John W. Michel, Ph.D., is the Busch Faculty Chair and an Associate Professor of Management at Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Studies from SUNY Albany. As an organizational psychologist and award-winning researcher, Dr. Michel focuses on workplace fun, positive social connections, and supportive leadership to improve employee engagement, well-being, and retention. His recent work explores how building friendships at work through fun can combat loneliness and emotional exhaustion, enhancing well-being and performance. He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, with his work cited more than 3,000 times and read over 95,000 times.
Dr. Michel teaches leadership, organizational behavior, and human resources management at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has consulted for various organizations on management training, selection and retention practices, and employee climate surveys. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Business & Psychology, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Human Performance, and the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, and is a regular ad hoc reviewer for several top journals in management and applied psychology.
Michael Tews, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Hospitality Management at Pennsylvania State University. He holds a Ph.D. and B.S. from Cornell University and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. His research primarily focuses on employee turnover and retention, workplace fun, and staffing, training, and development within the hospitality industry. Dr. Tews is renowned for his work on the impact of fun in the workplace, examining how it influences employee well-being, performance, and retention. His studies have explored various dimensions of fun, including the distinction between managed and organic fun, and how these impact workplace dynamics and employee satisfaction.
In addition to his research, Dr. Tews teaches courses related to hospitality management and actively participates in the advisory committee for the Leadership Initiative at Penn State. His work has been published in numerous journals, including the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Employee Relations. Dr. Tews also serves on the editorial boards of several top journals in the fields of hospitality management and organizational psychology.
1) From your perspective, what are the key differences between ‘packaged fun’ (forced fun) and ‘organic fun’ in the workplace, and how can leaders foster more organic fun among their teams?
Michael Tews: Traditionally, ‘forced fun’ is sponsored by the organization, while ‘organic fun’ bubbles up naturally. But I don’t think we should disregard organized activities entirely. The key is in the delivery. Make them voluntary and align them with people’s interests.
John Michel: Peter Fleming, who originally wrote about this, argued that when management mandates fun, it often leads to forced participation and surface acting. But organizations and managers can still provide fun experiences if people have autonomy in how they engage.
Michael Tews: It’s not so much who’s offering the fun, but rather the experience itself and the level of autonomy people have.
John Michel: Exactly. There’s this idea that if it’s management-led, it’s automatically negative, and if it’s spontaneous, it’s positive. But organic fun can also turn negative, like a happy hour where someone gets too drunk. So, it’s more nuanced than that.
Michael Tews: The level we’re looking at matters too. For a small team, shared activities can help resolve conflicts. But for organization-wide problems, fun is not a standalone solution. It can be part of a system of interventions, though, as fun ultimately facilitates communication and connection.
2) You’ve explored how manager support for fun influences workplace dynamics. What actionable steps can managers take to support fun without compromising productivity or being perceived as inauthentic? Can you provide specific examples or case studies where managers have successfully implemented these steps?
Michael Tews: Managers should figure out their own personality for fun. If you’re not naturally outgoing, find ways to amp it up at work. There’s an ebb and flow to management. There are times for productivity and times for fun. Managers need to find a balance.
John Michel: The first thing is trust between managers and employees. Managers need to trust that allowing some leeway for fun will be beneficial in the long run. They also need to provide autonomy, giving employees the freedom to engage in fun activities without being overbearing.
Leading by example is crucial. When things are stressful, managers can model the behavior they want to see by joking around, bringing in food, and getting to know their employees on a personal level.
Michael Tews: And I think as managers you have to figure out what is their own personality for fun, too, because you start trying to mimic people, that’s when it becomes a little bit inauthentic. So, figure out your own personality and go a little bit zanier above it.
John Michel: Our research has found that manager support for fun is one of the most important things. We’re in the process of developing this right now, Mike, breaking out this manager support for fun construct into these things that we just spoke about – rewarding people when they’re having fun, leading by example. But we know that it’s super vital. Without manager support for fun, a lot of this other stuff probably doesn’t happen.
3) In my research, I’ve seen that the larger the enterprise, the more complex fun is to orchestrate from the top down. What strategies can large organizations use to ensure fun initiatives are inclusive, especially when it’s clear there is a wide range of preferences and/or a diverse workforce?
John Michel: This is where a climate for inclusiveness and psychological safety is crucial. It’s about designing an environment where these things can occur. This is built off the work of Tiffany McDowell (she recently published a book called Strategies for Organization Design). For large organizations, it can be very hard. It has to happen at the workgroup level, where managers can tailor initiatives to their team’s specific needs.
Michael Tews: Managers of individual workgroups are best positioned to understand and cater to diverse needs. It doesn’t always have to be a grand, top-down initiative.
John Michel: The only thing that the CEO is going to do is be able to set a tone, enabling the managers to successfully make good decisions. But Michael’s right, I mean a lot of this stuff has to happen at the workgroup level, right? It has to, right? In our work with restaurants, there were huge differences between locations.
Each restaurant had a big effect on how much fun was happening (in each restaurant location). So, it wasn’t like there was a grand push down from the top. It was like, no, the managers who were adopting certain things were much more successful in getting their people to have more fun. You need that broad message of policy and then allow the individual departments or managers to find their own version of it.
4) You’ve discussed the importance of psychological safety in fostering workplace fun, and it’s well understood that’s where most businesses need to start if they desire to create or build upon an environment where fun can thrive. Can you share some practical examples of how companies have successfully created a psychologically safe environment that encourages fun (particularly if fun had previously been perceived as absent)?
Michael Tews: There’s fun blended with work, and then there’s fun for fun’s sake. Fun for fun’s sake is going to a baseball game, or out for a meal, purely for the sake of team-building. Then there’s fun intermingled with work, like productivity contests or building Legos to visualize team vision. These may lead to psychological safety in different ways.
John Michel: Psychological safety ultimately comes down to the manager. It’s not about just feeling good; it’s about feeling empowered to speak up. Fun can enhance psychological safety if used to address complex or controversial issues within the team. For example, using a fun activity to address conflict can help people interact more informally and openly.
Michael Tews: Fun can also level the playing field and reduce hierarchies. When managers participate in fun activities, it signals that everyone is on the same team.
John Michel: Let’s say you’re dealing with a potential issue of inclusiveness, with a majority male team and a few women. One way to potentially diffuse conflict from a diversity conversation could be to build Legos around how to build a more inclusive workgroup. Instead of making it a serious conversation, have them do something active and then discuss the benefits and drawbacks of their build. The critical aspect of psychological safety is that when an alternative position comes up, it needs to be a conversation that can be had without people getting offended. Fun can be useful for creating that environment.
5) What advice would you give to organizations that are skeptical about investing in fun due to concerns regarding risk and/or ROI, and how can they start small to see if their initiatives are beneficial? What metrics or indicators should they look for to measure the success of these small-scale fun initiatives?
Michael Tews: I think a wise way to go is to take existing requirements, like a meeting or training session, and incorporate a small amount of time, maybe 15 minutes, for something fun. Be efficient with the rest of your time; you’d be surprised at how people interact. Opening with Uno or Jenga, for example, can be engaging. It doesn’t have to depend on your employees’ needs and values, but doing something a little interactive at the beginning can lead to a more efficient meeting. Also, don’t forget to celebrate moments. When a holiday comes up, bring in themed treats or do something small. For those that jive with it, great. If you don’t want to participate, you don’t have to.
John Michel: It goes back to trust. They need to have some degree of trust. Managers need to realize that people bring a lot of themselves (and their lives) to work. Think about it: do you want your weekend to be miserable, full of chores, or do you want to have some fun?
Also, we have to think about people’s well-being, not just productivity. If people aren’t happy, they won’t be productive, no matter what you do. If people are stressed, unhappy, or unwell, they won’t bring their best selves to work. So, managers need to create an environment where people can be their best selves, not just in terms of performance but also as human beings. Fun is a way to provide a mechanism for this.
Michael Tews: One way to think about it is creating opportunities for connection. Fun is about getting people to connect, so how can we create those opportunities? Small ones, big ones, medium-sized ones, whatever the case may be. It takes it away from just “fun” and focuses on how we can get people to connect over something meaningful to them.
John Michel: Michael’s done things I really like. He’s much more fun in class than I am. He brought in Uno decks and just said, “Go.” The students played and asked why they were doing this, and he said, “No reason.” That’s how you start small. There’s Parkinson’s Law in meetings: we fill the time we allot. So, instead of a 60-minute meeting, have a 40-minute meeting and build in some time for silly questions, Uno, or Jenga. They’re not eating into other tasks, it’s built-in, and it’s small.
Michael Tews: When I was in undergrad, we did those “go around the room and tell one interesting thing about yourself.” This can put people on the spot. There are a couple of ways to handle that: don’t do it for the whole group, maybe break into smaller groups, or vet the questions beforehand and give people options.
Mike Rucker: The one thing I’ve been critical about is icebreakers. Sometimes they’re not contextually relevant, and for introverts, cues of disclosure can cause discomfort. Granting people an out, a third choice with no consequences, is important. You could even make something up if you didn’t feel like sharing.
John Michel: At my prior university, before DEI was a thing, to build inclusiveness, we had a potluck once a year where everyone brought in a favorite family dish. It was a nice way to get to know each other informally. We had people from all over the world, and it was great food and a way to see people as humans, not competitors.
Michael Tews: There’s also value in being okay with a little discomfort. That’s why we’re doing these icebreakers, to get you used to talking. We can mitigate some stressors, but a little discomfort is okay.
John Michel: One game of Uno takes less than 10 minutes. Even introverts can play without feeling forced to talk. Jane Dutton has a fantastic activity where everyone stands up, finds someone they don’t know, and builds a high-quality connection in one minute. Then, they switch partners. She doesn’t have them reveal what they shared, but the energy in the room is explosive. People are smiling, laughing, and connecting without disclosing anything to the whole group.
Michael Tews: One of my favorite icebreakers is what I call “Icebreaker Jenga.” You play Jenga with numbered bricks, and each number corresponds to a question on a sheet. You pull out a brick, answer the question, and then it’s the next person’s turn. It’s simple, quick, and gets people talking.
John Michel: The key is to make it voluntary and low-stakes. You don’t want people to feel pressured or uncomfortable.