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Does fun work? The complexity of promoting fun at work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Kathryn Owler ,
Rachel Morrison  and
Barbara Plester
Kathryn Owler
Affiliation:
Management Department, Faculty of Business, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand
Rachel Morrison
Affiliation:
Management Department, Faculty of Business, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand
Barbara Plester
Affiliation:
Department of Management & International Business, Business School, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Abstract

For some years now there has been growing enthusiasm amongst practitioners, managers and some academics about the value of promoting fun at work, resulting in a substantial body of managerial literature. As a result, the authors believe that fun at work deserves further research attention. In this paper the authors critically review the large body of practitioner and management literature promoting fun at work. We find this literature dependent on a number of untheorised, untested assumptions about the nature of fun, its desirability and usefulness to business. Utilising Schein’s organisational theory, alongside ethnographic research into fun at work, we highlight the complexity of implementing fun at work initiatives in practice. Drawing on organizational psychology we also make a short case study of the current use of fun at work as a job marketing tool by recruitment agencies in New Zealand. Our discussion does make it possible to come to some conclusions about fun at work. However, we also pose a series of research questions that emerge from our discussion that will provide a framework for ongoing research.

Keywords

workplace funworkplace engagementorganisational culturepsychological contract
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 338 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2010

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