Work hard, play hard : A qualitative study about how playful office design affects employees' well-being

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to add to the understanding of how employees’ well-being isaffected by playful offices. The thesis is presenting theories and previous research, forinstance within the area of servicescape, office design, and employee well-being, and isanalyzing eventual connections to the empirical data collected. A playful office is definedin this thesis as an office having playful elements that normally are not a part of an officeor connected to work. It can either be specific playful activities such as karaoke machines,gaming rooms, or table tennis, or an office design that is playful in terms of colors,layout, or furnishings. The thesis includes collected empirical data from four differentcompanies with unique and playful offices, by interviewing six employees in total withdifferent genders, ages, and roles. Besides the interviews, an observation has been madeon one of the companies to get a broader and deeper understanding of the concept andenvironment of a playful office. The most significant result of the thesis shows thatplayful offices affect employees in a positive way, even though they necessarily are notusing the playful activities themselves. Being in an environment where play is encouragedand where others are playing and having fun positively affects employees' well-being, forexample in terms of higher creativity, inspiration, and job satisfaction, which goes in linewith previous research.