title: Filling the Holes: Work Schedulers as Job Crafters of Employment Practice in Long-Term Health Care.
abstract: Although work schedulers serve an organizational role influencing decisions about balancing conflicting stakeholder interests over schedules and staffing, scheduling has primarily been described as an objective activity or individual job characteristic. The authors use the lens of job crafting to examine how schedulers in 26 health care facilities enact their roles as they "fill holes" to schedule workers. Qualitative analysis of interview data suggests that schedulers expand their formal scope and influence to meet their interpretations of how to manage stakeholders (employers, workers, and patients). The authors analyze variations in the extent of job crafting (cognitive, physical, relational) to broaden role repertoires. They find evidence that some schedulers engage in rule-bound interpretation to avoid role expansion. They also identify four types of schedulers: enforcers, patient-focused schedulers, employee-focused schedulers, and balancers. The article adds to the job-crafting literature by showing that job crafting is conducted not only to create meaningful work but also to manage conflicting demands and to mediate among the competing labor interests of workers, clients, and employers.
authors.affiliation: Management and Research Director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence at Purdue University Krannert School Of Management.
authors.forename: Ellen Ernst
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Kossek
authors.affiliation: Human Resource Management at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Piszczek
authors.affiliation: School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
authors.forename: Kristie L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Mcalpine
authors.affiliation: Oregon Healthy Workforce Center And Senior Scientist, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at Oregon Health & Science University and Professor of Psychology at Portland State University.
authors.forename: Leslie B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.affiliation: worked on this while she was a Research Associate at the susan bulkeley butler center at Purdue university.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burke
keywords: health care; long-term health care; schedule control; staffing; work hours; work scheduling; working time; workplace flexibility; work–family; work–life