Fun and well‐being: insights from senior managers in a local authority
| Date | 02 October 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450910991758 |
| Published date | 02 October 2009 |
| Pages | 600-612 |
| Author | Nicole Renee Baptiste |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Fun and well-being: insights from
senior managers in a local
authority
Nicole Renee Baptiste
School of Business and Social Sciences, Roehampton University, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to critically examine the dynamics of fun and well-being at work, as
experienced and perceived by senior managers in a public sector context.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on research into well-being with a British
Local Authority, focusing on 12 senior managers through verbal accounts of their own experiences
and perceptions of fun initiatives.
Findings – The data reveal that managers were not having “fun”. However, well-being at work
emerged as central to influencing and enabling “fun at work” and was strongly linked to eight
organisational factors (Working Time Arrangements; Stress Management; Communication Strategies;
Reward Strategies; Management Development; Team Working; Relationships with Stakeholders;
Clarification and Reduction in Change Initiatives). Thus whilst “Fun at work” prescriptions are
common in the literature, findings from these accounts indicate people might be happier to experience
better well-being at work.
Research limitations/implications – Senior managers’ accounts of well-being identified salient
issues, thus providing a basis for broader research in this area.
Practical implications – Attention to the material aspects of employment relations is
recommended over ‘silly hat day’ prescriptions. Organisations wishing to enhance fun at work
could focus efforts on creating organisational conditions that encourage well-being through the eight
identified factors. This has relevance for the employment relationship, and for practitioners and
academics alike.
Originality/value – This study makes a distinctive contribution to the fun at work literature by
providing rich empirical data, and extending the “tenets of fun” to consider an alternative
conceptualisation of “well-being at work” instead of the organised/managed fun activities presently
embraced in the literature.
Keywords Workplace, Employeebehaviour, Employee involvement, Employee participation
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Fun at work. Play culture. Humour. Laughter. Skiing trips. Weekends in Spain. Fishing
trips. Boozy barbecues. Award ceremonies. Hula hoop marathons. Paper mummy
fashion shows. Wild-wacky activities. How do these terms fit into the manager’s
glossary in the twenty-first century world of work, with its profoundly changing
character, and shifting and uncertain environment (Burke and Ng, 2006)? What do they
deliver to organisations facing the challenges of globalisation, cost efficiency, profit
maximisation and, more recently, global recession? Historically fun has not been
readily associated with the workplace, but a growing body of evidence suggests that
fun at work can enhance quality of work life, reputation, performance, employee
development programmes, diversity initiatives, communication, group cohesiveness,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
ER
31,6
600
Received 31 January 2009
Revised 1 June 2009
Accepted 1 July 2009
Employee Relations
Vol. 31 No. 6, 2009
pp. 600-612
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450910991758
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