Fun times: the relationship between fun and workplace engagement

Abstract

Purpose – The idea of workplace fun seems positive, straightforward and simple but emerging research suggests a surprising complexity and ambiguity to this concept. Drawing on recent literature and empirical data, the purpose of this paper is to use three different forms of workplace fun: managed, organic and task fun to examine the relationship between fun and workplace engagement. Design/methodology/approach – Using an ethnographic approach, the qualitative data originated from four different New Zealand organizations, within different industries. Organizations included a law firm, a financial institution, an information technology company and a utility services provider. Data for this study were collected from semi-structured interviews with a range of participants in each company. In total 59 interviews were conducted with approximately 15 originating from each of the four organizations. One full-time month was spent within each company experiencing the everyday life and behaviours at all levels of each organization. The specific focus of the research is organizational culture and humour and during analysis findings emerged that linked to engagement, fun, disengagement and the concept of flow. Findings – This paper offers exploratory findings that suggest some specific connections between the concepts of fun and engagement. Empirical connections between these concepts are not currently apparent in either engagement or fun research, yet the data suggest some firm associations between them. The exploratory findings suggest that some forms of workplace fun offer individual employees a refreshing break which creates positive affect. Participants perceive that such affect results in greater workplace and task engagement. Additionally the data show that some people experience their work tasks as a form of fun and the authors link this to a specific form of engagement known as “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975; Moneta, 2010). The authors suggest an organizational-level effect, where workplace fun creates enjoyment which stimulates greater overall engagement with the team, unit or organization itself. Conversely the data also suggest that for some people managed or organic fun (see Plester et al., 2015) creates distraction, disharmony or dissonance that disrupts their flow and can foster disengagement. Practical implications – The ambiguity and complexity in the relationship between these concepts is an emerging topic for research that offers a variety of implications for scholars and practitioners of HRM and organizational behaviour. The authors contend that workplace fun potentially offers practitioners opportunities for fostering a climate of high engagement which may include most employees and thus create additional workplace benefits. Additionally through highlighting employee reactions to different types of fun we suggest ways of avoiding employee disengagement, disharmony and cynicism and the associated negative effects. Originality/value – The concept of fun is not empirically linked with current engagement research and the authors assert that workplace fun is an important driver of employee engagement. The authors identity engagement at the individual task level and further extend engagement research by emphasizing that fun has the potential to create engagement at the team, unit or organizational level. These differing levels of engagement have not thus far been differentiated in the extant literature.

The fun paradox

“…There is some linking of the concepts of engagement and fun in the suggestion that for engaged employees actual work becomes fun and Gorgievski and Bakker (2010, p. 265) differentiate workaholism and work engagement by the positive aspect of fun associated with engagement. However, there is surprisingly little discussion of fun as a component of engagement and this is an area for future development (see Plester and Hutchison, 2012).…”

A Strategy Engagement in Marketing: A Reviews of the Literature

“…In addition, they found that the implementation strategy of moderate positive relationship between the three organizational resources and the involvement of collective organization. While, [28], suggested to the effects on an organizational level, creating an enjoyable workplace that stimulates pleasure greater overall involvement with the team, unit or organization it self.…”

Exploring Fun as a Job Resource: The Enhancing and Protecting Role of a Key Modern Workplace Factor

“…Workplace fun has been linked with job engagement notably in Plester's and Hutchison's (2016) approach, who found that employees associated the concept of engagement when talking about fun, and associated both with positive feelings. In specific, Plester and Hutchison (2016) revealed that the two concepts are linked through the positive feelings that are generated towards the organization and the team, which in turn increase organizational engagement. Both workplace fun and job engagement are characterized by enthusiasm and positive energy that function as motivational processes and help employees deliver more positive outcomes.…”