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Article
Filling the Holes: Work Schedulers as Job Crafters of Employment Practice in Long-Term Health Care
Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations
  • Ellen Ernst Kossek, Purdue University
  • Matthew M. Piszczek, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
  • Kristie L. Mcalpine, Cornell University
  • Leslie B. Hammer, Portland State University
  • Lisa Burke, Purdue University
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
8-1-2016
Subjects
  • Work & family,
  • Quality of work life,
  • Job satisfaction
Abstract

Although work schedulers serve an organizational role influencing decisions about balancing conflicting stakeholder interests over schedules and staffing, scheduling has primarily been described as an objective activity or individual job characteristic. The authors use the lens of job crafting to examine how schedulers in 26 health care facilities enact their roles as they “fill holes” to schedule workers. Qualitative analysis of interview data suggests that schedulers expand their formal scope and influence to meet their interpretations of how to manage stakeholders (employers, workers, and patients). The authors analyze variations in the extent of job crafting (cognitive, physical, relational) to broaden role repertoires. They find evidence that some schedulers engage in rule-bound interpretation to avoid role expansion. They also identify four types of schedulers: enforcers, patient-focused schedulers, employee-focused schedulers, and balancers. The article adds to the job-crafting literature by showing that job crafting is conducted not only to create meaningful work but also to manage conflicting demands and to mediate among the competing labor interests of workers, clients, and employers.

Description

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Industrial & Labor Relations Review. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication.

A definitive version was subsequently published in August 2016 Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 69(4): 961–990 and can be found online: https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793916642761

DOI
10.1177/0019793916642761
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18478
Citation Information
Ellen Ernst Kossek, Matthew M. Piszczek, Kristie L. Mcalpine, Leslie B. Hammer, et al.. "Filling the Holes: Work Schedulers as Job Crafters of Employment Practice in Long-Term Health Care" (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/leslie_hammer/31/