title: Job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress among Japanese employees: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Job crafting, an employee-initiated job design/redesign, has become important for employees' well-being. However, most studies on the relationship between job crafting and employees' well-being have been conducted in western countries; thus, it is unclear whether job crafting can be effectively applied to Asian cultures, such as Japan, which emphasizes group harmony. The aim of this study was to examine the cross-sectional associations of self-reported job crafting with work engagement and psychological distress among employees in Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire survey through the internet was conducted among all employees of a manufacturing company in Japan. We analyzed the data from 894 respondents, all employees with regular employment. Job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress were assessed using the Japanese version of the Job Crafting Questionnaire, the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), and the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ), respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hierarchical multiple regression showed that increasing structural job resources, social job resources, and challenging job demands was significantly and positively associated with work engagement (β= 0.31,p< 0.001;β= 0.14,p< 0.001;β= 0.36,p< 0.001, respectively). For psychological distress, increasing structural job resources was significantly and negatively associated with psychological distress (β= -0.15,p< 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that increasing structural job resources is associated with higher work engagement and lower psychological distress. In addition, increasing social job resources and challenging job demands are also associated with higher work engagement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan.
authors.forename: Asuka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sakuraya
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan.
authors.forename: Akihito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shimazu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan.
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eguchi
authors.affiliation: JUKI Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kimika
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kamiyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan.
authors.forename: Yujiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Namba
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan.
authors.forename: Norito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kawakami
keywords: Employee well-being; Job crafting; Job demands-resources model; Psychological distress; Work engagement