Towards a playful organization ideal-type: Values of a playful organizational culture

Towards a playful organization ideal-type: Values of a playful organizational culture

Warmelink, H.J.G.

Technology, Policy and Management

Multi Actor Systems

2011-12-31

Numerous organizations have embarked on playful endeavors such as serious gaming (playing games with a learning/training purpose) and ‘gamification’ (applying game technology and principles to make existing practices more game-like). One could consequently theorize about the dawn of playful or anizations, i.e. a type of organization that is culturally and structurally playful. This article offers a first step towards a playful organization theory. It specifically offers a conceptual framework of a playful organizational culture. Following a review of play theory as well as organization and management theory that was inspired by play, the author describes a playful organizational culture as encompassing contingency, opportunism, equivalence, instructiveness, meritocracy and onviviality as values. The framework offers leaders, managers and game/play designers opportunities to further develop playful endeavors for organizations. It also offers social scientists opportunities to further research the emergence and issues of playful organizations.

playfulness, organization, organizational culture, conceptual framework, play theory

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:23758ef1-2312-453a-a821-9f1fd69b5376

Digital Games Research Association

Think Design Play; proceedings of the 5th DIGRA conference, Utrecht (The Netherlands), 14-17 Sept., 2011

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2011 Warmelink, H., and DIGRA