What does research say leaders get wrong about company parties?

Three of the most common and expensive party line items have no statistical impact on the outcomes that actually matter: alcohol, gift-giving, and whether to include partners and children. A 2023 study published in Employee Relations measured eleven characteristics of workplace celebrations and found that these factors made no measurable difference to experienced fun, perceived organizational support, or positive interpersonal interactions. Leaders often spend most of the budget on the things that move the needle least.

What four factors actually drive successful workplace celebrations?

Games and activities, music, positive leader behavior, and good food. Games and activities were the only factor to achieve statistical significance across all three outcomes researchers measured. Music accounted for 36% of the variance in how much fun employees actually experienced. Positive leader behavior accounted for 34% of the variance in perceived organizational support — the degree to which employees believe the organization genuinely cares about them. Good food accounted for 25% of the variance in positive interpersonal interactions.

How should leaders show up at company celebrations?

As a person, not a host. The single highest-leverage action a leader can take is to circulate, move around the room, and engage with people as individuals. Ask questions about things that matter to the people you lead and acknowledge specific contributions from the past year. Research shows that this kind of leader behavior is more predictive of how employees feel about organizational support than almost anything else you can do at the event — including budget decisions. A leader who spends the evening near the bar with trusted lieutenants will not see budget investment translate into stronger employee relationships.

What is the difference between organic fun and managed fun at work?

Organic fun arises naturally from genuine connection and shared experience. Managed fun is programmed, prescribed, and administered by leadership. Employees detect the difference immediately. When a celebration feels like a mandatory performance review for goodwill rather than a genuine expression of appreciation, employees leave feeling managed, not valued. The harder a leader tries to engineer enjoyment, the less fun people actually have. The role of leaders is to create conditions for connection — games, music, good food — and then get out of the way.

Should organizations with diverse teams skip holiday celebrations to avoid excluding non-majority employees?

No. Research finds that the absence of holiday practices hurts non-majority-culture employees more than majority-culture ones. When organizations choose not to celebrate at all, employees outside the majority experience lower emotional engagement while majority-culture employees remain comparatively unaffected. The question is not whether to celebrate, but how to celebrate in ways that communicate appreciation and genuine belonging to your entire team — including the employees who are newest, most different from the majority, or least visible on a normal workday.

Picnic Blunders and New Year's Regrets: What Research Shows Most Leaders Get Wrong About Company Celebrations

Dr. David Macauley
2 hours ago
6 min read

A crowd enjoying themselves at a company picnic next to a vineyard.

There is a version of the company party that costs a lot and earns almost nothing. You've probably attended one. Open bar. Decent venue. Maybe some gifts or branded swag. Employees making polite conversation and leaving in time to catch the nightly news. Everyone calls it a success because nothing went wrong.

-- But nothing went right, either. --

At some point, nearly every organization throws a party: a summer cookout, a July Fourth picnic, a Thanksgiving lunch, a year-end celebration, a team milestone event. These events are more than social obligations. Organizational scholars call them "rites of integration," rituals that communicate whether leaders genuinely value the people who built something alongside them, or whether they are simply managing the appearance of appreciation. Employees read that signal clearly, and research confirms they are paying close attention.

A 2023 study published in Employee Relations set out to understand exactly what makes workplace celebrations succeed or fail. The findings challenge assumptions that many leaders bring to the party planning conversation.

First, What Leaders Get Wrong: It's Not What You're Spending Money On

Here is a counterintuitive finding that should stop you mid-budget: the things leaders often spend money on for the company party make almost no measurable difference. Alcohol, gift-giving, and the decision to include or exclude partners and children had no statistical impact on any of the three outcomes that researchers focused on:

Experienced Fun (how much they enjoyed their personal experience of the event itself)
Perceived Organizational Support (the degree to which employees believe the organization genuinely cares about them)
Positive Interpersonal Interactions (the positive impact of the event on workplace relationships)

These measures were selected based on measurement reliability and their known ability in to predict meaningful outcomes like organizational performance, culture, and employee retention in other studies.

Here’s what actually moves the needle:

Games and activities were the only factor to achieve statistical significance across all three outcomes. Structured activities build the kind of social bonds that persist long after the party ends.
Music accounted for 36% of the variance in how much fun employees actually experienced. It sets the emotional temperature of the event and communicates whether the organization intends for people to genuinely enjoy themselves or simply mark an occasion.
Positive leader behavior accounted for 34% of the variance in Perceived Organizational support, the extent to which employees feel the organization genuinely has their back. How leaders show up at these events has a direct, measurable relationship to one of the most important indicators in employee relations research. No budget line item replicates it.
Good food accounted for 25% of the variance in positive interpersonal interactions. Food gives people an authentic reason to linger, relax, and connect. This deepens existing relationships and creates opportunities to form new ones.

Diverse Teams Demand Nuance:

A companion study added a finding worth noting for leaders of diverse teams. When celebratory norms default to the rituals of the majority-culture, it can unintentionally signal that some employees belong more fully than others. However, cancelling the Christmas party and choosing not to celebrate at all is even worse. The research finding that the absence of holiday practices hurts non-Christian employees more than Christian ones is instructive here.

When organizations choose not to celebrate at all, employees outside the majority experience lower emotional engagement, while their counterparts in the majority remain comparatively unaffected.

The question is not whether to celebrate, but how to celebrate in ways that communicate appreciation and genuine belonging to your entire team, not just those that are in the majority.

Three Things That Separate Leaders Who Get It Right

The research points to a consistent pattern: the leaders who get the most out of workplace celebrations treat them as leadership moments rather than logistical tasks. Here is what that looks like in practice, and the traps to avoid along the way.

1. Show up as a person, not a host.

The single highest-leverage action any leader can take is to circulate, move around the room, and engage with people as individuals. This does not require performance. It requires attention.

Best Practice: Ask questions about things that matter to the people you lead. Acknowledge specific contributions from the past year. Research shows that this kind of leader behavior is more predictive of how employees feel about organizational support than almost anything else you can do at the event.
Trap To Avoid: authorizing a generous budget while remaining emotionally absent. A leader who spends most of the evening near the bar with trusted lieutenants will not see that investment translate into stronger employee relationships.

2. Create conditions for connection, don’t try to engineer enjoyment.

The harder a leader tries to force fun, the less fun people actually have. Research on workplace fun distinguishes between organic fun, which arises from genuine connection and shared experience, and managed fun, which is programmed and administered by leadership. Employees detect the difference immediately.

Best Practice: Games, good music, and good food work because they lower the activation energy required for genuine human connection to occur. Your job is not to engineer the fun. Reduce the friction and get out of the way. If you want extra credit, hire a talented photographer to capture the most positive moments and use/share the resulting images widely after the fact.
Trap To Avoid: When a party feels like a mandatory performance review for goodwill, employees leave feeling managed, not valued.

3. Treat it as a culture-defining moment, not just a culture-celebrating one.

The office party doesn’t simply reflect your company’s culture. It shapes it. It gives employees a shared story to carry forward, a reference point for what it means to belong to this organization and work alongside each other.

Best Practice: Before you plan your next event, ask yourself what you want employees to feel when they leave. Not "good" in the abstract, but specifically: do they feel like they work somewhere that sees them as full human beings? Do they feel like the organization invested in this moment because it genuinely values their contribution to the collective effort, or because it felt obligated to? Do they feel like they belong here, including the employees who are newest, most different from the majority, or least visible on a normal workday? The answers to those questions should drive every planning decision you make.
Trap To Avoid: There is a fine line between honoring tradition and falling into a rut. Similarly, other companies can be a great source for ideas and inspiration but copying and pasting another company’s itinerary rarely works out. Take the time to think about the company you want to be, then build a celebration that recognizes, rewards, and highlights the people, who are working to bringing that vision to life.

The Bottom Line

Research tells us that 92% of employees prioritize organizations that genuinely value their emotional and psychological wellbeing, and that one in five reports feeling lonely at work on a daily basis. A thoughtfully executed celebration is a direct response to both of those realities. A hollow one confirms them.

The company picnic or office holiday party is not a test you pass or fail with a budget decision. It is one you pass or fail in the room, one conversation and one genuine moment of connection at a time.

You can do it. If you want help building a culture that extends well beyond the holiday season, we can help.

Let's get to work.

We’d Love Your Thoughts! What has made a celebration feel genuinely memorable for you or your team? Share your experiences by leaving a comment on our LinkedIn page or send us an email. Your insights could help other leaders get it right.

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References and Resources:

APA. (2023). Work in America Survey 2023. American Psychological Association.

Changaranchola, A., & Samantara, R. (2025). Fun at work: A systematic literature review and research agenda. Human Systems Management, 45(3), 321-342.

Gallup. (2024). State of the Global Workplace Report. Gallup, Inc.

Tews, M. J., Michel, J. W., Kudler, C. R., & Pons, D. (2023). 'Tis the season: Enhancing the workplace holiday party. Employee Relations, 45(6), 1324-1346.

Tews, M. J., Michel, J. W., & Pons, D. (2024). Religion, politics and jingle bells: Examining contextual factors influencing the impact of workplace holiday practices. Employee Relations, 46(8), 1744-1761.

Trice, H. M., & Beyer, J. M. (1984). Studying organizational cultures through rites and ceremonials. Academy of Management Review, 9(4), 653-669.

Picnic Blunders and New Year's Regrets: What Research Shows Most Leaders Get Wrong About Company Celebrations

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