Promoting Fun or Competition? Testing Interventions on Ludic and Agonistic Work Design

ABSTRACT Research highlights the benefits of play‐at‐work, yet little is known about training employees to self‐initiate it. We tested two programs to train employees on designing work with elements of fun (ludic work design [LWD]) or competition (agonistic work design [AWD]). Based on self‐determination theory, we propose that enhancing LWD or AWD will positively impact work motivation. Considering literature suggesting that employees engage in mental distancing to protect resources, we further propose that employees' pretraining mental distancing limits the training's effectiveness. Using an intervention design ( N = 228 employees) with two training groups (LWD and AWD) and an active control group, we found that the AWD group reported higher AWD 4 weeks after the training and that the training related to autonomous work motivation 8 weeks later through posttraining AWD. The LWD training did not increase LWD. Instead, LWD decreased after 4 weeks among employees with high pretraining mental distancing. Qualitative follow‐up analysis on these differential intervention effects indicated that AWD training participants predominantly engaged in work‐embedded and independent play, whereas LWD training participants engaged equally in work‐embedded and diversionary as well as independent and social play.