Let's play: An examination of play-at-work through the lens of energy management

This thesis contributes to our understanding of play-at-work activities' dimensionality and examines pathways to hedonic and instrumental outcomes rooted in the psychological experience of play behaviour at work. The concept of activity-based play-at-work is introduced, and findings from 122 studies are reviewed to produce a two-dimensional typology, integrated under an overarching energy-management framework. A psychometrically sound measure of play's psychological experience, playful engagement, is then developed. Finally, two empirical investigations using an experience-sampling methodology are employed to understand playful engagement's links to hedonic and instrumental outcomes in the presence of stable and malleable features of one's work design.