DIRECTIVE 123 / GROWTH

PROTECT THE JOB DESCRIPTION

Encourage initiative. Require approval before anyone improves the work.

Tell employees to take ownership, then block changes to tasks, relationships, and procedures until formal redesign committees approve them. When someone stops proposing improvements, mention their lack of initiative in the next development discussion.

THE MECHANISM

Employee initiative obstructed by rigid boundaries and approval requirements.

Primary: GROWTHCONTROLMEANING
RATIONALE
Job stability is easier to administer when improvements to the job remain the organization's exclusive property.
SUCCESS INDICATOR
Employees become highly capable at adapting themselves to the job while the job remains protected from adapting to them.
COMMON FAILURE
Allowing appropriate job crafting so employees can increase useful resources and challenges or reduce hindering demands without undermining essential role requirements.
THE UNFORTUNATE PART

Evidence, with limitations.

Claim

Job crafting is a proactive form of work redesign undertaken by employees. Meta-analytic evidence links several job-crafting dimensions with engagement, satisfaction and performance, although relationships differ across crafting strategies and outcomes.

Evidence

A meta-analysis of job crafting found meaningful relationships with individual differences, job characteristics and work outcomes, while also showing that different forms of crafting should not be treated as one uniform behavior.

Scientific boundary: Job crafting can help employees adjust demands or resources, but its effectiveness is contingent on task and organizational context.

Sources

These references offer context, not a completed review or a test of this instruction.