Exploring Wellbeing through Job Crafting and Meaningful Work to Promote Sustainability in the Backdrop of Indian Ancient Wisdom

Abstract

Today, the nature of an ever-competitive business environment has become both dynamic and an essential characteristic of globalisation. Constant shift in processes, communication and interdependence, indeed, sustainability in the functioning of any organisation has become an ever-augmenting trend. Organisations although adopt several practices to achieve sustainability, the question is do they truly, achievesustainability? Studies claim sustainability at workplaces entails in reducing company’s ecological footprint, conserving natural resources and taking care of the employees. Surprisingly, in comparison to the former two, the later has been highly ignored. The modus operandi towards achieving productivity and performance may have been successful but the wellbeing of the employees in the organisations is still at stake. Many organisations around the world have implemented wellness programs for the well-being of their employees; however, whether every individual is benefitted through such programs is still a concern. One may assume that such programs do not serve any meaning specifically towards individual level development. Few studies also state that an employee’s well-being is always an outcome of job crafting and as an outcome variable, well-being leads to organisational excellence. However, the current study argues that well-being acts as a mediator between job crafting and sustainability. If employees get motivated to do beyond their job roles through job crafting, a lot of meaning can be derived out of their work leading to high performance and a sustainable environment and if well-being acts as a mediator between the two constructs, achieving sustainability will be faster and more convenient. Well-being of an employee is the most sought-after construct and certain for sustainability. Also mentioned in the Equality Act 2010 any deviation in the process of attaining wellbeing is subjected to disease or disability leading to a stigmatized society. Similar ideas are also mentioned in Indian ancient wisdom. Blending, the theories from philosophy, management, law and ancient wisdom through an interdisciplinary approach, the current paper proposes a conceptual model while establishing a relation between virtues, job crafting mediated by wellbeing and moderated by meaningful work to achieve sustainability.