The Maker Movement is a rapidly moving development towards non-traditional education through hands-on creation of technological artifacts, indicating tremendous potential for attracting previously marginalized groups underrepresented in science and technology fields. The movement is compellingly situated as the intersection of an expansive array of interdisciplinary efforts and thus equipped to be leveraged by women and girls who are more likely to originate from artistic and creative backgrounds. Women who make are severely underrepresented in all documented embodiments of the maker movement, including maker media, events, and tangible collaborative spaces. This study explores the possibilities of removing barriers to entry into making for women by converging upon the narrow focus of online makerspaces, engaging with the denizens of the space, and scrutinizing the manner in which they participate in the broader maker community. The timeliness of this probe into women’s personal engagement with science and technology making is indicated by the convergence of discussion surrounding the underrepresentation of women in STEM and approaches to increasing accessibility through making as a natural point of entry.

Since the opening of the first staff-less public library (meröppna biblioteket) in Sweden in 2009, the number of staff-less libraries has been growing at an increasing rate. Still, there has been little research published on this recent phenomenon in the Swedish library sector. The aim of this thesis is to fill a part of this gap by focusing on librarians employed at staff-less public libraries. The study targets their experiences with regard to changes in work content, competence requirements, and professional role. The findings are based on eight interviews conducted with ten librarians at staff-less libraries in six Swedish municipalities. The material has been analyzed using part of Wrzesniewski and Dutton’s job crafting model as the theoretical framework. In addition, Ellström’s concept of actual competence (rather than formal competence) and Ørom and Schreiber’s definition of librarians’ professional identities have been used to support analysis. The findings show that the introduction of staff-less opening hours impacts the librarians’ work content in terms of tasks, cognition, and patron interactions. This in turn makes room for librarians in staff-less libraries to develop existing or new competences. Changes in the professional role due to the introduction of the staff-less library are more difficult to identify. These changes seem to be triggered by developments in society rather than by changes at the local level.

Master of Science / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Jichul Jang / Working as a front line employee in the hospitality industry is not always easy. There can be long working hours, high work demand and many other disadvantages that can lead to increased stress on an employee of the industry. These disadvantages have led to one of the highest turnover rates compared to most other industries (NRA, 2017). Managers have been looking at possible ways to reduce turnover by giving employees more freedom. In most organizations, the manager implements changes in each employee’s job design and roles within the organization. Recent job design has focused on letting the employee develop some of the task they do. This certain type of job redesign is called job crafting. Job crafting is a theoretical concept where an employee is allowed to implement change or redesign certain aspects of their job (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). According to Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001), the three main ways that one can craft their job are through changes in work tasks, relationships, and perception of one’s job. So the question is, “How does job crafting have a creative impact on front line hospitality employee behavior at work?” The purpose of this study is to examine whether job crafting is related to creative self- efficacy, which can in turn lead to employee organizational citizenship behaviors. That is, the more employees participate in crafting activities, the more they will believe that they can be creative and follow through with their creative idea, which will lead the employees to having more organization citizenship behavior. The sample for this study consists of 323 front line employees in the hotel industry. Participants’ job crafting, creative self-efficacy and organizational citizenship behaviors were measured. After running the variables through a regression analysis, the results showed a significant positive relation between job crafting and organizational citizenship behavior with creative self-efficacy as a mediator. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to an understanding of organizational citizenship behavior in the hotel context by shedding light on the role of job crafting. Practical implications from this study could encourage managers that are focused on improving organizational citizenship behavior in their hotels to look into promoting job crafting.

El propósito de esta investigación es determinar el efecto del job crafting sobre la intención de rotar, así como comprobar el rol mediador del burnout y el engagement sobre las relaciones entre las demandas y recursos laborales respectivamente y la intención de rotar dentro de empresas de call center de Lima-Perú. Para ello, se plantearon tres hipótesis de investigación. En primer lugar, se empleó la definición de intención de rotar de Mobley et al. (1978) en el marco del modelo de demandas y recursos laborales de Bakker y Demerouti (2013), donde se aborda el proceso de deterioro de la salud (burnout) y el proceso motivacional (engagement) como variables mediadoras de la relación entre las demandas y recursos laborales y la intención de rotar y se incorpora a dicho análisis, la determinación del efecto indirecto del job crafting. Para este fin, se diseñó un estudio cuantitativo no experimental de tipo explicativo-predictivo de corte transversal. Participaron en el estudio 518 colaboradores de tres empresas de call center dedicadas a la venta de servicios de telefonía en Lima; los colaboradores completaron las escalas de medición de las respectivas variables del estudio durante su jornada de trabajo. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales confirmaron las tres hipótesis del estudio, destacando que el burnout cumple un rol mediador en la relación positiva de las demandas laborales y la intención de rotar, el engagement mantiene un rol mediador sobre la relación negativa entre recursos laborales y la intención de rotar, así como el efecto indirecto del job crafting que reduce la intención de rotar, a través del engagement y el burnout de forma simultánea. De este modo, destaca el efecto que tiene el ser humano (job crafter) sobre su medio de trabajo para hacerlo un mejor lugar para trabajar. Finalmente, el estudio propone un plan de acción con el fin de reducir la intención de rotar en los colaboradores de las empresas de call center estudiadas, a través de la intervención eficiente sobre las variables organizacionales e individuales que, de acuerdo a los hallazgos de la investigación, tienen mayor efecto para la reducción del burnout y el incremento del engagement, así como la promoción de prácticas individuales del job crafting en los colaboradores.

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The purpose of this study is to find and evaluate a course in crafts in a small rural school with the hope that it may be of some value to teachers in rural districts, and that it may help provide a more general education for the rural school child. The results of an interest questionnaire, projects suggested by the students, projects made, and direct observations will be the means used in determining the needs and interests of the Waneta School students. A comparison of suggested projects and of projects made by the students, and the results of an evaluation questionnaire and a rating sheet will be used in evaluating the course in terms of the students' needs and interests.

<p>Job crafting refers to work-related behaviors employees take to make their job better fit with their preferences. While job crafting is based on the premise that employees can make such proactive changes on their own volition, recent work has suggested social context plays an important role in determining whether an employee has the opportunities and ability to engage in job crafting. Such contextual factors include the level of support one’s manager provides as well as one’s ability to obtain instrumental resources such as information and advice as well as emotional resources such as social support from the wider organizational community. Applying conservation of resources (COR) theory, Study 1 proposes that when a manager is perceived to provide a low level of support, employees can leverage their social network in order to engage in job crafting initiatives. For instance, when one’s manager offers relatively little encouragement and availability, it can hinder their subordinate’s ability to engage in job crafting. Additionally, when one’s manager has relatively low status in the organization, they may be less able to help their subordinates develop a network to obtain the types of instrumental resources that fuel job crafting behaviors. Findings based on a survey of 276 full-time workers suggest that employees seeking to job craft can compensate for their manager’s shortcomings by building bonding social capital in the former scenario (i.e., when the manager offers little encouragement and availability) and bridging social capital in the latter (i.e., when the manager has relatively low status). Study 2 focuses on the extent to which employees with differing dispositions towards their work engage in different kinds of job crafting behaviors. Findings from survey data (<em>n</em> = 307) suggest that compared to career orientation (i.e., the tendency to view work as a means for advancement and status enhancement), calling orientation (i.e., the tendency to view work as one’s “calling” in life) reduces the tendency for employees to engage in withdrawal behaviors. However, both calling and career orientation were associated with the tendency to proactively leverage technological and other knowledge-based resources in the execution of their work. Additionally, the study tests how virtual work contexts may influence how employees across different dispositional types engage in specified forms of job crafting. Findings suggest these dynamics persist regardless of telecommuting frequency. Implications for theory and practice are provided for both Studies 1 and 2. </p>

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Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom (IPS) / The construction industry plays a crucial role in the South African economy. In this high-risk industry, a lack of engagement by employees can have serious and costly health and safety consequences. Because construction companies work under conditions of tight deadlines and stringent requirements, executives and managers are often unable to reduce the demands on their employees. Hence, if employees are to increase their own levels of work engagement (and so improve health, promote safety, and guard against burnout), they need to exert personal agency by recrafting their own jobs. The term job crafting refers to proactive employee behaviours that seek to optimise the work environment, frequently by addressing the balance between job demands and job resource. Previous literature suggests that employees who use job crafting behaviours show higher work engagement, lower disengagement, more positive emotions, and better adaptive performance.