Figure 1
A flow chart illustrating the selection process.
Figure 2
Antecedents, manifestations, and implications of playfulness in the workplace.
Figure 3
Intrapersonal playfulness and its antecedents and implications. Illustration (middle) created with AI.
Figure 4
Interpersonal playfulness and its antecedents and implications. Illustration (middle) created with AI.
Figure 5
Organizational playfulness and its antecedents and implications. Illustration (middle) created with AI.
Table 1
Directions for future research.
| 1. Broader scope of manifestations, concepts, and definitions of playfulness in the workplace |
| 2. Empirical research on the negative sides of playfulness in the workplace |
| 3. Empirical research on interpersonal-level antecedents and implications of playfulness in the workplace |
| 4. Empirical research on organizational-level antecedents and implications of playfulness in the workplace |
| 5. More diverse research designs and methods |
Appendix A
Chosen articles for the systematic literature review categorized by study type.
| AUTHOR | TITLE | YEAR | PUBLICATION | KEYWORDS | STUDY TYPE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bakker, A., Breevaart, K., Scharp, Y., & de Vries, J. | Daily self-leadership and playful work design: Proactiveapproaches of work in times of crisis. | 2021 | The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science | Basic needs, COVID-19, playful work design, self-determination theory, self-leadership | Empirical |
| Bakker, A.B., Hetland, J., Olsen, O.K., Espevik, P., & de Vries, J.D. | Job crafting and playful work design: Links with performance during busy and quiet days | 2020 | Journal of Vocational Behavior | JD-R theory, job crafting, job performance, playful work design, proactive work behavior | Empirical |
| Bakker, A. B., & Wingerden, J. | Rumination about COVID-19 and employee well-being: The role of playful work design. | 2021 | Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne | COVID-19, employee well-being, playful work design, proactive behaviour, rumination | Empirical |
| Caracuzzo, E., Caputo, A., Callea, A., Cortese, C.G., & Urbini, F. | Playful work design in fostering organizational citizenship behaviors and performance: two studies on the mediating role of work engagement | 2024 | Management Research Review | Structural equation modeling, organizational behavior, performance, work engagement, proactivity, organizational citizenship behaviors, playful work design | Empirical |
| Chen, I., & Choi, J.N. | Does leisure crafting improve workplace creativity? | 2024 | European Management Review | creativity at work, leisure crafting, playful work design, smartphone use for leisure | Empirical |
| Chughtai, H. | Instrumental aspects of play at work in information technology organisations. | 2020 | European Journal of Information Systems | Play, workplace play, IT Workplace, ethnography, critical hermeneutics | Empirical |
| Dishon-Berkovits, M., Bakker, A. B., & Peters, P. | Playful work design, engagement and performance: the moderating roles of boredom and conscientiousness. | 2023 | The International Journal of Human Resource Management | Boredom, conscientiousness, job performance, playful work design, work engagement | Empirical |
| Hoang, T. H., & Le, Q. H. | A self-regulatory adapting mechanism to changing work setting: Roles of playful work design and ambidexterity | 2024 | Current Research in Behavioral Sciences | Employee ambidexterity, uncertainty adaptability, playful work design, proactive service performance, proactive personality, Vietnam | Empirical |
| Huang, X.-J., Sun, Z.-Y., Li, J.-M. and Li, J.-H. | Will Fun and Care Prevent Gig Workers’ Withdrawal? A Moderated Mediation Model. | 2024 | Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources | Caring organizational ethical climate, gig work challenges, playful work design, workplace withdrawal behavior | Empirical |
| Kinder, T., Stenvall, J., & Memon, A. | Play at work, learning and innovation. | 2018 | Public Management Review | Innovation, play, governances, learning | Empirical |
| Li, L., & Tao, H. | Leveraging employee creativity through playfulness climate: The mediating role of working smart. | 2023 | Social Behavior and Personality | playfulness climate, employee creativity, working smart, playfulness at work, workplace culture | Empirical |
| Liu, W., Bakker, A. B., Tse, B. T., & van der Linden, D. | Does playful work design ‘lead to’ more creativity? A diary study on the role of flow. | 2022 | European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology | Alternative uses task, creativity, flow proneness, playful work design, work-related flow | Empirical |
| Liu, Z., Yuan, L., Cao, C., Yang, Y., & Zhuo, F. | How playfulness climate promotes the performance of millennial employees – the mediating role of change self-efficacy | 2024 | Journal of Organizational Change Management | Playfulness climate, change self-efficacy, task performance, innovation performance, millennial employees | Empirical |
| Mukerjee, J., Thurik, R., Torrès, O., & Wismans, A. | Measuring organizational play in small businesses | 2023 | Management Review Quarterly | Play, scale development, serious play, diversionary play, small business (owners), entrepreneurship | Empirical |
| Pors, J. G., & Andersen, N. Å. | Playful organisations: Undecidability as a scarce resource. | 2014 | Culture and Organization | Undecidability, organisational play, Niklas Luhmann, Gregory Bateson, the paradox of the decision, organisation theory | Empirical |
| Scharp, Y. S., Bakker, A. B., & Breevaart, K. | Playful work design and employee work engagement: A self-determination perspective | 2022 | Journal of Vocational Behaviour | Playful work design, proactivity, self-determination theory, basic need satisfaction, work engagement, play at work | Empirical |
| Scharp, Y. S., Bakker, A. B., Breevaart, K., Kruup, K., & Uusberg, A. | Playful work design: Conceptualization, measurement, and validity. | 2023 | Human Relations | Competitiveness, job and work design, play at work, playfulness, playful work design, proactive work behavior, scale development, work engagement | Empirical |
| Scharp, Y. S., Breevaart, K., & Bakker, A. B. | Using playful work design to deal with hindrance job demands: A quantitative diary study | 2021 | Journal of Occupational Health Psychology | Agency, communion, hindrance job demands, playful work design, work engagement | Empirical |
| Scharp, Y. S., Breevaart, K., Bakker, A. B., & van der Linden, D. | Daily playful work design: A trait activation perspective. | 2019 | Journal of Research in Personality | Creativity, cross-level interaction, daily diary study, multilevel modeling, openness, playful work design, playfulness, proactive work behavior, trait activation, work engagement | Empirical |
| Shabeer, S., Nasir, N., Nasir, S., Fatima, T., Yasir, A. F., Rehman, S., & Chaudhry, A. R. | Moving up without moving forward! managing career plateau in COVID-19: A dual serial mediations: MRN. | 2022 | Management Research Review | Human resource management, work life balance, proactive personality, career adaptability, career plateau, serial mediation, dual mediation, playful work design | Empirical |
| Zhou, F., Wang, N., & Wu, Y. J. | Does university playfulness climate matter? A testing of the mediation model of emotional labour. | 2018 | Innovations in Education and Teaching International | University playfulness climate, emotional labour, emotional regulation, innovation intention, job engagement | Empirical |
| Zhou, F., Zhang, N., & Mou, J. | Universities as incubators of innovation: The role of a university playfulness climate in teachers’ sustainable teaching innovation. | 2022 | The International Journal of Management Education, | University playfulness climate, job engagement, sensitivity to teaching and learning, sustainable teaching innovation | Empirical |
| Andersen, N. Å., & Pors, J. G. | Playful membership: embracing an unknown future. | 2014 | Management & Organizational History | Decision, Luhmann, membership, organizational play, potentiality, semantic history, uncertain futures | Theoretical |
| Bakker, A. B., Scharp, Y. S., Breevaart, K., & de Vries, J. D. | Playful Work Design: Introduction of a New Concept. | 2020 | The Spanish Journal of Psychology | JD-R theory, playfulness, playful work design, proactive work behavior, work engagement | Theoretical |
| Bakker, A.B., & van Woerkom, M. | Flow at Work: a Self-Determination Perspective. | 2017 | Occupational Health Science | Flow, job crafting, playful work design, self-determination theory, self-leadership, strengths use | Theoretical |
| Dodgson, M. | Innovation and play. | 2016 | Innovation | Innovation, play learning, uncertainty | Theoretical |
| Duerden, M. D., Courtright, S. H., & Widmer, M. A. | Why People Play at Work: A Theoretical Examination of Leisure-at-Work. | 2017 | Leisure Sciences | Leisure, work and leisure, work recovery | Theoretical |
| Spraggon, M. and Bodolica, V. | Social ludic activities: a polymorphous form of organizational play | 2014 | Journal of Managerial Psychology | Contextual factors, organizational play, play as engagement with work, play as resistance, social ludic activities | Theoretical |
| Spraggon, M. and Bodolica, V. | Collective tacit knowledge generation through play: Integrating socially distributed cognition and transactive memory systems | 2017 | Management Decision | Collective tacit knowledge generation, play in the workplace, social ludic activities, socially distributed cognition, transactive memory systems | Theoretical |
| Spraggon, M., & Bodolica, V. | A practice-based framework for understanding (informal) play as practice phenomena in organizations. | 2018 | Journal of Management & Organization | Play as practice, serious play, informal play, objects of work, context | Theoretical |
| Wright, J.T. | Liberating Human Expression: Work and Play or Work versus Play | 2018 | American Journal of Play | Alienation, containment play expression, digital games, human expression, play and work, virtual environment | Theoretical |
| Celestine N., & Yeo, G. | Having some fun with it: A theoretical review and typology of activity-based play-at-work. | 2021 | Journal of Organizational Behavior | Energy management, fun, hedonic, instrumental, play at work | Review |
| Petelczyc, C. A., Capezio, A., Wang, L., Restubog, S. L. D., & Aquino, K. | Play at Work: An Integrative Review and Agenda for Future Research. | 2018 | Journal of Management, | Play at work, playfulness, playful culture, fun at work | Review |
| Smith, T. A., Butts, M. M., Courtright, S. H., Duerden, M. D., & Widmer, M. A. | Work–leisure blending: An integrative conceptual review and framework to guide future research. | 2022 | Journal of Applied Psychology, | Work–leisure blending, organizational play, gamification, workplace fun, work breaks | Review |
| Tökkäri, V. | Organizational play: within and beyond managing | 2015 | Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management | Authenticity, organizational play, management, experience, metasynthesis, fun | Review |