Job Crafting and Employee Well-being: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Sector IT Organizations

Abstract

Harnessing the potential of a sustainable and employed workforce brings massive benefits for the workforce and the organization by unlocking opportunities for a harmonious growth, prosperity and success. Pandemic and various macro and micro level factors bring disturbances and opportunities, building excessive pressure on employees and reducing well-being. Job crafting empowers employees to mediate such uncertainties by giving them the control to modulate their work landscape in the best possible manner with negligible or no organizational resources. Thus, by achieving a better fit with their job with the help of job crafting, they create a sustainable work environment significantly reducing attrition and enhancing well-being. Understanding the organizational differences between working in public and private sector organizations, aids in making informed decisions on how to best cater to employee and organizational expectations, leading to better quality of work and well-being. However, there is scarcity of comparative studies between public and private sector organizations of the said variables, especially in the Indian setting. Our study aims to study the level of job crafting and well-being among public and private sector IT employees and determine the significance of difference between them. For the present study, 301 employees working in public and private sector IT organizations were selected. ‘t’ test was performed to find the significant difference between public and private sector employees with regards to job crafting and well-being. The results clearly depicted that public sector employees engaged in relational crafting more than private sector employees and experienced higher well-being. In contrast, the private sector employees used cognitive crafting more than their public sector counter parts. The results ascertained that both public and private sector organizations engaged in unique job crafting behaviours. The study reinforces the importance of understanding the sector- specific drivers of job crafting and well-being, as valuable strategies for enhancing sustainability and productivity.