Abstract
Many employees are seeking meaning and purpose in
their working lives. Some perceive that they have a
calling, a pull to do work that serves a greater purpose
for others and society. Individuals across different
kinds of occupations may perceive that they have a
calling. This job calling may lead some employees to
enact strategies such as job crafting, which is
manipulating the job demands and job resources in their
work to enhance their work identities and to live out
their job calling or be closely aligned to it in their work.
Thus the purpose of this theoretical paper is to propose
that job crafting strategies such as increasing the
structural and social resources in one’s job may lead to
higher work identification and a possible closer
alignment to one’s calling. Likewise increasing the
challenging demands and decreasing the hindering
demands in one’s job may also lead also to higher work
identification and a closer alignment to actualizing
one’s calling. Recommendations are then made on
further studies on the relationships of job calling, job
crafting and work identity. Implications for employees,
management and HR are also highlighted.