Are we having fun yet? A consideration of workplace fun and engagement

Sharon C. Bolton · Maeve Houlihan

133 citations0/0 files storedEmployee Relations

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Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior Employee Performance and Management Humor Studies and Applications

Abstract

Purpose This extended editorial to the Special Issue “Are we having fun yet? A consideration of workplace fun and engagement” aims to review the current debates on organised “fun at work” and to suggest a framework for understanding workplace fun and employee engagement. The papers included in the Special Issue are also to be introduced. Design/methodology/approach The editorial review asks for an approach that offers a critical appraisal and sets the latest move towards fun at work within the context of the material realties of work. Findings A review of contemporary debates on fun at work reveals a predominantly prescriptive focus on attempts to engage employees through fun activities that oversimplifies the human dynamism involved in the employment relationship. The editorial suggests that we need to consider the motivations, processes and outcomes of managed fun at work initiatives and to consider employees' reactions in terms of “shades of engagement” that detail how people variously engage, enjoy, endure, or escape managed fun. Research limitations/implications The suggested framework for understanding workplace fun and employee engagement offers opportunities for empirical testing. Practical implications Understanding workplace fun and the work that it does, and does not do, offers opportunities to improve relationships between employees and between employees and the organisation. Originality/value The editorial and Special Issue overall offers an important contribution to the ongoing fun at work and employee engagement debate and opens up avenues for further exploration and discussion.

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References

2000Positive psychology: An introduction.2000Positive psychology: An introduction.2005Happiness: Lessons from a New Science 2003Positive organizational scholarship : foundations of a new discipline 1981Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism.1995Emotion in the Workplace: A Reappraisal 1959“Banana Time”: Job Satisfaction and Informal Interaction 1988'Engineering Humour': Masculinity, Joking and Conflict in Shop-floor Relations

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2016Fun times: the relationship between fun and workplace engagement 2013Effects of attitudes vs experience of workplace fun on employee behaviors 2018Fun in the workplace: A review and expanded theoretical perspective 2018“It’s Like Hating Puppies!” Employee Disengagement and Corporate Social Responsibility 2019Interactivity, active collaborative learning, and learning performance: The moderating role of perceived fun by using personal response systems 2014

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