Arnold B. Bakker, Jørn Hetland, Yuri S. Scharp, Olav Kjellevold Olsen, Roar Espevik
8 min
Although employees often have limited control over task assignments, schedules, or collaboration partners, they may still have discretion in how they carry out tasks. Building on Job Demands-Resources theory, we integrate information-processing perspectives of play to propose that playful work design – proactively adding elements of fun and competition to routine activities – can be useful even in tightly structured jobs by increasing activated positive affect and reducing exhaustion. We tested this proposition in a 20-day diary study among 57 Norwegian naval cadets, yielding 1,046 day-level observations, using multilevel structural equation modeling. On days when cadets designed their work playfully, they reported more activated positive affect and less exhaustion. Combining designing fun with designing competition amplified these benefits. Thus, small discretionary choices in how employees approach work may produce immediate well-being gains in low-discretion roles and offer a micro-level pathway through which play at work can support performance.
This study investigates whether employees in highly structured, low-discretion jobs—where they have little control over their tasks, schedules, or colleagues—can still improve their own well-being and performance. By integrating information-processing theories of play into the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework, the researchers explore how "playful work design" serves as a bottom-up mechanism for modifying the motivational meaning of work.
The authors conceptualize playful work design through two distinct, proactive behaviors:
While conceptually distinct, the authors propose these strategies are functionally complementary. Drawing on the JD-R "boosting hypothesis," they argue that combining fun (resource-enhancing) with competition (challenge-creating) creates a synergy that maximizes motivational impact, leading to higher activated positive affect and lower exhaustion than either strategy alone.
The researchers conducted a 20-day daily diary study with 57 Norwegian naval cadets. This setting provided a rigorous, high-structure environment to test whether participants could successfully reframe monotonous, rule-bound tasks.
Results from 1,046 daily observations demonstrate that when cadets engaged in playful work design, they reported immediate, day-level improvements in well-being. Specifically, designing fun directly reduced daily exhaustion and increased positive affect, while designing competition primarily boosted positive affect. Most notably, the data confirmed a multiplicative effect: when cadets employed both strategies simultaneously, the positive impacts on both well-being and self-rated task performance were amplified.
This study challenges the traditional view that play in the workplace is inherently frivolous or unproductive. By providing evidence that even small, discretionary choices can lead to meaningful gains in well-being and performance, the authors offer a practical path for employees to proactively manage their own engagement. It suggests that organizations should move away from top-down only management and instead foster a culture that allows individuals to experiment with playful, self-initiated framing of their work.
Sam: And that theory has a well-known claim that resources plus challenge is the sweet spot. Is that where the "both together" prediction comes from?
Alex: Yes. If fun supplies resources and competition supplies challenge, then using both should do more than either alone. They also point to game design. Good games blend story and exploration with goals and scoring.
Sam: What was actually new here? Playful work design isn't a brand-new idea.
Alex: Right, it isn't. Earlier work usually treated it as one combined score, or tested fun and competition separately. This study tests whether they amplify each other. It also looks at exhaustion, where earlier evidence was inconsistent, alongside the usual positive feelings.
Sam: Let's get to how they measured it. A diary over a voyage could be messy.
Alex: The voyage ran from Northern Europe to North America, in early 2020. Cadets worked four-hour shifts: sailing, safety drills, maintenance, night watch. Every day just before supper, they rated how much they had designed fun and competition that day. They also rated how energized and enthusiastic they felt, how drained they felt, and how well they'd performed. Response was high, giving roughly a thousand day-level observations.
Sam: People who are generally upbeat probably report more fun and feel better. How do they get past that?
Alex: They focus on within-person effects. Each cadet's day is compared to that same cadet's own average. So the question becomes: on days you played more than usual, did you feel better than usual? They also controlled for the previous day's mood and exhaustion.
Sam: So what did they find?
Alex: On days cadets designed more fun, they reported more energized positive feelings and less exhaustion. On days they designed more competition, they also felt more energized. But competition on its own showed no link with exhaustion.
Sam: So fun seems protective, and competition only energizes.
Alex: That's how the authors read it. Both energize, and fun also looks protective against feeling drained. Competition alone doesn't appear to reduce exhaustion.
Sam: And the combination, which was the headline?
Alex: On days with lots of competition, the link between fun and energized feelings was more than twice as strong as on low-competition days. And fun only went with less exhaustion when competition was also high. When they flipped the analysis, competition only helped through these pathways when fun was also high.
Sam: What about performance? That's what a manager will ask about.
Alex: The pattern carries through to performance, but indirectly and modestly. Playing more went with feeling better, and feeling better went with higher performance ratings that day. Those indirect effects are small. And performance was self-rated, so the authors call it perceived performance.
Sam: If these were real gains, I'd expect some carryover into the next day. Did they check?
Alex: They did, and it didn't hold up well. The cross-day model fit the data poorly. Fun did predict slightly better mood the next day. But the fun-and-competition combination actually went the wrong way across days. The authors conclude the effects look episodic, operating within a day rather than building up.
Sam: So how much should we trust all this? Give me the honest picture.
Alex: The within-person design and the prior-day controls are real strengths. But it's correlational, and the authors say plainly they can't make causal claims. Everything is self-report. And the positive affect measure had weak reliability day to day, which the authors argue makes their estimates conservative, but also less precise.
Sam: And the sample. Fifty-seven cadets on a training ship isn't exactly a typical workplace.
Alex: The authors make the same point. Cadets have unusual discipline, team structure, and expectations. They suggest the findings speak mainly to tightly structured, high-demand settings, like first responders, aviation crews, or medical residents. They even suggest the synergy might matter less in jobs that are already resourceful and challenging.
Sam: Any warning for managers who hear this and want to gamify everything?
Alex: Yes. Play imposed from the top undermines the point of play, and can breed cynicism. And competition is best kept voluntary and self-referenced, competing with yourself. Pushing people to compete with each other may hurt collaboration and add pressure.
Sam: So who should actually read the full paper, and where should they start?
Alex: Researchers in job design, proactive behaviour, or daily well-being, especially in rigid workplaces. Start with the hypothesis testing on the fun-by-competition interaction. Then read the supplementary analyses, where the cross-day results complicate the story. Finish with the limitations section, which is unusually candid.
Sam: And for everyone else, the one line to carry around?
Alex: You may not control what your job asks of you. But how you play it seems to shape how you feel that day.
Sam: Something to try on the next long shift.