Does fun work? The complexity of promoting fun at work

Kathryn Owler, Rachel Morrison and Barbara Plester

Journal of Management & Organization, 2010, vol. 16, issue 3, 338-352

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.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:jomorg:v:16:y:2010:i:03:p:338-352_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Management & Organization from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().