenerational management and leadership in the transcultural era (pp. 108-137). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9906-7.ch004
Bruning, P. F., & Campion, M. A. (2018). A role–resource approach–avoidance model of job crafting: A multimethod integration and extension of job crafting theory. Academy of Management Journal, 61(2), 499–522. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0604
De Beer, L. T., Tims, M., & Bakker, A. B. (2016). Job crafting and its impact on work engagement and job satisfaction in mining and manufacturing. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 19(400–412). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2222-3436/2016/v19n3a7
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499
Demerouti, E., Xanthopoulou, D., Petrou, P., & Karagkounis, C. (2017). Does job crafting assist dealing with organisational changes due to austerity measures? Two studies among Greek employees. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 26(4), 574-589. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2017.1325875
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., & Gevers, J. M. P. (2015). Job crafting and extra-role behavior: The role of work engagement and flourishing. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91(87–96). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.09.001
Donthu, N. and Gustafsson, A. (2020). Effects of Covid-19 on business resarch. Journal of Business Research (117), 284-289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.008
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
Gallup (2022). State of the global workplace 2022 report: The voice of the world’s employees. https://lts-resource-page.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2022-engagement.pdf
Ghadi, M.Y. (2023). Linking job crafting to work engagement: The mediating role of organizational happiness. Management Research Review, 47(6), 943-963. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-01-2023-0042
Grant, A. M., & Parker, S. K. (2009). Redesigning work design theories: The rise of relational and proactive perspectives. The Academy of Management Annals, 3(1), 317–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520903047327
Hakanen, J. J., Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2005). How dentists cope with their job demands and stay engaged: The moderating role of job resources. European Journal of Oral Sciences, 113(6), 479–487. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0722.2005.00250.x
Harju, L.K., Hakanen, J.J., & Schaufeli, W.B. (2016). Can job crafting reduce job boredom and increase work engagement? A three-year cross-lagged panel study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 95(11-20). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.001
Harter, J.K., Schmidt, F.L., Agrawal, S., Blue, A., Plowman, S.K., Josh, P., & Asplund, J. (2020). The relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes. 2020 Q12® Meta-Analysis: 10th Edition. Gallup. https://www.mandalidis.ch/coaching/2021/01/2020-employee-engagement-meta-analysis.pdf
Herbert, C. Pangallo, A., & Quaadgras, T. (2023, Oct). Employee experience trends: Asia-Pacific & Japan. Retrieved from Qualtrics XM Institute: https://www.qualtrics.com/m/www.xminstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/XMI_RR_EXTrends2024-APJ-1.pdf?ty=mktocd-thank-you
Kahn, W.A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 692-724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287
Kristi, G., & Basabih, M. (2024). Employee engagement in a multigenerational workforce at hospital X. Jurnal Medicoeticolegal dan Manajemen Rumah Sakit, 13(2), 238-248. https://doi.org/10.18196/jmmr.v13i2.411
Laurence, G.A., Fried, Y., Yan, W., & Li, J. (2020). Enjoyment of work and driven to work as motivations of job crafting: Evidence from Japan and China. Japanese Psychological Research, 62(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpr.12239
Lee, J. Y., & Lee, Y. (2018). Job crafting and performance: Literature review and implications for human resource development. Human Resource Development Review, 17(3), 277–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318788269
Letona-Ibañez, O., Martinez-Rodriguez, S., Ortiz-Marques, N., Carrasco, M., & Amillano, A. (2021). Job crafting and work engagement: The mediating role of work meaning. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(10), 5383. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105383
Lichtenthaler, P. W., & Fischbach, A. (2019). A meta-analysis on promotion- and prevention focused job crafting. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 28(1), 30–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2018.1527767
Lopper, E., Dettmers, J., & Hoppe, A. (2022). Examining nonlinear effects of crafting social resources on work engagement – the moderating role of exhaustion. Occupational Health Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41542-022-00124-w
Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008). The meaning of employee engagement. Industrial and Organisational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x
Mostafa, A. M. S., & Abed El-Motalib, E. A. (2020). Ethical leadership, work meaningfulness, and work engagement in the public sector. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 40(1), 112–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X18790628
Ng, E. S. W., Schweitzer, L., & Lyons, S. T. (2010). New generation, great expectations: A field study of the millennial generation. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9159-4
Nissinen, T. S., Maksniemi, E. I., Rothmann, S., & Lonka, K. M. (2022). Balancing work life: Job crafting, work engagement, and workaholism in the Finnish public sector. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 817008. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.817008
Nwoko, C., & Yazdani, K. (2023). Self-Determination Theory: The mediating role of generational differences in employee engagement. Journal of Business and Management Studies, 5(4), 130–142. https://doi.org/10.32996/jbms.2023.5.4.14
Özçelik, G. (2015). Engagement and retention of the millennial generation in the workplace through internal branding. International Journal of Business and Management 10 (3). http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v10n3p99
Ozturk, A., Karatepe, O.M. and Okumus, F. (2021). The effect of servant leadership on hotel employees’ behavioral consequences: Work engagement versus job satisfaction. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 97(102994) 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102994
Petrou, P., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2018). Crafting the change: The role of employee job crafting behaviors for successful organisational change. Journal of Management, 44(5), 1766–1792. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315624961
Petrou, P., Demerouti, E., Peeters, M. C. W., Schaufeli, W. B., & Hetland, J. (2012). Crafting a job on a daily basis: Contextual correlates and the link to work engagement. Journal of Organisational Behavior, 33(8), 1120–1141. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1783
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Rošková, E., & Faragová, L. (2020). Job Crafting, work engagement, burnout: Mediating role of self-efficacy. Studia Psychologica, 62(2), 148-163. http://dx.doi.org/10.31577/sp.2020.02.797
Rudolph, C. W., Katz, I. M., Lavigne, K. N., & Zacher, H. (2017). Job crafting: A meta-analysis of relationships with individual differences, job characteristics, and work outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 102, 112-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.05.008
Saks, A.M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Management Psychology, 21, 600-619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169
Sakuraya, A., Shimazu, A., Eguchi, H., Kamiyama, K., Hara, Y., Namba, K., & Kawakami, N. (2017). Job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress among Japanese employees: A cross-sectional study. BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 11, Article 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13030-017-0091-y
Sarti, D. (2014). Job resources as antecedents of engagement at work: Evidence from a long‐term care setting. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25(2), 213-237. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21189
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: A multi-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248
Schaufeli, W. B. (2013). What is engagement? In C. Truss, K. Alfes, R. Delbridge, A. Shantz, & E. Soane (Eds.), Employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 1–37). Routledge.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471
Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015630930326
Schuler, B.A., Binnewies, C. & Bürkner, P.C. (2019). The relationship between job crafting, work engagement, and performance: A meta-analysis. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf. io/xpf2v
Tims, M. & Bakker, A.B. (2010). Job crafting: Towards a new model of individual job redesign. South African Journal of Industrial Psychology, 36, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.841
Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2012). Development and validation of the job crafting scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(1), 173-186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.009
Tims, M., Derks, D., & Bakker, A. B. (2016). Job crafting and its relationships with person-job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 92(February), 44-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.11.007
Twenge, J. M. (2006). Generation Me: Why today’s young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled--and more miserable than ever before. Free Press
Worldometers. (2020). Malaysia demographics. Retrieved December 2, 2022, from https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/malaysia-demographics/
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
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
