Bringing Fun to an Organization

The typical workplace is set up to enhance productivity and accomplishments. As such, most employees know the workplace as a place where they go to earn a living to earn a living, while accomplishing the goals set by the employer. Without putting specific effort at bringing fun to the workplace, only a small percentage of workers find some enjoyment or job satisfaction from their jobs. Seeing that this is common across many workplaces and directly affects the job output, employers have nowadays adopted ways of creating fun workplaces as a business strategy (Jeffcoat & Gibson 2006).

The best way to start-off in bringing fun to the workplace is recruiting employees who have a sense of humor. According to Narisi (2008), the perfect way to gauge whether a job candidate poses a sense of humor is by watching the way he or she responds to interview questions. One of the important questions that the interviewer should answer is, is this person taking him or herself too seriously even in questions that do not require much seriousness? Narisi (2008) suggests the use of ‘dumb’ questions like, ‘why aren’t you married yet? ’, ‘what do you think of the paintings in our office?

Among others. Greenwood (2009), states that a survey on 700 American CEOs revealed that 98 percent of them preferred interviewing job candidates with a sense of humor. Most of these CEOs attested to having a passion of not only attracting upbeat candidates, but also admitted to recruiting such and working hard to retain such in their respective organizations. After settling down with the workforce who satisfies the humor criteria, Ryan& associates (2004), suggests that employers should introduce other things like dressing for fun on specific days.

Despite having the ‘dress for fun’ days in the office, the employer can encourage the staff to wear something frivolous that does not have to be visible, but serves to remind them that they should not take themselves too seriously. According to Urquhart (2003), it is the responsibility of managers to orchestrate fun in the workplace, but he or she should be cognizant of the fact that the employees create fun in the workplace. As such, the managers should act as facilitators to ensure that employees have all the resources and freedom needed to transform the workplace in to a fun place.

There is controversy among analysts of just how productive a fun-filled workplace is. To this, Urquhart (2003) argues that a depressed mind is less productive than one that is jovial. In addition, fun creates a positive mental state, where employees learn to love their work and create a bond between employees who share jokes thus creating stronger work teams. Scientists also claim that fun and laughter stimulates the production of oxygen and endorphins to the brain, which results in increased creativity and clear thinking among employees (Urquhart, 2003). In the allbusimess.

com (2008) website, employers are encouraged to allow the employees to have flextime in their job schedules. The website states that this shows the employees that the employer is concerned about their welfare. Accordingly, the employee perception motivates them leading to a less stressful and more productive workforce (allbusiness. com, 2008). This perception is backed up by countless other websites, which advocate for the use of fun in the workplace as a sure way of relieving stress, improving the individual health of employees and boosting the overall production of the organization.

According to a study conducted by Karl & Peluchette (2006), and published in the Journal of Leadership and Organizational studies, employees who worked in fun environments had more confidence in their jobs and were able to serve their clientele better. This argument is backed by Jeffcoat & Gibson (2006), who agree that fun in the workplace results in lower downtimes, increased productivity, better job satisfaction and low absenteeism. This gives employers even more reasons to find ways of incorporating fun in the workplace.

According to Lynn (2005), bringing fun to the work place is not as easy as many people might wan to believe. This is especially the case where employees and their managers have had conflicting paths regarding flexibility in the workplace. To beat the odds, Lynn (2005) suggests that employers need to create a trusting environment before adopting fun in the workplace. If they fail to create a trusting environment, chances are that the employees will reject any efforts to create fun in the work place.

Trust in the workplace can be created through effective communication and respect, which wipes out negative emotions such as fear, hostility and scorn from the employees. According to jobsdb. com (2009), the major responsibility of bringing fun to the workplace lies with the manager. He or she is supposed to schedule breaks, during which employees can engage in fun-filled activities. In addition, he or she can seek employee opinions regarding cultivating fun in the workplace. Such could be by holding contests, celebrations or team-building activities.

Another approach of bringing fun to an organization would be the use of morale officer’s who interact with the employees at all times, checking if there are any morale needs that needs to be addressed (Stafford, 2000). The Morale officers’ sole responsibility is to ensure that employees have a reason to look forward to the work environment with renewed anticipation each day. Fun is the one guaranteed way to achieve this. They may seek employee opinions on how best to achieve the organization objectives over lunch or tea.

This breaks the office formality and leaves the employees more relaxed. To be successful in making the workplace a fun place, Stafford (2000) suggests that the morale officers should work on five pointers namely, i)feedback from employees, ii) humor, iii)bringing employees together, iv) a reward process for the employees and v) Sticking to the organization’s mission by engaging in creative and innovative work. As noted earlier in this speech, the fun in the workplace is not an easy thing to achieve. According to McGarvey (2006, fun in the workplace does not happen.

Rather, it takes hard work and creativity, mostly from the organization leaders. To bring fun to the work place hence requires the direct participation of the managerial leaders in the company. As such, it would be futile for the top organization management to issue orders for the employees to have fun, if they do not lead and demonstrate how fun in the company should be modeled. Even employees agree that the best fun trend in the workplace is set from the top management. A perfect example is the CEO and founder of Cognex Corporation, Dr.

Robert Shillman, who indulges his employees to creative bonuses, where rather than giving them token money, he looks for fun alternative ways through which they can enjoy their benefits. Shillman is renowned for his work hard and play hard style of management (cognex. com, 2009). To him, the adage “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy” stands true. The same spirit of leading from the front was exhibited by Wal-mart’s founder, Sam Walton, who not only wore a hula skirt, but also led employees in the giant retailer for a dance along Wall Street (Greenwood, 2009)..

Shillman’s management style is celebrated by Joe Neulinger (quoted by Greenwood, 2009), who states that people who do not see the need for fun in the workplace are less likely to become CEOs. This observation is shared by Fry (2001), who states that managers who scores poorly on the fun scale are bad leaders whose lack of ‘a funny bone’ is evident through the unmotivated and less productive teams that they lead. Fry’s suggestion to managers is that they should begin meetings on good cheer, by maybe saying something nice about the workforce, the day or by creating a fun-filled challenge for the group.

According to Fry (2001), the possibilities of how much fun the managers can create in the work environment is limitless. However, as indicated elsewhere in the speech, it requires working on. As such, it will require a deliberate effort from the managers to create a fun workplace. Some of them might however dismiss this by saying that people should just do what they were hired to do. For this, the answer is just as blunt; managers, who expect their employee to do nothing else but work while at work, will most likely get less than the expected results.

On the other hand, those who induce fun activities in the job environment ends up with an increased bottom line, without having to pressurize employees in to working harder (Fry, 2001). It is thus upon managers to choose, which of the two ways best suits them. Weinstein (1997) suggests that fun can be brought into the work place by doing things differently. For example, instead of generalizing the reward systems such that every employee gets the same reward, a little creativity can infuse fun in the reward program.

When such happens, Weinstein, who is also the President PlayFair Inc reckons that the reward scheme becomes more personalized and memorable to each recipient employee. In addition, the employees take pride in not only the reward, but also the means through which the reward was presented to them. The employee can for example take the employees to a shopping mall, hand them money and instruct them to purchase personal gifts in a specified time limit. From such an activity, the employee not only appreciates the reward, but the shopping experience. However, it is not the responsibility of the managers to bring fun to the organization.

The individual employees too have a responsibility that they enjoy their jobs, which is the most likely way to achieving job satisfaction amongst them. This however is partly dependent on whether the environment at work place allows them to indulge in fun activities. Hemsath (1997) reckons that in the environment where employees are required to be optimally productive despite the stressful environment that the conventional workplace is, it is incumbent that employees find fun in the workplace without necessarily waiting for the employers hell-bent at changing nothing about the old workplace to affect the fun-changes for them.

The best strategy for employees as stated by Hemsath (1997) starts with one self. Here the employee sets to become the fun-catalyst in the office and enliven the spontaneous spirit between him and his co-workers. This can be as effortless as changing one’s title, to take up a more funny title. Secondly, an individual employee can set it upon himself to inspire fun in his colleagues. This is done through encouraging them to take-up fun activities, recognizing and supporting their efforts at creating amusement.

If the work environment allows, individual workers can carry toys, play funny music and even post colorful pictures that boost their spirits when at work. The employees can also influence the management to create rooms where the environment is less tense. Another way that individual employees can contribute to fun in an organization is by looking for humor in their situations (Hemsath, 1997). Every situation has its dark and lighter sides. An optimistic employee will concentrate more on the brighter sides of everything, which is more fun than the gloomy downside.

To make the workplace comfortable for everyone however, the management and the employees must distinguish between beneficial fun, and jokes that may be deemed offensive by some parties. As such, Vikesland (2007), suggests that the workplace should have some fun rules that distinguish between what is acceptable and outright breach of company policies. As such, the employees should be made to understand that fun is not mocking, mimicking or teasing other co-workers or management. Off-color jokes, sexual innuendos, deception, sarcasm, dark humor and ethnic jokes do not qualify as fun in the workplace too.

Conclusion The modern day manager realizes the benefits of bringing fun in an organization. With the countless resources propagating the benefits of bringing fun aboard the organization, well meaning CEOs, Managers or Corporate Strategists will no doubt try incorporating fun into their management styles. While there are countless ways to have fun in the workplace, the general guess however remains that some employees may be too distracted by the fun and hence loose out on the productivity.

However, the success stories of same management styles that have adopted fun in the workplace indicates that there are variable ways of ensuring that despite the fun, employees not only meet their targets, but also exceed them. Companies like Google have demonstrated that fun and productivity can go hand-in-hand (Bryant, 2007). What Google offers – play station games, free food, scooters and pets among other things- are just an example of what organizations can give or allow their employees to indulge in.

A peak of what life in the Google offices is like can be viewed at http://www. cnn. com/video/#/video/business/2007/01/05/fortune. best. cos. to. work. for. cnn. cnn According to Bathurst (2008), fun in the work place has more than simple benefits. Besides improving productivity, organizations are using it today to battle employee turnover. This is because employees who enjoy the work environment are more likely to stick in the same job for longer than disgruntled employees are. Besides, employees today have more choices and can easily change jobs than was the case in the 1950’s.

In conclusion, fun in the workplace has become the new business management trend that people believe encourages employee creativity, morale, satisfaction, productivity and increases employee retention. As such, fun has undeniably become an integral part of the modern corporate culture. References Allbusiness. com. (2008). Making the Workplace Fun. AllBusiness: A D& B company. Retrieved 06 May 2009 from http://www. allbusiness. com/human-resources/employee-development-team-building/11357-1. html Barthurst, Patricia. (2008). Having fun at work increases Loyalty, Productivity.

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