Examining the effect of a play-at-work intervention on the organisational outcomes of work teams

Abstract

Many organisations have reformed to a fun work environment by implementing play in the workplace, but organisations have jumped the gun by doing this as the effect of play in the workplace is still unknown. Therefor this study aimed to gain more insight regarding the effect of play at work on psychological detachment, work enjoyment, employee performance, workplace boredom and turnover intention levels of work teams. A play at work intervention was implemented in a tele-sales organisation in the North West province of South Africa and employees had the opportunity to participate in the intervention during their lunch break. A longitudinal, three-wave intervention study design was used with paper-and-pencil-based questionnaires to collect data from a non-probability purposive sample consisting of an experimental (n = 9) and a control group (n = 17). The independent sample t-test was utilised to test for statistical differences between the mean scores, and an effect size was calculated with Cohen's d value. The results indicated that play at work can help employees to psychologically detach more during their lunch break, furthermore the results showed that the employees' team performance also increased when they participated in the play at work intervention. By relying on previous research regarding psychological detachment it can be stated that play at work can also have an effect on employees' workplace relationship conflicts, well-being, anxiety, role conflict, job demands and work engagement levels. As play at work increased the team performance of employees, play at work can also enhance the profitability of an organisation. After the conclusions were drawn up practical implications, recommendations and limitations regarding this study were made.