Questions and answers about fun at work.

Recently, much has been said about "fun at work" environments and their importance for employee morale and productivity. Yet, there is no serious empirical or theoretical work on the nature or consequences of having fun in organizations. In this article we discover, through the eyes of practicing human resource managers, what a fun work environment is, its component characteristics, and its advantages for employees, work teams, and organizations. We also discover the specific types of things these human resource managers' organizations use to promote a fun work environment. Data were gathered from a national e-mail survey of human resource managers. There were 572 usable replies. The human resource managers strongly favor promoting a fun work environment because they believe such environments offer great benefits both to the individual and the organization. To them, fun working environments are here to stay, not just another passing managerial fad.

Hardly a day goes by without reading an interview with a prominent executive or hearing a knowledgeable observer suggest that having fun at work is important for employee morale and productivity (see, for example: Meyer, 1999; Strand, 2000; Workforce, 2000; and Zbar, 1999). Authors of popular business books add further support for the importance of having fun at work. These include Tom Peter's In Pursuit of Wow (1994), Deal and Key's Corporate Celebration (1998), Schneider and Bowen's Winning the Service Game (1995), and Kouzes and Posner's The Leadership Challenge (1995). Kouzes and Posner exemplify the general theme of these writers by concluding, "If you--and others--aren't having fun doing what you're doing, chances are people aren't doing the best they can do" (p. 59). Similar sentiments are echoed by many writers in the trade press (see, for example: Boczany, 1985; Casison, 2000; Gordon, 1992; Hemsath, 1997; Kitchel, 1996; Mariotti, 1999; McGhee, 2000; Millis, 1999; and National Underwriter, 1999).

Fun also gets strong endorsements from respected practitioners. Chili's former CEO, Norm Brinker, acknowledges the importance of creating a fun work environment in his book, On the Brink (Brinker & Phillips, 1996), by stating, "If you have fun at what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. Make work like play--and play like hell" (p. 195). Freiberg and Freiberg (1996) add further emphasis to the importance of having fun at work. They describe the type of people Southwest Airlines seeks in its hiring process: "First and foremost, Southwest Airlines looks for a sense of humor.... We look for attitudes; people with a sense of humor who don't rake themselves too seriously.... with other-directed, outgoing personalities, individuals who become part of an extended family of people, who work hard and have fun at the same time" (p. 67). Southwest knows that if it is to achieve its core principle, "Make flying fun," for its customers, it must make its employees' jobs fun first.

Walt Disney, the man who established the benchmark of service for service organizations, knew the importance of having fun at work as reflected in his statement, "You don't work for a dollar--you work to create and have fun" (Walt Disney, 1994, p. 80). Disney worked hard to instill this philosophy as a core value of the company he created, and the Walt Disney Corporation is still an exemplar of customer service today.

Although the frequency of its discussion in the popular press indicates there is much practitioner interest on this topic, there is no serious empirical or theoretical work on the nature or consequences of having fun in organizations. There is not even a generally accepted definition of what constitutes a fun work environment or any agreement on what an organization can do to promote a fun work setting. While there are some who write about play, humor, and a positive organizational culture, the lack of any specific definition of a fun work environment means the many discussions of its importance lack general application or specific ideas as to what works and what does not.

The purpose of this article is to discover, through the eyes of practicing human resource managers, what is a fun work environment, its component characteristics, and its advantages for employees, work teams, and organizations. We also discover the specific activities these human resource managers report are done by their organizations to promote a fun work environment. We oriented our study to address eight questions that the current body of writing on fun at work leaves unanswered.

Human resource managers were chosen for this survey for two reasons. First, they are typically responsible for administering programs that focus on increasing the value of the organization's human resources, and alley carefully study the impact that various programs and activities have on those human resources. Thus, more than any other member of the management team, they are most likely to be aware of how employees feel about their working environment and how that environment, including its sense of being a fun workplace, affects behavior and attitudes at work. Second, probably more than any other potential group to survey, they have thought about what actually makes or could make their organization a fun place to work.

Data were gathered, with permission, through a national e-mail survey of members of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). (See the Appendix for a condensed version of the survey questionnaire.) Approximately 4,000 randomly selected members received a questionnaire asking for their opinion on issues related to fun at work. There were 572 usable replies. Selected demographic characteristics of the respondents, such as age and geographic location, were statistically compared with the total membership of SHRM and no significant differences were found. The questions focused on managerial concerns about whether or not creating a fun work environment was worth whatever time and effort it would take. We hoped to discover if the reasons offered by the many writers arguing in favor of promoting fun at work were valid. Although we offer descriptive data, our results add an important new understanding to this largely unstudied issue.

Are Employees Having as Much Fun at Work as Managers Think They Should?

The simple answer is no. Our human resource manager sample was asked to compare what they thought the level of fun ought to be in their organizations compared to their perception of the actual level of fun they thought their employees were having. The responses show that the reported level of fun in organizations is surprisingly low. Less than a fourth thought the amount was about right. On the other hand, three-fourths thought their employees were having less fun at work than they should. Only three percent indicated there was too much fun in their organizations. To expand on this question, managers were also asked how often employees should be able to experience fun in their organizations. More than 75 percent of the respondents indicated employees should have this opportunity frequently or often. On the opposite side of this issue, less than three percent of the respondents said infrequently or never.

Finally, as one more approach to answering this question, the managers were asked, on a scale of 1 to 10, how they rated their organizations with regard to its fun work environment. Approximately one-fifth of the respondents rated their organizations with a score of three or less and approximately the same number rated their firm at eight or better. The remainder of the respondents rated their organizations in the middle, which we interpret as meaning they think their own organizations are about average. While that may be seen as good news, it really is not. When considered in light of the other two questions, it likely means that while these respondents thought their company was somewhere about average, it was not very good. In other words, they believe that even though their organizations were no better or worse than others, they still had a long way to go to be the kind of fun work environment they felt was desirable.

What Makes a Work Environment Fun?

One of the more challenging issues for manager wishing to create a fun work environment is to determine exactly what makes a work environment fire. Academic literature offers little guidance, so the effort to determine which activities contribute to a fun work environment relies heavily on the anecdotal practitioner literature and consultants' books (see, for example: Hemsath & Yerkes, 1997; Weinstein, 1996; Yerkes, 2001.) One writer suggests workplace morale and productivity improve when introducing quirky workplace activities, group lunches, or after-hours outings (Hale, 2002). Others suggest Halloween parties--according to a SHRM Benefits survey, more than one-third of reporting organizations offered some sort of Halloween celebration (Lucas, 2000). Although many creative suggestions are made, we wanted to learn what organizations seeking to introduce fun into their work environments actually do to create this fun.