Crafting safety in the storm: An occupational health and safety professionals' job crafting scale.

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to develop and validate a job crafting scale designed specifically for occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals working in a crisis environment. Job crafting, defined as the proactive adjustment of job roles to better align with individual preferences and strengths, is recognized as a valuable strategy for enhancing job satisfaction, engagement, and performance in various occupational settings. However, existing job crafting scales primarily focus on general work contexts and cannot fully capture the unique dimensions of job crafting relevant to OHS professionals in a crisis response context.

METHOD: Through a rigorous scale development process involving expert interviews, item generation, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the OHS job crafting scale (OHS-JCS) is developed and evaluated for its psychometric properties (Sample 1: N = 224 OHS professionals in Australia; Sample 2: N = 250 OHS professionals in the United Kingdom).

RESULTS: Initial findings indicated that the OHS-JCS demonstrates the proposed six-factor structure, high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 87), and nomological validity. The scale appears to serve as a valuable tool for assessing job crafting behaviors among OHS professionals, facilitating research and interventions aimed at raising their engagement and effectiveness in safeguarding worker health and safety.