Playful work design and positive variables within the work context: a network analysis

What the paper says

Purpose To date, the research has attested to the positive association of playful work design (PWD) with some valuable organizational and personal outcomes. However, most of this research only used deductive techniques to explore the PWD construct and its dimensions (named designing fun and designing competition). This study aims to investigate via a network analysis the interplay between PWD dimensions and some positive organizational variables, and a personality trait, and how each dimension is associated with other variables within the network. Design/methodology/approach Participants (n = 466) were Italian employees who completed an online survey. Using the job demands-resources model as a theoretical framework and network analysis, and using the extended Bayesian information criterion graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (EBICglasso) as our methodological approach, we sought to fill the gap within the PWD literature. Findings The network structure revealed that PWD dimensions were positioned peripherally, whereas job crafting was the central node in the network. Designing competition emerged as one of key mediators within the network. The network analysis highlighted the prominent role of designing competition compared to designing fun related to the strength and direction of the associations, with other variables considered. However, replication of the network that uses larger samples to produce more robust estimates of network measures is highly recommended. Originality/value To the authors' knowledge, this was the first study to investigate PWD dimensions using a network model as an explorative tool to chart the rough outlines based on empirical data.