Desperately seeking sustainable careers: Redesigning professional jobs for the collaborative crafting of reduced-load work

• Published in: Journal of vocational behavior Vol. 117; p. 103315
• Main Authors: Kossek, Ellen Ernst, Ollier-Malaterre, Ariane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Elsevier Inc 01.03.2020; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Career development planning; Careers; Collaboration; Collaborative job crafting; Flexibility; Flexible work arrangements; Job satisfaction; Part-time; Reduced-load work; Sustainability; Sustainable careers; Workload; Workloads; Flexible work arrangements; Reduced-load work; Sustainable careers; Part-time; Collaborative job crafting; Flexibility; Workload
• ISSN: 0001-8791; 1095-9084
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2019.06.003

Reduced-load (RL) work, a flexible customized form of part-time work in which a full-time job is redesigned to reduce the hours and the workload while taking a pay cut, can enable sustainable careers. Yet previous research suggests mixed results, with RL work facing implementation hurdles such as insufficient workload reduction, and stalled careers often adversely affecting women and caregivers. This study, therefore, focuses on the implementation of sustainable RL work and sheds light on key issues under-examined in prior studies: 1) the job redesign tactics that supervising managers implement to reduce workloads, and 2) shared responsibilities at the job and organizational levels. Drawing on the literature on sustainable careers, work redesign, and job crafting, we analyze 86 qualitative interviews with managers who experimented with RL work, HR experts, and executives in 20 organizations that were early adopters of RL work. We identify differentiating and integrating work redesign tactics that either reduced or reshuffled workloads. Next, we propose a three-stage process of collaborative crafting of RL work, in which employees, managers, and employers share responsibilities to strengthen the work redesign tactics and manage cultural expectations to support RL implementation. We provide implications for future research and practice. •Reduced load (RL) is a part-time work form focused on reducing workloads.•RL can enable sustainable careers for managers and professionals.•We interviewed 86 managers, HR experts and executives in pioneering firms.•Managers' differentiating/integrating job redesign tactics reduce/reshuffle workloads.•We develop a 3-stages process of collaborative crafting of sustainable RL work.