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Temporal And Spatial Shifts Within Playful Work, Carolyn Hunter, Dariusz Jemielniak, Agnieszka Postuła

Dariusz Jemielniak

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a qualitative study of software engineers' playful behaviors at work. Design/methodology/approach – The interviewed software engineers come from two European and three American companies. The research is based on ethnographical data, gathered in two longitudinal studies2005-2008 . The methods used in the study include open-ended unstructured interviews, participant observations, stories collection, and shadowings. Findings – It is found that the currently dominant theory of normative control explaining software engineers workplace diminishes leisure and entertainment attributes of knowledge work. Fun at workplace is discovered to be an important, …