Job Crafting at Burt's Bees

Job designs are typically created by managers for employees. But employees are often motivated to make changes to their formal job designs to customize a more desirable experience for themselves at work. The concept of “job crafting” captures these changes. This case describes how four employees at Burt’s Bees Inc. crafted their formal job designs to better align their jobs with their individual motives and strengths. The stories illustrate several ways in which employees may go about crafting their jobs and how individuals and organizations may benefit from job crafting.

The case is aimed at facilitating reflection and discussion of the ways in which employees can and do craft their jobs to better align with their motives and strengths. We hope the case helps students build an understanding of how employees are able to construct their own experiences at work and foster self-reflection with respect to students crafting their own jobs in a positive way. Specifically, we designed the case to illustrate:

• The notion that employees are often given formal job designs that could be altered to better align with their motives and strengths.
• Several of the ways in which employees can craft their jobs to better align with their motives and strengths.
• Some of the potential benefits of employees taking advantage of opportunities to customize their formal job designs through job crafting.

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A teaching note is available at no cost to instructors who order Job Crafting at Burt's Bees. To get the teaching note, please contact Janet Max at (734) 647-8154 or jmax@bus.umich.edu.