Fun in the workplace: A review and expanded theoretical perspective

Since the turn of the century, a growing body of research has systemically examined the role of fun in the workplace. In general, the extant body of research has demonstrated that fun in the workplace has a beneficial impact for individuals and organizations, but some evidence has been mixed. To help advance research in this area, the aims of this paper are two-fold. The first aim is to review previous research on fun in the workplace and identify gaps in the literature to provide direction for future work. The second aim is to offer a theoretical framework that helps explain how individuals may interpret fun in the workplace and how it may be most beneficial. Drawing on the notion that fun in the workplace is in the eye of the beholder, our proposed framework provides a more nuanced understanding of the temporal processes and contextual factors that explain how individuals appraise and ultimately benefit from fun.     

Hotel employees’ fun climate at work: Effects on work-family conflict and employee deep acting through a collectivistic perspective

Although the importance of workplace fun in hospitality organizations has been emphasized by scholars, discussion of the mechanism of a workplace fun climate in collectivistic cultural contexts is still rare in current literature. Therefore, based on a collectivistic perspective, this study aims to examine the effects of a three-component fun climate at work (socializing with coworkers, celebrating at work, and global fun at work) on employee deep acting and work-family conflict. A total of 389 usable survey responses were collected from full-time hotel employees in China. The results of this study reveal that socializing with coworkers and celebrating at work enhance global fun at work. Moreover, global fun at work significantly reduces employees’ work-family conflict and strengthens their deep acting at work. Findings of this study not only contribute to knowledge of understanding workplace fun climate in hospitality literature but also offer valuable practical implications to the hospitality industry.     

Creating and Sustaining Fun Work Environments in Hospitality and Service Organizations

ABSTRACT

Managers of hospitality and service organizations have long believed that it is critical for their employees to have fun at work. They recognize the important relationships between their employees having fun and their customers having a pleasant experience. While everyone accepts this notion, there is little empirical support for either a definition of what managers can do to promote a fun work environment or even what makes a fun work environment fun. Further, while many positive outcomes for both the individual and the organization are claimed to be associated with fun work environments, there is even less empirical data to support this belief.

This primary purpose of the paper is to identify and define the actions and activities that managers can do or support to create and sustain the feeling employees have that their firm is a fun place to work or have a “fun work environment.” The paper reports results of a large e-mail survey of human resource managers designed to identify what cues managers send to create a fun work environment, the degree to which these cues actually are associated with a work environment that is fun, and the positive individual and organizational outcomes that are claimed to be associated with working in such an environment. The study offers definitions and measurements of the cueing process, a fun work environment, and outcomes of the process.

We found a strong relationship between the antecedent cues and the degree to which the work environment was perceived as fun. The relationships between a fun work environment and various outcomes were not as strong or comprehensive. While the results of this research are positive and extend our knowledge of cues, culture and especially “fun work environments,” more needs to be done in validating the measures and extending the research.