A diary study of playful work design, flow, and performance at work: The moderating role of organizational support for playful work design

Abstract

This study investigates the role of playful work design (PWD) as a proactive behavioural strategy within the motivational process described in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory. The first objective is to explore the flow state as a mediating mechanism that links daily PWD to daily performance. The second objective is to examine whether employees' perceptions of their organization being supportive of PWD predicts greater use of daily PWD and serves as an environmental condition for the effects of daily PWD. We employed a daily diary design and surveyed 256 participants for five consecutive workdays. The findings supported the hypothesized within-person mediated process, showing that on days when employees used more PWD, they found themselves more in the flow state, which significantly predicted better performance. Furthermore, we observed significant cross-level direct and moderating effects of organizational support for PWD. The data show that employees who perceive that their organization encourages and supports PWD are more likely to engage in such behaviours. The results also underscore the role of organizational support for PWD in maximizing the benefits of PWD in the prediction of flow, but not in the prediction of performance. Organizational support for PWD significantly moderated the effects of PWD on flow but not on performance. These findings contribute to the broader understanding of the role of PWD in JD-R theory's motivational process and shed light on the cross-level interaction between environmental conditions and proactive strategies.