Job crafting in project management: Implications for project success and career satisfaction

Abstract

There is growing evidence that project managers are a heterogeneous group of people. Practitioners hold competing perspectives of project managing and have increasingly greater agency in the choice of tools and method used in their roles. Using job crafting theory, we contribute to the literature on project management careers by measuring how, and to what extent, project managers customise their jobs to better fit their motives, strengths and passions. Job crafting involves self-initiated behaviours that shape, mould, and change job design to better suit the individual. Using structural equation modelling and a sample of IT project managers (N = 245) the objectives of the paper seek to i) establish whether one's perspective of project management predicts job crafting behaviour, ii) explore how job crafting is used in project management and, iii) ascertain whether the benefit of job crafting is individual, project-based or both. The findings show that a value creation perspective of project management predicts job crafting behaviour. A performative link between task crafting and project success is established which in turn impacts long term career satisfaction. In contrast, relational crafting by project managers positively contributes to job satisfaction, but does not support project success.