Towards a playful organization ideal-type

Values of a playful organizational culture

Conference paper (2011)
Department
Multi Actor Systems (TPM) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2011 Warmelink, H., and DIGRA
Playfulness, organization, organizational culture, conceptual framework, play theory
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Published Date

31-12-2011

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Source:

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

Faculty

Technology, Policy and Management

Department

Multi Actor Systems

Abstract

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.

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