The document summarizes research on improving employee well-being and productivity through servant leadership training for supervisors and job crafting interventions for employees. The research project, called INSPI, aims to train supervisors to become servant leaders who empower employees, and teach employees job crafting techniques. This includes increasing job resources and challenging work to enhance work engagement, satisfaction, and innovation with the goal of creating more productive and flourishing workplaces. The interventions include workshops and assignments for supervisors on servant leadership and for employees on job crafting. Evaluations will assess the impact on employee well-being, engagement, and organizational outcomes.

1. Well-being through work
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Jari Hakanen

2. WORK ENGAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
THROUGH SERVANT LEADERSHIP
AND JOB CRAFTING
- SUMMARY
Jari Hakanen, Research Director, Helsinki Collegium for
Advanced Studies; Research Professor, Finnish Institute of
Occupational health
Research Day 2014
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi

3. Spiral of Inspiration (INSPI)
boost supervisors to become
servant leaders and employees
to be active job crafters
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Anna Saija
Heli
Anneli
Peter
Merike
Lotta
Piia
Jari
Krista
Anna
Matti
Ilari

4. General aim of the INSPI follows the
Finnish National Working Life
development Strategy to 2020
• To simultaneously improve the quality of working life,
employee well-being and productivity
• National strategy focuses on four main areas of which we
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
target the first three:
Ø Innovation and productivity
Ø Trust and co-operation
Ø Health and well-being at work
Ø A competent workforce
• Our key focus is on building team and individual engagement,
new ways working: job crafting, and servant leadership to
enhance innovativeness and good performance.
Jari Hakanen

5. Spiral of Inspiration (INSPI):
From research to practice
Evaluating the
interventions
-
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Baseline
survey
in 87
work-places
(N =
11 486)
Team
Interventions 2013 - 2014
-
Organization
Job crafting
interventions
Servant leadership
interventions
Follow-up
survey
autumn
2014
Phase I:
2011-2012 Phase II: 2013-2016
- Vision of
Phase III: 2016 - 2018
- Dissemination
of results
- Product development,
Flourishing - Research
workplaces
interventions
Individual
Qualitative interviews: Best practices in best INSPI workplaces in terms
of work engagement, job crafting, servant leadership, and other job resources
Jari Hakanen

6. KUVA: LAURI OLANDER/KL
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
”I wasn’t hired to mark yoghurt
pots. I was hired to create positive
feelings in people. Or so I see it
anyway. What’s the point in trying
to make my boss happy, if I can
make the clients happy and through
this enjoy my work?”
- Jama Jama -
”The aim is that everybody in Kone
constantly remembers the
meaningfulness of their job, so that
every morning they think about how to
do their best to help achieve common
goals.”
- Matti Alahuhta -
KUVA: JAAKKO MARTIKAINEN/MN
Jari Hakanen

7. Starting point:
High work engagement is a true
win-win situation
• A great opportunity for organizations and leadership:
By boosting engagement and enthusiasm, employees
are willing and able to do good work.
• A great opportunity for every employee: By doing
work well, one can become engaged in one’s work.
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Jari Hakanen

8. How to achieve a win-win
situation in practice
• A great opportunity for organizations and leadership: By
boosting engagement and enthusiasm, employees are
willing and able to do good work.
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
→ Servant leadership
• A great opportunity for every employee: By doing work well
one can become engaged in one’s work.
→ Job crafting
• And perhaps the best way to do this, is to do it together
(supervisor + employees) all the way:
→ Flourishing workplaces
Jari Hakanen

9. “The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural
feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one
to aspire to lead.” (Robert Greenleaf, 1977)
Servant
leadership
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Holding employees
accountable for their
performance
Empowering
employees
Stewardship,
role model Humility,
Standing back
Authencity
Empathy,
listening
Courage (e.g. van Dierendonck, 2012)

10. Job crafting is a way of shaping
your job to suit you better
Original definition by Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001):
• Crafting the boundaries of work (amount, type of tasks):
taking on additional tasks, increasing challenges, decreasing
demands, shaping ways of working etc.
• Shaping interactions (nature, frequency) with others
(clients, colleagues) at work
• Changing cognitions regarding the job
Recent definition by Tims and Bakker (2010) based on the job
demands-resources model:
• Job crafting is about increasing one's job resources and
challenging demands (and decreasing hindrance demands)
Jari Hakanen 10
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi

11. Practical aims of our positive
interventions
1. To train supervisors to become more like servant
leaders and employees to craft their jobs…
2. …Everybody at work feels more positive (and less
negative) emotions and to fulfill their psychological
needs of autonomy, belonginess, competence and
doing good for others...
3. …Thereby experiencing more work engagement…
4. …Employees are finally more innovative and
productive, healthier, and want to stay longer in
work life. As a consequence, companies are also
more successful.
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Jari Hakanen

12. INSPI’s present interventions
and future interventions (funded
by Työsuojelurahasto)
Registry office:
Flourishing workplaces
Bank: Flourishing
workplaces
Wooden products
factory : Servant
leadership
Wooden products
factory: Servant
leadership + job
crafting
Jari Hakanen 12 © Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Children’s day care
centres: Servant
leadership + job
crafting
Wooden products
factory : Servant
leadership
Photo printing
services: Servant
leadership + job
crafting
Nuclear safety
engineers: Servant
leadership + job
crafting X
X
X
X
X
X
X Servant leadership + job crafting starting this winter

13. Servant leadership training
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
Assignment I
How do I already
apply servant
leadership
in my job?
Workshop II
4h
Developmental
steps to
becoming
a servant leader
Workshop IV
4h.
Servant
leadership
as a workplace
culture
Workshop III
4h
Challenges as
a servant
leader
Workshop I
4h
Identifying
servant
leadership,
personal goals
and benefits
Assignment II
How do I strengthen
elements of
servant leadership
in my job?
Assignment III
Facing
challenges and
adversities
Info
meeting
Video
intro-duction
Follow-up
survey
INSPI
2014
Follow-up
(6 months
later)
Pre-assignment:
My strengths
and challenges
as a supervisor
Mobile
app
Mobile
app
Mobile
app
Jari Hakanen
Baseline
survey
(for
supervisors
and followers)

14. 1.Workshop: From theory to practice
What is job crafting and why does it pay off?
How can I craft my job to improve my motivation
and well-being?
Mobile
Info-session
Pre-assignment:
Characteristics of my job
and working conditions
that inspire and engage
me
Personal three-week crafting plan:
Goal based on individual needs and motivations
Encouragement to try different ways of crafting (e.g.
increasing structural and social resources or engaging
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
in cognitive crafting)
Ideas for and evaluation of
daily job crafting and
tracking of daily work
engagement during the process
2. Workshop: from practice to learning
Sharing job crafting experiences: learning from others and getting feedback from the group.
Finding individual ways of job crafting and committing to them in the future.
Jari Hakanen
Job crafting workbook:
”Resource caravans on the
move!”

15. The success of organizations
increasingly depends on the positive
well-being of their employees
• Work engagement (Schaufeli et al, 2002)
• Happiness at work (Hsieh, 2013)
• Inner worklife: experiences, emotions, and motivation
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi
(Amabile & Kramer, 2011)
• Intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000)
• Giving as a route to success (Grant, 2013)
• Meaning and purpose at work (Dik et al, 2013)
• Calling (Wrzesniewski, 1997)
Jari Hakanen

16. Dank U wel!
Kiitos!
www.ttl.fi/Inspi
Testaa työn imusi:
www.ttl.fi/tyonimu
jari,hakanen@helsinki.fi
jari.hakanen@ttl.fi
Jari Hakanen © Finnish Institute of Occupational Health – www.ttl.fi