Early-Career Researchers and Job Crafting: Supporting Well-Being through Proactive Work Design

Workshop
Early-Career Researchers and Job Crafting: Supporting Well-Being through Proactive Work Design
Maja Tadić Vujčić,
PhD, psychologist and senior research associate
at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences

Early-career researchers (ECRs) often enter academia driven by curiosity and a strong motivation to explore and generate knowledge. While the research environment can be intellectually stimulating and rich in opportunities for growth, it is also marked by high demands, limited support structures, job insecurity, and strong pressures to publish and teach. These challenges—if unaddressed—can negatively impact ECRs’ well-being, mental health, and professional engagement.

Given that human capital is central to scientific progress, supporting researchers’ well-being is not only a personal concern but a systemic priority for ensuring the sustainability and quality of academic work.

This workshop introduces participants to the concept of job crafting—a proactive approach through which individuals reshape aspects of their work environment, tasks, and relationships to better align with their values, strengths, and goals. Job crafting can help ECRs adapt to challenges while fostering well-being and resilience.

Participants will:

— Learn about the theoretical background and research evidence on job crafting

— Explore their own work context through guided reflection and peer discussion

— Practice applying job crafting strategies, including:

Task crafting (e.g., changing the scope or approach to specific tasks)

Relational crafting (e.g., adjusting interactions with colleagues, mentors)

Cognitive crafting (e.g., reframing how one views the meaning and purpose of their work) 

The workshop combines interactive input, individual reflection, and group exercises. It is designed to support early-career researchers in taking small but meaningful steps toward more sustainable and fulfilling academic careers.

Lecturer: Maja Tadić Vujčić is a psychologist and senior research associate at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, where she has worked since 2007. She received her PhD in 2014 from Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands) with a dissertation titled “Studying work-related well-being on day-to-day basis: An expanded JD-R theory approach.” For the past fifteen years she has been intensively researching well-being and mental health in various contexts, with a focus on longitudinal studies of workplace well-being in the public sector (primary and secondary schools, academia, healthcare institutions, state agencies) as well as well-being in the general population and among children.

She currently leads a four-year project funded by the Croatian Science Foundation titled “Well-being and Mental Health of Early Career Researchers: A Longitudinal Study (ECR-WELL)” (2023–2027; IP-2022-10-3567). The project investigates the well-being and mental health of early career researchers in Croatia, examining the interplay between working conditions, personal characteristics, and well-being and mental health.

Maja Tadić also has experience in qualitative research (focus groups, semi-structured interviews), particularly on sensitive topics and with vulnerable groups such as children, LGBTIQ+ families, and professionals working with vulnerable populations. Her full bibliography and project activities are available here.

Practical information:

Date and venue: September 29, 2025, 1:00 PM, Reading Room (Wing 1)

Duration: 2 hours (including a break)

Language: English

The workshop is intended for employees of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, and registration is required to participate.

The workshop is organized by the Centre for Scientific Information and the Branch of the Independent Union of Research and Higher Education Employees of Croatia (NSZVO) at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, as a part of the European project PATTERN.