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The aim of this study is to advance awareness of fun in workplace. Fun plays a pivotal role in organizations –workplace- as in daily life and can be a powerful form of friendship, leading to extra role behavior and cognition, emotion and physical engagement. With a sample of 195 white-collar employees, we tested the relationship between workplace fun (fun activities, manager support and coworker socializing) and taking charge. Additionally, we investigated whether taking charge mediated the effects of workplace fun on job engagement. Moreover, the study contributes the understanding the role of fun activities, coworker socialization and manager support for fun to provide change oriented voluntarily behaviors (i.e. taking charge) and job engagement. By illuminating positive findings in workplace fun research, we hope to encourage more research that examines the beneficial aspects of fun for employees and teams in organizations.
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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.11.034
ScienceDirect
12th International Strategic Management Conference, ISMC 2016, 28-30 October 2016, Antalya,
Turkey
Finding Fun in Work: The effect of workplace fun on taking charge
and job engagement
Büşra Müceldilia, Oya Erdila
*
Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli 41400, Turkey
Abstract
The aim of this study is to advance awareness of fun in workplace. Fun plays a pivotal role in organizations
workplace- as in daily life and can be a powerful form of friendship, leading to extra role behavior and cognition,
emotion and physical engagement. With a sample of 195 white-collar employees, we tested the relationship between
workplace fun (fun activities, manager support and coworker socializing) and taking charge. Additionally, we
investigated whether taking charge mediated the effects of workplace fun on job engagement. Moreover, the study
contributes the understanding the role of fun activities, coworker socialization and manager support for fun to
provide change oriented voluntarily behaviors (i.e. taking charge) and job engagement. By illuminating positive
findings in workplace fun research, we hope to encourage more research that examines the beneficial aspects of fun
for employees and teams in organizations.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
Keywords: Fun; manager support; socialization; engagement; taking charge
1. Introduction
The salience and importance of fun at work have been emphasized by a growing number of practitioners and
managers. For example, “The 100 best companies to work for in America such as IBM, Google, Southwest Airlines
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +902626051413; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .
E-mail address: bmuceldili@gtu.edu.tr
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
305
şra Mü celdili and Oya Erdil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
and Pixar emphasized the role of fun in the workplace (Karl et al., 2005). Fun is the one of the positive phenomenon
in the workplace and included social events, recognition of personal milestones, public celebrations, humor, games
entertainment, opportunities for personal development, joy, play and fun titles (Ford, et al.2003, Grant et al.,2014).
As Owler et al. (2010) stated everyone want to fun at work and it has positive consequences on employees. Being
fun at work has far-reaching effects on employees and organizations. For example, fun positively affects employees
job satisfaction, commitment, creativity, energy, organizational citizenship behavior, productivity and negatively
affects absenteeism, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, turnover and burnout (Tews et al,2012).
Along with its positive effects on organizational outcomes, workplace fun has gained attention through the
increasing interest of positive psychology movement. Positive organizational scholarship and positive organizational
behavior (i.e., positive emotions, positive strengths and positive psychological states) increases the promoting fun in
the workplace. According to positive organizational scholarship perspective positive concepts enhances
extraordinary performance and broaden employees’ perspective (Cameron et al., 2003). Fun can be play unique role
in creating and fostering such positive deviance in organizations.
The study also investigated the job engagement. In recent years the interest to job engagement is increased due to
the importance role of sustainable competitive advantage and positive organizational outcomes. We observe that the
literature on job engagement focuses consequences rather than antecedents. In this study, we followed Kahn (1990)
and Rich et al. (2010) and investigated job engagement via emotional, physical and cognitive dimensions and argued
the role of being fun and taking charge role on job engagement. Job engagement refers to “the simultaneous
employment and expression of a person’s “preferred self” in task behaviors that promote connections to work and to
others, personal presence (physical, cognitive and emotional) and active, full role performances (Kahn,1990,p.700).
Saks (2006) noted engagement included the active of use of emotions, behaviors and cognitions. Physical
(behavioral) engagement refers to state of increased levels of effort to directed toward organizational goals through
devoting a lot of energy. Cognitive engagement refers to state of psychological interpretations about the work
devoting a lot of attention. Lastly, emotional engagement refers to state of positive feelings such as pride to the work
(Shuck and Reio,2014).
Interestingly, managers and practitioners noted the importance of workplace, scholars neglected the workplace
fun and especially empirical studies are nascent. In this study we seek to advance nascent literature on workplace fun
by empirically demonstrating that workplace fun -i.e. fun activities, coworker socialization and manager support-
(Tew et al.,2014) can have a measurable effect on taking charge and job engagement. As shown in conceptual
model, we examined, (i) the impact of fun activities, management support for fun and coworker socialization on
taking charge, (ii), the effect of taking charge and job engagement (iii), the mediating role of taking charge among
workplace fun and job engagement. Accordingly, our study is structured as follows; the first section provides a brief
literature review of workplace fun, after we discuss the relationship among workplace fun, taking charge and job
engagement in hypothesis development part. Hypothesis development is followed by research design where the
empirical results are discussed. Lastly, managerial implications and future research suggestions are provided.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Workplace Fun
There are distinct conceptualizations and constitutes of fun in the workplace in the literature (Tews et al.,2014;
Ford 2003). For example; while Fluegge (2008) emphasized fun activities are included in task activities, McDowell
(2004) highlighted that fun activities are excluded from task activities. As seen in table 1, a wide body of writings on
the nature of fun in the workplace. Scholars generally focus humor and playfulness when investigating workplace
fun. However it is important to note that humor, joking, funny, laughter and fun are similar concepts but their
conceptualizations are district. For instance, there is a reaction to humor such as laughter or smiling however, fun
does not have reactions (Plester, 2016). Basically fun shows the pleasant activities in the workplace that provides to
contacts and interaction among employees each other. In this study we follow Tews et al. (2014) and explain
306 şra Mü celdili and Oya Erdil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
workplace fun via three interrelated constructs namely are; fun activities, coworker socializing and manager support
for fun. Fun activities indicates formal activities that formed by organizations such as competitions, team building
activities. Coworker socialization shows informal activities are formed by coworkers such as going outside together
or joking with each other. Lastly, manager support for fun includes both formal and informal activities such as
encouraging for fun and allowing play around on the job.
Although organizational scholars yet investigated the workplace fun, interest of workplace fun date back to Deal
and Kennedy (1982), Peter and Waterman culture studies (Tews et al.,2012). For example, Deal and Kennedy and
Peter and Waterman emphasized the role of play, humor and fun developing corporate culture. Additionally,
Schein’s culture model also promote to workplace fun (Owler et al.,2010). Specifically, workplace fun will
facilitate by his three level model in organizational changing times.
Table 1 Definitions of Workplace Fun
Authors
Organic/Official
Definition
Ford et al (2003, p. 22)
Official
A fun work environment that intentionally
encourages, initiates and supports a variety of
enjoyable and pleasurable activities.
Flugge (2008, p.15)
Organic
Any social, interpersonal, or task activities at
work of a playful or humorous nature which
provide an individual with amusement,
enjoyment or pleasure.
McDowell (2005, p.9)
Organic
Engaging in activities not specifically related
to the job that are enjoyable, amusing or
playful.
Bolton and Houlihon (2009, p.557)
Official
Fun draws on an implied link between, play,
fun and laughter and increased corporate
performance, in the forms of motivation,
creativity and job satisfaction.
3. Hypothesis Development
3.1. The relationship between workplace fun and taking charge
Taking charge refers to extra role behavior that is inherently change oriented and aimed at improvement
(Morrison and Phelps,1999). Taking charge is a voluntarily behavior and goes beyond his or her responsibilities.
Morrison and Phelps (1999) mentioned the factors for motivating change oriented. In the light of these arguments,
we argue that workplace fun triggers improved procedures, introduce new structures, and suggest constructive
suggestions for improving operations. Fluegge (2008) also noted fun at work influences extra role behaviors.
Additionally, being fun, fosters the task motivation by providing energy for employees. This means that when
managers emphasize and encourage fun and allow play around on the job, they provide to increase feeling of energy
towards challenging tasks (Fluegge, 2008). Beside, through fun activities, coworker socializing and manager support
for fun expedite informal ties among employees and providing improved and changed activities. As Van Oech
(1982,110) stated “ a fun working environment is much more productive than a routine environment”.
Therefore;
H1: A positive relation exist between fun activities and taking charge.
H2: A positive relation exist between manager support for fun and taking charge.
H3: A positive relation exist between coworker socialization and taking charge.
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3.2. The relationship between taking charge and job engagement
As Ludwig and Frazier (2012) noted as “variables that lead to engagement are numerous”. We argue that taking
charge is positively related to job engagement. For example, employees who are ready for change and voluntarily
give extra effort for their task want to put their physical, emotional and cognitive energies to their work. Trying to
improve procedures and introducing new structures, technologies and policies foster emotional, physical and
emotional energies of engagement.
Therefore;
H4: A positive relation exist between taking charge and job engagement.
3.3. The relationship between workplace fun and job engagement
As Bolton and Holihan (2009) noted management scholars tend to investigate workplace fun for enhancing
employee involvement and empowering recently. Additionally, number of studies shows that workplace fun has
positive effect on employee engagement in organizations (Plester, 2009). However, Plester (2016) indicated there is
a gap in the literature that demonstrated the link between fun and engagement empirically. Nevertheless, their study
has investigated the relationship between fun and engagement through qualitative data.
We argue that fun can be a powerful tool of enhancing engagement in organizations, leading to emotions,
cognitions and behaviors. For example, fun activities, coworker socialization and manager support for fun facilitates
to contact employees each other and building friendship ties that strengths emotional engagement. Bakker et al.
(2011) suggest that creating an enthusiastic and energized organizational context facilitate work engagement. Also,
Christian et al. (2011) noted, managers influence employees’ perspectives of their work. When managers allow
employees to play around on the job and emphasize employee fun in the workplace, employees tend to show higher
engagement in their job and willing to invest themselves in their work. Additionally, Conway et al. (2015)
emphasized the crucial role communication mechanisms while identifying key drivers of engagement. In this
respect, coworker socializing via sharing stories and joking with each other in working hours influences job
engagement.
Therefore;
H5: Taking charge mediates the relationship between (i) fun activities, (ii) coworker socialization (iii)
management support for fun and job engagement.
Figure 1. Research Model
Fun
Activities
Managem
ent
Support
Fun
Coworker
Socializat
ion
H1
Engagement
x Cognitive
x Physcial
x Emotional
H4
H2
H3
H5(i)
H5(ii)
H5(iii)
308 şra Mü celdili and Oya Erdil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
4. Research Design
4.1. Sample and Data Collection
We collected data from 195 employee who worked under a supervisor in İstanbul and Kocaeli to empirically test the
proposed model. We used questionnaire and data were collected through face to face interviews. The questionnaire
was composed of four parts. The first part was designed to investigate the demographics of participants and the
second section includes items to measure workplace fun, the third part was designed to measure engagement
(i.e.emotional, physical and cognitive) and the last part includes items to measure taking charge.
Of the 195 participants, 58, 5 percent were male and 40,5 percent were female. The average age of employess was
26-35. Respondents reported 44,4 percent they had , had bachelor’s degree. 35,4 % had 1-3 years of work
experience at the organization. The questionnaire was prepared following an exhaustive literature review and all
constructs were measured with existing scales. All items were measured on a five point Likert-type scale where
1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.
4.2. Measures
Work place fun: Workplace fun was measured using fourteen items adopted from Tews et. al. (2014). We followed
Tews et al. (2014) and used fun activities (5 items), Cronbach alpha was,85 and sample item was “recognition of
personal milestones”, co-worker socialization (4 items) Cronbach α: ,86 and sample item was “My coworkers and I
socialize at work” and manager support for fun (5 items) Cronbach α:,93 and sample item was “My managers try
to make my work fun”.
Job Engagement: Job engagement was measured by three dimensions and eighteen items (i.e. physical, emotional
and cognitive) adopted from Rich et al. (2010). Physical engagement was measured via six items and an example
item was; I strive as hard as I can to complete my job” and Cronbach alpha was: 79. Emotional engagement was
measured by six items and a sample item was “I am enthusiastic in my job” Cronbach α: ,90 ; last dimension is
cognitive engagement was measured through 6 items and a sample item was “At work, I focus a great deal of
attention on my job” and ” Cronbach α: ,90
Taking charge: Taking charge was measured by ten items adopted from Morrison and Phelps (1999). An example
item was “In my work group, group members are very cooperative with one another”. ” Cronbach α: ,91.
4.3. Factor Analysis
We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS for examining construct validity. After
eliminating problematical items, the resulting measurement model was found to fit the data reasonably well:
χ2() = 950,544, comparative fit index (CFI) = .923, incremental fit index (IFI) = .924, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) =
.917, χ2/df = 1.636, and root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05. The Parsimonious Normed fit
index (PNFI) = .761, which is above the cutoff point of .70. In addition, as seen above all items loaded significantly
on their respective constructs and enhance to support for convergent validity.
Table 2 shows the reliabilities, correlations and descriptive statistics for the scales. Table 2 also demonstrates all
reliability estimates, including coefficient alphas, average variance extracted (AVE) for each variable, and AMOS-
based composite reliabilities.
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şra Mü celdili and Oya Erdil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
Table 2. Correlations and Descriptive Statistics
**p<.05, ***p < .01. Note: Numbers on diagonals indicate square root of AVE. No correlation is greater than the
corresponding square root of AVE.
4.4. Analysis and Findings
To test our hypotheses, we performed a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using AMOS. Table 3 shows
the relationships among workplace fun, taking charge and job engagement. Table 3 indicates that our model
adequately fits the data. The incremental fit index and comparative fit index were .92. The ratio (χ2/d.f.), the chi-
square per degree of freedom, is 1.63,. The RMSEA is 0.05. For the relationship between fun activities and taking
charge, we found that fun activities (β = .21 p.05) is not related to taking charge, management support for fun (β =
.20, p < .01), and co-worker socialization (β = .20 p < .05) are positively related to taking charge, supporting H2 and
H3 and not supported H1. Regarding the role of taking charge on job engagement, we found that taking charge is
positively related to engagement (β = .45 p < .01), supporting H4.
To test the mediating effect of taking charge between fun activities, coworker socialization and management support
for fun and job engagement (i.e., H5), we followed Baron and Kenny (1986) procedure. Table 4 indicates analysis
results. Based on the below results H5 is supported.
Table 3. Path model
Hypotheses
Path
Path coefficient
Result
H1
Fun Activities → Taking Charge
.21
Not Supported
H2
Management Support For F → Taking C
.20***
Supported
H3
Coworker Soc→ Taking C
.17**
Supported
H4
Taking C →Job Engagement
.45***
Supported
χ2/df=1.63, CFI: 0,92 IFI: 0,92, RMSEA: 0,05
Path coefficients are standardized. *p < .1. , **p < .05. , ***p|<.01.
Variables
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Fun Activities
1
(.70)
Coworker Socialization
2
.25**
(.80)
Management support for fun
3
.40**
.40**
(.87)
Taking Charge
4
.14**
.28**
.33**
(.76)
Emotional Engagement
5
.40**
.22**
.40**
.41**
(.84)
Physical Engagement
6
.21**
.26**
.18**
.40**
.36**
(.70)
Cognitive Engagement
7
.30**
.13
.19**
.29**
.52**
.56**
(.83)
Mean
2.9
3.9
3.0
3.8
3.7
4.0 3.8
S.dev.
1.12
.79
1.80
.63
.89
.61 .77
Average Var. Ext. (AVE)
.50
.64
.76
.72
.58
.50 .70
Composite reliability
.87
.87
.94
.92
.90
.80 .90
Cronbach’s α
.85
.86
.93
.91
.92
.86 .90
310 şra Mü celdili and Oya Erdil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
Table 4. Results of mediating hypothesis
Model A
Model B
Model C
Fun → Engagement
CWSEngagement
MSF Engagement
0,18*
0,27**
0,18*
0,30***
0,11
0,50
Fun → Taking c
CWS→ Taking c
MSF → Taking c
,-05
0,16**
0,21***
,-0,47
0,16**
0,31***
Taking c. → Engagement.
0,48***
Path coefficients are standardized. *p < .1. , **p < .05. , ***p|<.01.
5. Conclusion
This study has demonstrated the relations among workplace fun via three forms of fun, namely are; fun activities,
co-worker socializing and manager support for fun- taking charge and job engagement. Specifically, our study
empirically shows that workplace fun is positively related to engagement and taking charge in white-collar
employees that supports prior studies. In light of previous qualitative arguments (Owler,2010), our findings
emphasize that scholars should pay attention to build culture through informal forms of fun. When employees
perceive manager support for fun they will be motivated about constructive changes in their workplaces and
challenge with status-quo rather supporting the status quo.
Interestingly, the study did not show any significant statistical relationship among formal fun activities and taking
charge. The reason for this might be related to the perception formal and informal fun activities in organizations.
Indeed, there are evidences in the literature that demonstrates the positive relationship between informal fun
activities i.e. manager support and co-worker socialization and extra role behaviour (Moorman et al., 1998) and for
example, Podsakoff et al. (1990) highlighted the important role of transformational leadership (the leadership style
challenge the status-quo) on extra-role behaviour. However, the studies that shows formal activities and extra role
behaviour is nascent.
In addition, this study indicated the mediator role of taking charge between workplace fun and job engagement.
While previous studies highlighted the direct effect of workplace fun on workplace engagement (Plester and
Hutchison,2016) we specifically demonstrated the indirect role of co-worker socialization on job engagement.
Next, the study showed that employees desire to suggest new work methods, improve operations and introduce new
structures or alternative solutions to problems foster job engagement.
In this study we showed the positive effects of workplace fun. However, future studies should investigate the
negative effects of workplace fun. For example, fun activities such as public celebrations of work achievements,
social events, competitions induce time wasting or chaos in the workplace. Additionally, in this study we focus on
workplace fun in individual level. Workplace fun can be investigated in the positive organizational scholarship
umbrella. Because it is inherently positive concept and however, there are studies about workplace fun interestingly
is missing.
It is important to investigate workplace fun on collective level (i.e. team). Future research can investigate
antecedents and consequences of collective level fun. Furthermore, the moderating effect of firm type and firm size
can be investigated. Lastly, future research might explore underlying questions whether organizational climate
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şra Mü celdili and Oya Erdil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 ( 2016 ) 304 – 312
lessen the effect of workplace fun activities on job engagement.
As a conclusion of the research we can state that, the management should encourage employees to socialize each
other and emphasize joking and humour importance. In this respect, human resource managers should promote fun
in the workplace via formal (public celebrations, social events, competitions) and informal ways (socializing coffee
break, joking each other’s).
Finally, this study is not without limitations. There are some methodological limitations to this study. We gathered
data only by using survey questionnaire by cross-sectional design. Then the study can not provide the real causality
among workplace fun and taking charge and job engagement. Specifically, we only investigate white-collar and in
service sector. Besides, the study was conducted in Turkey Marmara Region. To generalize the effects of fun cross
cultural studies are needed.
To conclude in this study we showed the positive side of workplace fun in positive organizational scholarship
context which has received less attention in the organizational behaviour literature. The results indicated that
manager support for fun and co-worker socialization positively influences taking charge. Moreover, the results
showed that taking charge slightly mediates the relationship among workplace fun and job engagement.
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... on the other hand, odF, strategically planned and implemented by leadership or hr departments, aims to achieve specific outcomes like improved team cohesion or stress reduction and positive feelings (Michel et al., 2019). although well-intentioned, these initiatives can sometimes feel forced or inauthentic, potentially reducing their effectiveness or even fostering cynicism among employees (Müceldili & erdil, 2016;Plester & hutchison, 2016;Plester et al., 2015). employees can find odF activities distracting, tiresome, and unpleasant, especially if they have a low preference for socializing. ...
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Objective Fun, play, and humour are accepted as integral to understanding how individuals cope with adversity at work and thrive within an organization. Far from being merely about entertainment, Fun at Work embodies strategic elements via social bonding, essential for bolstering employee well-being, fostering engagement, and enhancing productivity. However, no previous systematic review has been published on the available evidence examining the links between fun at work, work engagement, and burnout. Methods A systematic search was conducted to identify eligible studies reporting on the relationship between fun at work and work engagement or burnout. A random-effects model was used for the meta-analysis whereas a constant comparative approach was employed for the development of the narrative synthesis. Results The results of the meta-analysis showed a substantial overlap between work engagement and fun at work and a smaller overlap with emotional exhaustion. The relationship between fun at work and work engagement was stronger in non-western/non-westernized countries and studies with samples including a higher proportion of men. The narrative review led to the proposition of two primary and bidirectional categories that capture the essence of workplace fun: Organization-Driven Fun and Employee-Driven Fun, providing the basis for a new conceptual approach to fun at work. Conclusions The proposed framework provides clear paths to future research directions and posits interesting theoretical questions concerning the role of fun as a resource/demand and challenge/hindrance in the Job-Demands Resources model.
... Hasil dari penelitian ini dapat membuka kemungkinan untuk melakukan penelitian mengenai workplace fun dan pengaruhnya pada variabel-variabel lain di Indonesia. Seperti penelitian-penelitian terdahulu yang menyatakan bahwa workplace fun memiliki pengaruh pada OCB, angka turnover, task performance, work engagement, dan lain sebagainya (Fluegge-Woolf, 2014;Karl & Peluchette, 2006;Karl et al., 2005;Müceldili & Erdil, 2016;Tews, Michel, & Stafford, 2013). Dengan adanya adaptasi alat ukur ini ke Bahasa Indonesia dapat dilakukan penelitan serupa dengan subjek karyawan Indonesia agar memperluas literasi terhadap pengetahuan industri dan organisasi di Indonesia. ...
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The purpose of this study is to adapt the workplace fun scale into the Indonesian version of the scale. This study is based on the ITC (International Test Commission) guidelines for the adaptation process and conducts statistical analysis with the Cronbach's Alpha reliability test and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). CFA results This implies that the model proposed in this study is valid for assessing Workplace Fun in Indonesia and can be used for future research on Workplace Fun in Indonesia.
... The test-retest reliability over two weeks revealed significant correlation coefficients, confirming the scale's stability over time. These findings are consistent with prior research by Tews et al. 7 and Müceldili et al. 18 , which reported strong reliability coefficients for their versions of the same scale. Furthermore, Cronbach's alpha for the three subscales in Tews et al.'s 14-item scale were 0.85, 0.86, and 0.93 18 . ...
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Previous research has highlighted the importance of workplace fun in enhancing employee satisfaction and performance, particularly in high-stress professions like nursing. However, a notable gap exists in understanding how workplace fun is perceived and measured among nurses in Persian-speaking countries. This study addresses this gap by translating the Workplace Fun Scale and assessing its psychometric properties among nurses. The findings will provide insights into the scale’s applicability in these contexts and pave the way for healthcare organizations to significantly explore ways to enhance nurses’ enjoyment of work in Persian-speaking countries. This survey, which involved 321 nurses from medical education centers in Ardabil, was conducted with a meticulous and rigorous methodology. Standard questionnaires collected the data, including a demographic form and the translated Workplace Fun Scale. The study examined the three aspects of workplace fun: fun activities, coworker socializing, and manager support for fun. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the structure, and reliability was assessed through retest coefficients, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and composite reliability coefficients. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 14 and LISREL version 8.8, ensuring the highest research standards. The validity of both form and content was confirmed through translation and reverse translation. The Workplace Fun Scale showed high internal consistency and reliability, with significant Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, composite reliability, and two-week retest coefficients of 0.859, 0.885, and 0.459, respectively (all at the p < 0.01 level). Fit indices, including GFI (0.97), AGFI (0.94), CFI (0.99), NFI (0.98), TLI (0.97), and SRMR (0.04), indicated a good fit of the measurement model, confirming the validity of the scale in assessing workplace fun. The confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the translated version of the workplace fun scale, adapted from Tews, exhibited a robust factor structure and internal homogeneity within the Iranian sample. Furthermore, the scale demonstrated positive internal validity and reliability in Persian translation. These findings suggest that the scale possesses acceptable psychometric properties, making it a valuable tool for assessing workplace fun among nurses in Persian-speaking countries.
... This study has several practical implications. Firstly, taking charge behaviors can significantly enhance job performance [13,81,82], and positively affect employee work engagement [83], job satisfaction [14], and affective organizational commitment [14]. Additionally, it is beneficial to the career development of employees. ...
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Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to explore the mediating role of employees’ strengths use and the moderating role of employees’ ambitions in the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ taking charge behaviors. A total of 333 Chinese employees from various organizations across China (including industries such as manufacturing, IT, and education) completed our survey at two time points, with a two-week lag. We used structural equation modeling and moderated mediation path analysis to test our hypotheses. The research revealed that strengths use partially mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ taking charge behaviors, and ambition positively moderated the relationship between empowering leadership and strengths use, as well as the indirect relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ taking charge behaviors through strengths use. It extends the application field of strengths use, providing a new theoretical perspective on behavioral mechanisms for understanding the empowering leadership–employees’ taking charge behaviors relationship, and offers valuable strategies for organizations and leaders to promote employees’ taking charge behaviors more effectively.
... Some previous research studies examined the effects of Fun at Workplace on employees and its impact on job satisfaction levels (Plester and Hutchison, 2016, Müceldili and Erdil, 2016, Gin Choi et al., 2013. These studies investigated the bond between several interrelated variables to identify their correlation. ...
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Purpose: As globalization keeps evolving, firms have adopted new shapes and cultures. Introducing fun at the Workplace was one way to enhance employees’ effectiveness leading to better organizational outcomes. This study aimed to identify fun's effects on employees’ overall job satisfaction level at the Workplace. Methodology: The research addresses several questions, which targeted causes of job dissatisfaction, benefits provided in the Workplace, how managers should develop a satisfying working environment eliminating all the odds, and the downsides of providing an unpleasant working environment. A survey questionnaire was designed to address several questions. Around 76 respondents from different generations, various organizations and designations attempted the survey online. Findings: The survey suggested that providing a friendly environment and offering rewards and recognition was majorly considered an element of fun by employees compared to other fun activities at work. According to the findings, there is a straight correlation between fun and job satisfaction. Practical implications: This research suggests executing and adjusting workplace fun activities to meet company objectives and employee preferences in a healthy and inclusive environment increases job retention as well as satisfaction. Originality value: This research offers a thorough examination of the effect of satisfactory environment provided to the employees and explores their viewpoints on job enjoyment, emphasizing the pros and cons.
... Such as, anxiety that is generated by unfair events triggers problem prevention behaviours as a response (Barclay and Kiefer, 2019); happiness elicits proactivity towards team ; collective positive emotion related to proactive customer service behaviour positively (Wu and Chen, 2019). There is some research that pays attention to some less studied emotion and its effect on different proactive behaviours, such as workplace fun positively related to taking charge (Müceldili and Erdil, 2016). ...
... From the employees' standpoint, WPF has a beneficial effect on employee job involvement and performance, vitality, organizational behavior, and employee wellbeing while having a negative impact on anxiety, absenteeism, emotional exhaustion, intension to turnover, and dissipation (Müceldili & Erdil, 2016;Tews et al., 2012). Studies showed that workplace fun has been shown to increase WE in previous research (Fluegge-Woolf, 2014;Tsaur et al., 2019), which is especially true in the tourism and hospitality industry. ...
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... Such as, anxiety that is generated by unfair events triggers problem prevention behaviours as a response (Barclay and Kiefer, 2019); happiness elicits proactivity towards team ; collective positive emotion related to proactive customer service behaviour positively (Wu and Chen, 2019). There is some research that pays attention to some less studied emotion and its effect on different proactive behaviours, such as workplace fun positively related to taking charge (Müceldili and Erdil, 2016). ...
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Purpose The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between taking charge, bootlegging innovation and innovative job performance, and to explore the moderating roles of felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC) and creative self-efficacy (CSE). Design/methodology/approach Data for this research was collected from 503 employees working in a chain company. Through a longitudinal study design, a three-wave survey with 397 valid data provided support for the proposed theoretical model. Findings The results maintain a positive association between taking charge, bootlegging innovation and innovative job performance, indicating the mediating effect of bootlegging innovation. Additionally, both the FRCC and CSE facilitate the indirect effect of taking charge on innovative job performance through bootlegging innovation. Furthermore, the integrated moderated mediation model analysis suggested that FRCC is more vital in improving employees' innovative job performance. Originality/value This research aims to break the black box between taking charge and innovative job performance, which has been relatively unexplored. Drawing from self-determination theory (SDT) and the proactive motivation model, the authors verify the bridge-building role of bootlegging innovation and the dual-facilitating effects of FRCC and CSE while employees conduct taking charge. This study’s results provide new insight for managers to foster, encourage and support employees' proactive behavior.
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Purpose – The idea of workplace fun seems positive, straightforward and simple but emerging research suggests a surprising complexity and ambiguity to this concept. Drawing on recent literature and empirical data, the purpose of this paper is to use three different forms of workplace fun: managed, organic and task fun to examine the relationship between fun and workplace engagement. Design/methodology/approach – Using an ethnographic approach, the qualitative data originated from four different New Zealand organizations, within different industries. Organizations included a law firm, a financial institution, an information technology company and a utility services provider. Data for this study were collected from semi-structured interviews with a range of participants in each company. In total 59 interviews were conducted with approximately 15 originating from each of the four organizations. One full-time month was spent within each company experiencing the everyday life and behaviours at all levels of each organization. The specific focus of the research is organizational culture and humour and during analysis findings emerged that linked to engagement, fun, disengagement and the concept of flow. Findings – This paper offers exploratory findings that suggest some specific connections between the concepts of fun and engagement. Empirical connections between these concepts are not currently apparent in either engagement or fun research, yet the data suggest some firm associations between them. The exploratory findings suggest that some forms of workplace fun offer individual employees a refreshing break which creates positive affect. Participants perceive that such affect results in greater workplace and task engagement. Additionally the data show that some people experience their work tasks as a form of fun and the authors link this to a specific form of engagement known as “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975; Moneta, 2010). The authors suggest an organizational-level effect, where workplace fun creates enjoyment which stimulates greater overall engagement with the team, unit or organization itself. Conversely the data also suggest that for some people managed or organic fun (see Plester et al. , 2015) creates distraction, disharmony or dissonance that disrupts their flow and can foster disengagement. Practical implications – The ambiguity and complexity in the relationship between these concepts is an emerging topic for research that offers a variety of implications for scholars and practitioners of HRM and organizational behaviour. The authors contend that workplace fun potentially offers practitioners opportunities for fostering a climate of high engagement which may include most employees and thus create additional workplace benefits. Additionally through highlighting employee reactions to different types of fun we suggest ways of avoiding employee disengagement, disharmony and cynicism and the associated negative effects. Originality/value – The concept of fun is not empirically linked with current engagement research and the authors assert that workplace fun is an important driver of employee engagement. The authors identity engagement at the individual task level and further extend engagement research by emphasizing that fun has the potential to create engagement at the team, unit or organizational level. These differing levels of engagement have not thus far been differentiated in the extant literature.
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