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A practice-based framework for understanding (informal) play as practice phenomena in organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2018

Martin Spraggon  and
Virginia Bodolica Open the ORCID record for Virginia Bodolica [Opens in a new window]
Martin Spraggon
Affiliation:
Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG), Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Virginia Bodolica*
Affiliation:
Department of Management, School of Business Administration, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
*
Corresponding author: virginia.bodolica@hec.ca
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Abstract

Play as practice literature has long been dominated by studies on the serious play. Focusing on a play that develops in artificial settings and requires managerial intervention, these studies overlook other playful manifestations, which are employee-driven and situated in the natural work habitat. This paper extends current play as practice reflections by adopting the notion of informal play as an alternative to prevailing views that espouses the employee rather than the managerial perspective. Drawing upon insights from play and practice literature, we incorporate five practice-based constructs into the systematic analysis of informal play in the world of work. We advance an integrative framework that highlights the constitutive relationships between the retained constructs and acknowledges different enactments of informal play for generating productive outcomes or cynically resisting authority. A multi-domain agenda for future inquiry that may contribute to a more nuanced understanding of informal play as practice in organizations concludes the paper.

Keywords

play as practiceserious playinformal playobjects of workcontext
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 24 , Issue 6 , November 2018 , pp. 846 - 869
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018 

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