Job crafting and intellectually stimulating industrial factory floor work

Abstract

The nature of industrial work is shifting from tasks carried out by humans to those executed or aided by intelligent technology. An important step for achieving these kinds of well-functioning joint cognitive systems is to understand how job crafting manifest in the daily experiences of industrial workers. To explore this question, we conducted a qualitative empirical study focused on the experiences of competence related job crafting and intellectually stimulating work among Finnish industrial factory workers. The findings indicate that despite the routine nature of these jobs, participants often engage in mentally stimulating tasks, such as problem solving. Workers generally value having variation in their tasks, the ability to craft their jobs, and to contribute to the overall quality of work processes or end products using their own creative ideas and knowledge. These findings contribute to the design of industrial work, especially when implementing emerging technologies, so that technology enhances human wellbeing and flourishing.

Keywords: Job Crafting, Intellectually Stimulating Work, Psychologically Rich Life, Meaningful Work, Industrial Work Design, Joint Cognitive Systems, Industry 5.0

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007405