Scholarlink

<p>While play and playfulness are essential for development, its benefits may extend across many aspects of life. Despite the growing interest in the intrapersonal benefits of playfulness, research is sparse on its social consequences in organizations. In this research, we devise and test an expanded model of the social implications of employee playfulness by examining how employee playfulness affects peer perceptions and subsequent social reactions. Through a pre-registered experiment and a multi-wave field study (<i>N</i> = 603), our results show that employee playfulness can evoke peer authenticity perceptions about the focal employee; particularly, when team competitive climate is high. These perceptions contribute to several social benefits for the playful employees, including enhanced leadership judgments, increased social support, and decreased social undermining by peers. Our work expands the understanding of social reactions to employee playfulness by elucidating the underlying mechanisms and identifying key contextual moderators. We discuss the practical implications of our findings, and suggest avenues for future research.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Understanding the social benefits for playful employees in the workplace

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年9月30日

查看全文
  • Li Guo,
  • Wenqi Liu,
  • René T. Proyer,
  • Suosuo Jia,
  • Ying Wang

摘要

While play and playfulness are essential for development, its benefits may extend across many aspects of life. Despite the growing interest in the intrapersonal benefits of playfulness, research is sparse on its social consequences in organizations. In this research, we devise and test an expanded model of the social implications of employee playfulness by examining how employee playfulness affects peer perceptions and subsequent social reactions. Through a pre-registered experiment and a multi-wave field study (N = 603), our results show that employee playfulness can evoke peer authenticity perceptions about the focal employee; particularly, when team competitive climate is high. These perceptions contribute to several social benefits for the playful employees, including enhanced leadership judgments, increased social support, and decreased social undermining by peers. Our work expands the understanding of social reactions to employee playfulness by elucidating the underlying mechanisms and identifying key contextual moderators. We discuss the practical implications of our findings, and suggest avenues for future research.