Workplace Fun: A Management Tool for Employee Engagement?

Abstract

This paper offers a review of contemporary debates on organic and managed workplace fun initiatives. The managed workplace fun initiatives are named by some scholars and practitioners as a management tool for employee engagement. This paper discusses the workplace fun phenomenon and investigates the most frequently used workplace fun practices and the fun practices which are believed to be the most effective ones. Furthermore, it examines whether the workplace fun activities are regarded as a management tool through a literature review and a quantitative research. For the research 388 Turkish private bank employees who work for the headquarters of these banks are surveyed using convenient sampling method. The findings of the study highlight not only the most frequently used workplace fun practices like recognition of personal milestones, community volunteerism engagement opportunities, entertainment and games, but also the fun practices which are believed to be the most effective ones like stress release activities, recognition of personal milestones, fun social events and community volunteerism engagement opportunities among the others. The responses also revealed that the workplace fun initiatives are not regarded as a management tool by the employees and/or a sanction of the management on them. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence that there are significant negative correlations between effectiveness of the fun activities and usage of them as a management tool or a sanction of management on them.