In Need of Leisure: Investigating the Relationship Between Off-job Crafting, Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Optimal Functioning

Global changes in modern working life have led to an increased pace of work, and of life in general, causing challenges to optimal functioning (i.e., feeling and performing well). The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how employees can sustain and enhance their optimal functioning by off-job crafting, defined as proactive efforts targeted at improved psychological needs satisfaction in their off- job lives. Off-job crafting is examined as a needs-based phenomenon with six psychological needs (detachment from work, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning and affiliation) posited by the DRAMMA model of leisure needs satisfaction.

This dissertation consists of four original publications. In Study I, the DRAMMA model was longitudinally validated. This study examined the factor structure of the DRAMMA model, as well as relationships between DRAMMA needs satisfaction, optimal and suboptimal functioning (well-being and ill-being). In Study II, crafting in different life domains was conceptualized as a needs-based phenomenon and an integrative model of needs-based off-job crafting describing motives, processes, and outcomes of crafting efforts was developed in a conceptual review. Study III endeavored to validate the concept of off-job crafting and a novel scale - the Needs- based Off-job Crafting Scale - to measure off-job crafting by examining the structural, convergent, discriminant, criterion, and incremental validity of off-job crafting in seven sub-studies. Proactive personality was examined as a potential antecedent of off-job crafting. Life satisfaction, family role performance, job satisfaction, perceived work ability and work engagement were examined as potential outcomes of off-job crafting to assess optimal functioning both in general and at work. Study IV focused on examining the relationship between off-job crafting and subjective vitality at the within-person level, and whether the relationship between off-job crafting and its demographic antecedents (e.g., age, gender) is different in two distinct cultural contexts (i.e., Finland and Japan).

This dissertation used survey data from multiple countries across three continents. Study I used a longitudinal sample of 279 German employees with five measurement points collected before, during, and after a vacation. Study III used cross-sectional samples among US (Study IIIa-c, N = 97-106) and UK employees (Study IIIg, N = 237), as well as longitudinal samples with three measurements over a period of six months among employees in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Study IIId, N = 2,104), Finland (Study IIIe, N = 578) and Japan (IIIf, N = 228). A slight majority of the participants (55%) were female across all sub-studies. Participants were mostly highly educated, and their mean age was 42. Study IV used the same Finnish and Japanese longitudinal samples as Study III.

Study I generated evidence for structural validity of the DRAMMA model and showed that DRAMMA needs satisfaction positively predicts optimal functioning and negatively predicts suboptimal functioning outcomes over time. The integrative theoretical model of needs-based crafting developed in Study II posited that psychological needs can act both as motives and goals of crafting efforts within life domains, with spillover effects to other domains. The results of Study III showed that the Needs-based Off-job Crafting Scale is a reliable and valid instrument in several countries around the world. Off-job crafting is positively related longitudinally especially to optimal functioning in life in general but also to optimal functioning at work. Study IV demonstrated that increases in off-job crafting for meaning and off-job crafting for affiliation were also positively related to increases in vitality over time. Furthermore, in Japan, age was negatively related to off-job crafting for meaning and female employees engaged in more off-job crafting for affiliation than did male employees, whereas in Finland age was positively related to off-job crafting for meaning.

This dissertation extends literature on crafting and DRAMMA needs satisfaction in off-job life by focusing on the role of DRAMMA needs satisfaction in optimal functioning, how proactive off-job crafting efforts focusing on needs can be beneficial for well-being, perceived work ability, and family role performance over time, and the similarities and differences of off-job crafting in different cultural contexts. The results are informative for occupational healthcare practitioners, leaders, and policymakers with a focus on how not only proactive shaping of the job (e.g., job crafting) but also crafting efforts in off-job life can be beneficial for optimal functioning. Through off-job crafting, employees can not only compensate for possible deficiencies in psychological needs experienced at their work, but also more holistically create psychological needs satisfaction and optimal functioning in both their off-job and working life.