Job crafting as an ex-ante burnout management strategy in healthcare organisations: an emerging market perspective.

Abstract

Purpose: Burnout management among employees is a persistent challenge faced by healthcare organisations, which is exacerbated in developing economies with high demographic loads. The extant literature explores measures of mitigating and adapting to occupational strain and burnout. However, the epistemic relationship between job crafting, perceived organisational support, meaningful work and burnout remains ambiguous and underexplored. The present study examines how a priori interventions such as job crafting and organisational support affect meaningful work and modulate burnout in healthcare organisations.

Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 373 healthcare professionals from corporate and public hospitals of different operational capacities in the North Indian region. We used PLS-SEM to test our hypothesis and validate the conceptual model.

Findings: This study found a significant negative relationship between job crafting and the burnout axis, mediated by meaningful work. The perceived organisational support significantly moderates the relationship.

Originality/value: Our study provides novel insights by testing the role of two resources based on JD-R theory, such as perceived organisational support and meaningful work, in the relationship between job crafting and burnout in Global South healthcare settings. Moreover, it underscores that participatory job crafting can be an ex-ante strategy to mitigate burnout among healthcare employees.