Introduction
Gamification refers to the application of typical game design elements such as point scoring, competition with others, and rules of play to non-game context for the purposes of improve user engagement and productivity in individual and collective activities. Gamification is increasingly used in organizations to consistently improve individual and collective performance, creation and improvement of teamwork, and persuasion, encouragement, and motivation of individuals and teams. The increasing adoption of gamification in organization is a recognition of the value creation by the concept within the business environment. However, there are challenges with the evolution of gamification within the business concept. One of the major problems with gamification is the adoption of a single strategy, no standardization, and production of one-size-fit-all concepts yet there are different contexts within which gamification may and may not produce the desired objectives.
In brief, it is challenges such as the lack of a plausible framework for gamification that result in continued existence of the problems identified with gamification. It is also such challenges that informed the need for further research in gamification. This document addresses the review of literature on gamification and in relation to the thesis project titled A Software Engineering Framework for Agreeable and Evolvable Gamification in business environment. The review of literature follows a variety of subject areas as shown in the rest of this research project.
Motivation Theories and Approaches
Need Theories
Need theories categorize human desires into two distinct groups that include basic needs and wants. Basic needs are also referred to as primary needs. They include the need for food, shelter, and clothing. Basic needs include all those elements that are requires to sustain life. All other needs, apart from the basic needs, are considered as wants or secondary needs. They are not necessary to sustain life but are necessary to make life comfortable. While basic needs are common to all persons, the secondary needs are variable from one person to another and depend on a variety of factors including person’s income. The secondary needs are unlimited.
The general need theory is essential in demonstrating the primary and secondary needs which are an essential factor of motivation. Apart from separating the basic from secondary wants, the theory fails to present ordered categories of secondary needs and the role the play in motivation.
In the application to gamification, the needs theories demonstrates the pathways towards the attainment of both the basic and secondary needs. While all employees in an organization may be able to achieve the basic needs, gamification can be used to demonstrate how the employees can achieve nearly unlimited access to the secondary needs by demonstrating mechanisms of earning higher incomes. These factors are used to demonstrate the impact of performance in the organization.
Incentive Theories
The incentive theory of motivation posits that behavior is motivated by the desire for reinforcement or incentives. The incentives fall into two categories that include negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is used to motivate individuals to pursue actions or behavior that is opposite of their current behavior. For instance, an underperforming employee may be motivated by putting in place targets that are associated with rewards in order to encourage and motivated to post good performance. On the other hand there are the positive reinforcement. In application, positive reinforcements are applied through the use of rewards and punishments that accompany actions. Poor performance is punished while good performance is rewarded. To avoid punishment, the individual changes behavior and actions. To win a reward the employees strive to continue with good behavior. Through positive and negative reinforcements, the incentive theories motivate good behaviors.
Gamification, in relation to the incentive motivation theories, is used to encourage good performance through creating a gaming environment that shows the forms of punishment for bad behaviors, actions, and performance while at the same time demonstrating the rewards won through good performance in the organization.
Maslow Needs Theory
Abraham Maslow’s needs theory is an advancement of the general needs theory. Abraham Maslow determined that the general needs theory identified the basic needs and the wants. However, the theory failed to categorize the needs in order of importance. Maslow therefore ranked the needs into five categories in order of importance. The five categories of needs include physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a theory of motivation indicates the needs that individuals needs to fulfil beginning with the physiological or survival needs. Beyond the survival needs the theory includes the social needs, then esteem and self-actualization needs. Under this theory the organization motivates the employees through offering an attractive pay, benefits, and job security. The organization also motivates the employees by offering attractive titles and opportunities for growth thereby addressing the employees’ needs with respect to self-esteem and self-actualization.
This theory of motivation can be incorporated into gamification for the demonstration of how the employees earn higher pay and benefits, titles, and opportunities for growth thereby meeting not just the physiological and safety needs but also the self-actualization needs at the top of the pyramid. In gamification, the organization is also able to learn about the factors that motivate generally all the employees in the organization. Consequently, the organization can go forward and put in place mechanisms of motivating each of the employees. Consistent with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which demonstrates that the employees pursue different needs even when at the same career level, Gamification can be used in learning the factors that motivate the employees and the organization goes forth to put in place such measures for the employees thereby creating a motivated workforce.
Control Theory of Motivation
The last theory studied in relation to the concept of gamification is the control theory. The control theory explains about how to maintain stability of systems. It involves controlling one variable in order to attain desired results in a related area. For instance, salaries and wages motivate employees to post good performance. By controlling salaries, wages, and bonuses then the organization can attain desired levels of productivity and performance.
Control theory is increasingly applied in demonstrating how to keep employees motivated. It entails focusing on important factors that influence productivity and performance in the organization. It involves having controls on potential for earning including overtime hours, bonuses, and all factors that influence performance and productivity in the organization. Through a good understanding of the variables that influence performance and productivity in the organization it becomes possible for the organization to maintain stable systems and keep the employees motivated.
The application of control features to gamification in an organization is an important component of helping explain the variables that are most important to motivation of employees. The organization can use gamification to identify the factors that are most important to the employees and at the same time the factors that are essential for organizational performance. Understanding the linkages between the two set of variables enables the organization to apply the control theory of motivation in encouraging good performance in an organization.
The theories of motivation identified above are instrumental in designing a gamification strategy that meets the productivity and performance needs of the organization while at the same time ensuring that the needs of the workforce are addressed. With organizations having varied performance metrics as well as measures of productivity, the motivation needs in every organization can also be significantly different. The gamification strategy applied in the organizations must also be significantly different in order to attain the desired goals of the organization.
One of the primary problems identified in research n gamification strategies is the use of a one-size-fit-all approach to gamification. This approach to gamification has implications on the effectiveness of the games in that they may not be able to attain the desired results of the gamification strategy. Researchers have also indicated that one of the reasons for one-size-fit-all approach to gamification is the lack of guiding frameworks and standards on how to approach needs-targeted gamification in business organizations and in different contexts of application. These findings assert the important of research on framework for agreeable and evolvable gamification in business environment. In the rest of this literature review is a focus on some of the important factors of consideration when focusing on a gamification framework for effective gamification strategies in varied contexts of applications.
Motivation Techniques
In a fast-paced organization, keeping employees motivated is in itself an art of management. The rationale is that every employee is motivated by factors that are significantly different from those that motivate other people. An employee who is motivated by recognition in the organization is different from an employee who is motivated by the simple act of making an impact on a specified social group in the organization or even outside the organization. The implications are that an organization needs to focus on understanding factors that motivate the employees and offering platforms for keeping the employees motivated. This takes a personalized mechanism of providing feedback, recognizing, and rewarding employees. A personalized motivation technique is only possible in a technology-driven motivation environment that incorporates the use of big data in order to keep employees of an organization highly motivated.
There are different techniques of motivating employees. The most common motivation techniques include letting the employees know that that he employer trusts and appreciates them. The motivation techniques also include giving the employees a purpose, setting smaller weekly goals, and motivating individuals rather than motivating teams. In addition, the motivation techniques include having an open-door policy in which feedback is provided promptly and directly to the specific employees, creating motivation and recognition rituals such as having employee of the week, employee of the month, and employee of the year. In whole, motivation techniques for organizations entail ensuring that the employees see and understand the big picture on the performance of the organization while at the same time ensuring that things that matter most to them are addressed in accordance with the theories of motivation.
The motivation techniques captured in the paragraph above provide an appreciation of some of the most important elements of motivating employees. The above-mentioned factors can however be addressed nearly holistically through the implementation of a gamification strategy. With gamification it is possible to make observation on variables such as individual performance as compared to team performance. The gamification strategy is addressed in details in the sections that follow.
Gamification
Gamification Mechanism
A discussion on gamification mechanisms begins with an identification of the five categories of key motivators for individuals. The first key driver of motivation is autonomy. Every individual has an innate desire for autonomy and freedom, which may be lacking in the traditional motivation theories. The second factor is mastery of skill. When gaming, a single failure challenges the individual master skills of overcoming such challenges. Through continuous attempts and trials the individual succeeds and moves to another level of difficult. This makes the third most important factor of motivation in the gaming environment and this is progress. As an individual progresses, they learn to conquer increasingly complex challenges and learn to seek more challenging events and engagements. These factors are essential in keeping the employee motivated. Progress is closely related to purpose where the individual consistently makes efforts towards the attainment of certain goals in an organization. These aspects are critical in informing models of motivation. The last major motivator in the gaming environment is social interaction with other members of the society. Social interactions are essential not just as a mechanisms of gaining appreciation but also as a mechanism of enhancing competition among individuals thereby resulting in improvements in performance and productivity as the people compete.
The gaming environment brings together all the major aspects of motivation as mentioned in the paragraphs above. At inception the individual creates an autonomous gaming environment. The autonomous and personalized gaming environment can be used to play against the system. There are different levels of difficulty in the gaming environment thereby teaching the employees about problem-solving and about mastery of skills. Also, moving up the scales of complexity allows the employee to progress and achieve higher results. With progress comes satisfaction and tokens as rewards. The tokens can be used in unlocking different levels of complexity in the gaming environment. There are also aspects of purpose as the individuals learn to consistently learn to set goals and attain them. Additionally, the gaming environment allows an individual to compare their results with others. At the same time the gaming environment allows for social networking, bonding, social recognition, and generally meeting the social needs of the employees. The good thing about the gaming environment is that the employees can actually create names of characters that portray their desires and mimic those characters in performance and productivity in the gaming environment. Understanding these important aspects of the gaming environment make it important to also focus on the variety of gamification mechanisms that an organization can employ to attain certain desired goals.
There are a variety of gamification techniques. The first mechanism is a fast feedback mechanism. In this gamification mechanism the goal is to create a platform that encourages prompt feedback. Prompt feedback as a gamification mechanism aims at enhancing mastery of skills and progress. The feedback provided is prompt, focuses on the small details and addresses issues as and when they arise without having to wait for a weekly report, monthly report, and any other periodic reports as the basis of providing feedback. There are two aspects to prompt feedback in the gamification strategy. The first aspect relates to ensuring that the employees understand the importance of immediate feedback. When not forthcoming the employees cab actually for prompt feedback from the supervisors. This feedback can take the form of 5 seconds of a congratulatory message or a message highlighting aspects that an employee attained well or the aspects that the employee may need to improve. The second aspect relates to encouraging the supervisors to provide immediate feedback and be tactful while at it. Note that this feedback does not require the employee being called to the supervisor’s or HR’s office. Instead, the feedback can be provided in a matter of seconds in the hallways as people meet and greet each other, when people are breaking for lunch, and any other instance. In other words, any time becomes appropriate time for prompt feedback. The results emerge in the form of mastery of skills and progress, hence addressing two of the most important aspects of motivating factors in the gamification environment.
Transparency is the second gamification mechanism. Under transparency the focus is on ensuring that employees can see their standing in relation to other employees in the organization. This mechanism promotes progress and social interaction. It encourages a competitive environment and also demonstrates the importance of team work as the people in the organization take responsibility of each other and strive to ensure that they keep each other motivated in a competitive environment. Together the employees can learn how to improve performance by pulling each other up.
Goals mechanism is another important aspect of gamification. It emphasizes setting goals and meeting the goals. Along the way there are difficulties and challenges but the important part is ensuring that the employees stick to the achievement of the goals. This mechanism promotes purpose, progress, and social interaction. The employees are able to identify the importance of teamwork as an asset towards the attainment of collective goals of the organization. Similarly, the approach ensures that each employee understand that they have a responsibility to make the team successful. These aspects of gamification are emboldened by having games that require a lot of collaboration and cooperation in order to attain certain goals. In all the organization manages to strengthen the working relations of the employees as they work towards a goal.
The other mechanism is the rewards and badges mechanism. In this gamification mechanism there is a lot of focus and emphasis on achievements. Through the badges won the employees can actually display evidence of their accomplishments. This mechanism focuses on promoting purpose and progress, mostly. However, it also focuses on promoting social interactions especially by creation of a positive environment in which the employees work towards individual accomplishments while at the same time pursuing goals of the organization. It is the interaction between the individual goals and team or organizational goals that keeps the employees motivated.
A levelling up mechanism is also essential gamification strategy. In this strategy the focus is on achievement of status within the organization or ensuring that the employees attain their desired levels of achievement. This mechanism aligns well with Maslow’s needs of self-actualization and demonstrates why it is important to focus consistently on ensuring that the employees actualize themselves. In gamification recognition play an important role in pushing the workforce towards the realization of self-actualization.
There are other gamification mechanisms such as onboarding which involves helping others attain success in the organization or activity that they are involved in. It involves consistent encouragement and mentoring of the employees towards the attainment of certain goals in the organization. These aspects of gamification aim at teaching the importance of mastery of skills by working together and Helping those in the organization that may have challenges with the attainment of the specified goals in the organization. Onboarding is one of the most important aspects that gamification seeks teach as a mechanism of keeping employees motivated and also towards the attainment of common goals in the organization.
The other major point concerns the use of points. Gamification entails earing points for certain activities and achievements and loss of points in others. It works by using a measure of measurable and predicable points and works towards ensuring that the organization works towards achieving specific common goals that can be measured. The gamification mechanism focusing on points can be used with the incentive theories where positive and negative reinforcement aspects apply to encourage certain behavior and conduct in the working environment. These aspects of gamification are essential not only in encouraging good behavior and performance but also in discouraging negative behavior and poor performance.
In general, a clearly defined gamification mechanism ensures that the employees learn about all aspects of motivation. Through gaming the employees master the skills of learning how to motivate themselves in the organization. However, the organizations also learn from big data aspects on how to encourage good performance within the organization. This is attained by using big data analytics together with gamification strategies for the purposes of learning the employees and creating programs that can keep them motivated.
Gamification Techniques
Gamification techniques and strategies are general goal-oriented. This means that the gamification techniques are generally designed to meet specified goals such as greatly focus on certain aspects of organizational and employee performance. Consequently, when studying the gamification techniques the most important aspect is ensuring that the goals of the gamification strategy are well defined in advance.
A gamification approach can include a combination of targets. An organization can therefore focus on encouraging variety of aspects in employee motivation. In most cases, the focus of gamification was in generally focusing on all aspects of employee motivation. The strategy has been generally successful from the aspect of demonstrating the impact of gamification however, there has been challenges with this less focused approach to gamification and motivation in business organizations.
One of the questions that continues to exist is whether there can be a systematic way of matching organizational outcomes to the process of development gamification strategies and games for the organization. The importance of this question arises from the fact that many organizations still consider gamification as too general an aspect to address the very specific challenges that organizations face. Gamification is likened to software development in that while the processes of coding may be generally similar, the execution of codes in a software is the most important aspect in ensuring that software is differentiated from others that perform different functions in the market. These factors are critical in ensuring success in the development of a systematic approach towards the development of gamification.
Laser-focused gamification strategies appreciate the importance of organizational uniqueness in determining the measures of success. For instance, gamification strategy targeted to software engineering organizations cannot be the same as that in other sectors such as the banking sector. Besides, the factors that intellectually challenge and motivate employees in such increasingly varied environments are different thereby creating the need for a differentiated and targeted approach to gamification in the different types of work environment that are available.
The rationale for differentiated gamification strategies is the fact that gamification is in itself related to behaviorism and behavior is related to aspects such as organizational and even industry culture. Software engineers may behave in a manner that is significantly different from that of bankers. Consequently, when designing gamification for the different types of organizations requires looking deep into the aspects of culture, behavior, and motivation needs among other aspects.
Gamification is in itself an approach to psychology in that it targets to alter certain work philosophies, behaviors, and beliefs through a systematic methodology. This being a core principle of the gamification theory implies a strong need for establishment of a framework that gamification experts can use to ensure that there is convergence of theory and ideas on gamification. As an implication, the strategy would ensure that a definitive approach to gamification is adopted and that the framework can be consistently improved depending on changing needs as well as learning in the industry. These aspects continue to be the definitive features of gamification into the future.
The last major points of consideration in gamification techniques and strategies is the nexus between gamification as a concept and behavior change in an organization. This includes aspects of acceptance of the technology as a tool of learning and improvement in the organization. the very important consideration of whether or not gamification can be employed with people of all ages for purposes of behavioral change is as important as determining whether organization would actually be able to fully adopt gamification as a tool of improving behavior in the organization. Similarly, there is the need to consistently focus on determining the limitations of gamification strategy in improving performance and productivity in an organization including the potential of people not changing behavior as a result of gamification. All these aspects are essential and should be considered in the process of developing a working framework for gamification. All these aspects about gamification will be covered in detail through research in the rest of the report.
Persuasive Technology
Persuasive technology is a fundamental element of gamification. Persuasive technologies are technologies whose purpose is to change what people think and do. These technologies are therefore design and built on purpose to address specific aspect of human behavior part of which includes the behavior and conduct of human beings in the place of work. In this section the purpose is to demonstrate the working of persuasive technologies, how they link to gamification, and how the technologies can be applied in designing a framework of purpose-designed gamification.
Persuasion technologies are generally defined as technologies that are designed on purpose to influence ad change people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through persuasion and social influence but not through coercion of any form of intimidation. Persuasion technologies are currently part of the daily technologies used by many people and they have wide application in mobile applications, social media networks, and other aspects of the daily life.
Captology is the defining concept that makes persuasion technologies an important element in everyday life technologies. By definition, captology refers to the output of the interaction between persuasion and digital technologies. The term captology deeply describes the process through which persuasion technologies capture the mind of people thereby resulting in some form of behavior change. An example of captology is demonstrated in the increased use of social media. Through targeted links and information, social media is able to supply the users with unlimited information on particular subjects or topics thereby making it highly persuasive.
The use of persuasion technologies is highly controversial considering the very fact that technology can be independently used to change human behavior based on the desires of the users of the technology. For this reason, researchers are increasingly focused on the usage and development of persuasion technologies.
Persuasion technologies have a wide array of application in different areas. One of the areas where persuasion technologies are currently widely applied is in the advertising industry. Persuasion is essentially an element of selling. However, the future of persuasion lies in more psychological applications.
The technologies can be utilized in any of three important ways. The first is application of persuasion technologies as tools such as is the case with software installation wizards that can be used for persuasion to install additional software that are not necessarily needed. The second application is persuasion technologies as media where they function as interactive technologies as is the case in gaming and simulations. Gamification falls under the applications of persuasion technologies as a media, when defined narrowly. The last application is the use of persuasion technologies as social actors where the technologies use artificial intelligence to cause behavior change, sometimes without any control of a human being.
Persuasion technologies work in different ways, hence different categories of persuasion technologies. The first category includes instruction style persuasion technologies that operate by providing instructional messages either authoritatively or non-authoritatively. The second category includes social feedback technologies which create a notion of cooperation and collaboration in a social framework thereby using the social environment factors for persuasion purposes. The third category includes motivational persuasion technologies that function by providing motivational messages and in so doing providing for positive behavioral change. The last category is the reinforcement type persuasion technologies that have aspects of both negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. They also work through reward systems in order to influence behavior of the users.
A major observation is the fact that the persuasion technologies function in more or less the same way as gamification technologies from the aspect of motivation theories. This strong linkage in principle and application make it possible to integrate the two technologies with the goal of attaining specified outcomes. This aspect of the persuasive technologies makes them fit for application in gamification.
As an element of gamification, persuasion technologies can be employed in two ways. The first application considers persuasion technologies as social motivators. Social motivators work by encouraging team and coworkers to pursue certain ends in a competitive environment. Social motivators apply the same concept as is applied in social networks. The rationale of social networks and social motivators is the view that a person is likely to change within a social setting than in isolation. In this application, persuasion technologies become media in the gamification technologies with the application relating specifically to the establishment of social connections that uphold certain behavioral changes. The second application is the application of persuasion technologies as a tool of motivation in gamification. In this application, the focus is on ensuring that the technologies are built with artificial intelligence. The technologies use systems of rewards and punishment, positive and negative reinforcement, to induce certain desirable behavior. This approach is common in gamification where the technologies are designed specifically with the purpose of persuading the players to adopt certain behaviors. The role of the organization therefore becomes the determination of the specific performance metrics that it needs to control and the specific outcomes that are desired. The organization can then follow through with specific actions the gaming environment progresses.
Persuasion technologies and the linkage to gamification works best if the content in the gaming environment mirrors the environment in which the employee works. This makes it easy for the employees to apply strategies learnt in gaming in the actual working environment. Mirroring makes working to become fun and it also enables the organization to correctly weigh and determine the effectiveness of the gamification strategies in improving or influencing certain behavior changes. These factors play an important role in the implementation of gamification technologies for purposes of the motivation of the workforce and in the measurement of value by the management.
Integration of persuasion technologies into gamification helps in overcoming one problem and that is the problem of self-reporting. In persuasion technologies the user informs the system of the desired features of behavior and not necessarily the actual behavior. This results in self-reporting bias. When the gamification component is included, the problem of self-reporting bias is overcome by the simple fact that gamification encourages the players to compete for a winning position. In other words, the players do not play on the basis of desired behavior and image but on the basis of a competitive winning strategy. The players therefore employ all the skill that they can employ in order to win. In the end, the winners are able to present an objective self and this allows for correct profiling of the employees and consequently an accurate definition of the desired outcomes based on an objective judgment of the player’s behavior and characteristics. These aspects make the integration of persuasion technologies and gamification technologies a powerful tool of influencing positive behavior change.
While integration of persuasion technologies with gamification technologies would yield a strong tool, the two technologies have remained at the center of an open debate. The major consideration is on the ethics of user-guided technology designs. There is the concern that these technologies may be ethically and morally wrong considering that it is a business organization using the technologies to achieve its own desired outcomes. When applied in an organization, it has the potential for misuse and the potential for changing human beings into zombie-like beings considering that the goals of an organization are purely results and profits. This makes it necessary to consider the ethical framework of using the technologies.
The concerns about the ethics and morality of the technologies point specifically to the need for a strong framework in which persuasion technologies and gamification technologies can be applied. This requires intensive and extensive research on the technologies, the development processes, the applications, and the implications on the human subjects for which they are intended. These aspects are critical for the software engineering industry considering that it is also a potential target of the technologies discussed in this research thereby providing for the need to critically assess the technologies.
An important aspect that is consistently highlighted in research studies is the need to ensure that the success of these technologies does not blind the potential for misuse of the technologies especially when there are no regulations, standards, or specific frameworks for the adoption of the technologies. When discussing the usefulness of the technologies it is therefore important to consistently refer to the discourse on ethics and morality of the technologies as well as the possible pathways of creating standards and conceptual frameworks for the operations of persuasion technologies and gamification technologies considering they are interrelated for application purposes.
Serious Games
Another important concept in gamification is serious games. A serious game, also called an applied game, refers to a game that is designed for purposes other than entertainment. A serious game is close simulation systems such as flight simulation systems except that it includes aspects of competition over and above the educational value.
Serious games are increasingly common in different fields of application. In the capital markets, for instance, learners are trained through actual serious games in the sense that the learners are provided with virtual trading accounts, virtual trading capital, and a virtual trading board on which they can virtually purchase real assets using real market information and in the end they are rated based on the returns that they make. By design, such a game is designed specifically to transfer skills on trading and understanding of the capital markets and this is specifically why the serious games are an instrumental part of the gamification concept.
The serious game exemplified above focused on an online game that simulates the actual market timings. However, there are also actual video games that are considered serious games. These serious are not different in application from the example provided above except that they are designed to include aspects of fun, intellectually challenging, and also incorporate aspects of competition. A player can invite other players such as coworkers into the gaming platform and together they compete while having fun and learning. The combination of these aspects bring forth the important concepts of gamification into serious games.
A gamification strategy that incorporates aspects of serious games is utilized specifically as pedagogical tool. This means that it is specifically applied to teach specific skills but the lessons emerge through patterns adopted by a player. The different strategies and patterns result in different outcomes. The end result is that the gaming strategies help in ensuring that the players change the strategies applied in the game and that in so doing they acquire important skills as intended in the design of the game.
An important note about serious games is that they are a representation of what a focused or a targeted gamification strategy should look like. A gamification strategy that applies serious games can use gaming to transfer specific skills and to also influence behavioral change. The implications are that serious games in this context do not only apply to behavioral change alone but also in employee development. By itself, an approach that incorporates employee development with behavior change aspects creates motivational value for the employees thereby resulting in improved performances.
Designing serious games is a complex and involving process. The process can also be highly expensive especially when bespoke products are required. Additionally, designing of serious games is a process that faces challenges of ethical and moral considerations especially when designed specifically for an organization that has to determine the desired outcomes of the game.
The common problem between gamification and serious games is the lack of standards and a conceptual framework guiding the development of the games yet there are many outstanding ethical questions and considerations with respect to the two technologies. This means that the technologies can be potentially abused without recourse for the developers of the game. To address the challenges there needs to be a strong focus on how to standardize both gamification and serious games. Further aspects of serious games and integration into gamification are addressed in the sections that follow.
Game with a Purpose
There are computation problems that are simple for human beings but complex for computers to solve. This creates the need to employ human input in resolving such computation problems that may include transcription of ancient text or even interpreting an image. The problem however is on how to involve human beings in attempting to resolve such a computational problem considering that human beings require incentives to engage in such a project. This leads to the rise of game with a purpose. In game with a purpose human beings come together in a bid to resolve a computational problem and they do so through online games that treat the human brains as a distributed system. In the end, human beings provide an interpretation or a solution to the problem and the computer arrives at the solution by filtering through patterns and solutions provided by human beings.
Application of a game with a purpose in an organizational setting entails having the employees in an organization coming together in a game-like environment attempting to solve a problem of a computation question. In attempting to resolve the employees help in informing each other on different perspectives of the question in consideration. Most importantly, the process becomes an important bonding session in which people share on different aspects of the organization including the culture of the organization. In so doing, game with a purpose contributed directly to ensuring that the employees understand the culture and norms of the organization and this results in important aspects of behavioral change.
Game with a purpose is an important aspect of gamification and plays a role in ensuring that the employees learn about the organization and its culture, that the management learns about the aspects of an organization that matter most to the organization, and that the employees engage in influencing each other for behavioral change in an environment that does not have competition. These aspects about gaming ensure that the organization attains organizational goals through a targeted process of resolving issues in the organization.
One important aspect about gaming with a purpose is the approach to a problem in a system that is distributed. The important aspects of this approach include the equal opportunity to involve all persons in the organization. The process treats all players as equals and eliminates barriers that may be brought by seniority in the organization. The system also involves self-balancing, control, and checking to ensure stability. It is therefore an approach that encourages aspects of consensus in problem-solving. These aspects are critical in ensuring success in the organization. However, there is always the need to correctly determine the goals of engaging in a game with a purpose for the game to be designed and implemented effectively for the benefits of all persons in the organization. Correct identification of the goals is the most important aspect for ensuring that the organization attains the set goals and that all employees contribute effectively to steering the future direction of the organization. These factors are important when considering the purpose that gamification serves in the organization.
Gamification as an Information System
Information system refers to technology used in gathering, organizing, and analyzing data and information for purposes of supporting operations and decisions in an organization. There are generally three levels of information systems that include operational support systems, knowledge support systems, and decision support systems. Operational support systems are used in the day to day operational activities in an organization. They include systems such as supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, and transaction processing systems. Knowledge support systems play the role of creating and dispensing knowledge in an organization. They include professional support systems, collaboration systems, and knowledge management systems. The last category is the decision support systems whose role is to provide high level information and data used by the senior management in an organization for the purposes of making decisions. The systems include management information systems and executive information systems.
Gamification as an information system can play roles attached to any of the three levels of information systems, especially when built on purposes and when built to meet well-defined outcomes as information systems in an organization. However, gamification is mostly used in knowledge support systems and in decision support systems.
Gamified knowledge support systems are used in two major ways that include gathering data and information about the development of the employees. The purpose is attained through the creation of games with a purpose. The games can be used to collect information about an employees’ strengths and capabilities. The technologies also gather information concerning an employees’ ability to make decisions under difficult situations and their ability to respond to work-related needs. The information is used in the general management of the workforce including keeping the employees motivated.
Gamified knowledge support systems feed information to the decision support systems especially in relation to human resources management systems. Through information gained through from the gamified knowledge systems, the executive can make decisions on the assignment of roles and responsibilities to the employees. The implications are that the executive can make informed decisions based on objectively generated information on the employees.
Gamified information systems are used to communicate information both from the management to the subordinates and from the subordinates to the management, only that the information provided may not fall under any general work-related category. Through gamified information systems the management can communicate its position on personal development that an employee requires. This information includes definitions of how the information helps the employees to determine how to grow within the organization, the performance metrics, and information on decision processes. In general, the company can also provide mechanisms of enabling the employees to be self-driven and motivated in order to success and progress in the organization while at the same time delivering value to the organization.
Gamification in information systems is currently applied primarily as motivational information systems thereby greatly playing a role in keeping the employees motivated. The application is in line with the general understanding of gamification as a technology of encouraging and motivating behavior change among the employees and members of an organization. However, there could be the need to further develop gamification as an emerging form of information systems that can serve purposes greater than just motivating the employees. The need for continued research on the possibility of applying gamification in pursuit of goals other than motivation is critically important.
While gamified motivation information systems are on the rise, the distinctions between the different levels of information systems applications of the gamified technologies is still highly limited. In particular, there has not yet been any gamified information systems that are suitable for application by members of the organization at highly differentiated levels of decision-making. There needs to be sustained research efforts targeting to identify a highly differentiated and highly focused approach ton information systems for the support of operations and decisions a different levels in an organization. The rationale in this finding is that gamification may be an asset for different levels of the organization.
Gamification in the Business Environment
The research has generally focused on gamification applications in the business environment with a major focus on application contexts of motivation and behavior change. This is because available research and applied use of gamification has specifically focused on the two aspects of a business. However, this analysis considers that there are wider business applications of gamification than just motivation, persuasion, and behavior change.
Business applications of gamification in the screening of potential employees for various positions is an increasingly recognized application of gamification. In the past, organizations have struggled with the use of personality tests that involve a lot of self-reporting and the use of tests that many employees can revise for, copy, or get forms of support that make it difficult to correctly judge the capabilities and attitudes of the organization towards work. With gamification, it becomes possible to engage the potential employees in a highly simulated environment that involves aspects of learning about the personality and attitudes of potential employees. Gamification can also be used to measure the strengths of potential employees in numbers, problem solving, and other important aspects that are critical when assessing candidates for positions in the organization.
There are many unexplored possible applications of gamification in the business environment. Part of the areas that bear high potential of business development but which have not been adequately explored include the use of gamification to develop and train employees in the organization. This would require games that are create for a purpose. The games would need to have a progressive structure in which the employees learn increasingly advanced concepts and gain increasingly advanced knowledge in specific areas of business. The approach would contribute greatly to mastery of skills, performance, and progress and as the employees learn through the gaming environment they would also feel the sense of accomplishment and achievement as they graduate across the levels of knowledge.
In general, the varied applications of gamification in the business environment should seek to combine the aspects of serious games, persuasion technologies, fun and entertainment, and pedagogical aspects. In so doing the gamified personal development applications ensure that the employees are kept engaged by the fun and entertainment in the game, they are kept motivated by the sense of achievements and success, and they keep on learning from the serious game environment applications. These properties lack in many ordinary training and development environments hence the hypothesis that such applications of gamification would greatly improve the way learning and development occurs in organizations.
The above business applications of gamification are hardly studied mainly because the technology, through recognized, has not yet gained critical mass adoption in business organizations. As an implication, the incentive to focus research on this research area has been generally lacking. Additionally, many practitioners and researchers have not yet identified the potential and opportunity of further developments in these highly advanced applications of gamification in the business environment. Focusing research on the standards and conceptual frameworks of gamification would help in shedding light on the variety of application areas of gamification in the business environment.
Gamification risks in business workplaces
Gamification Wellbeing Risks
Gamification is increasingly becoming the buzzword in business workplaces. However, it is not all fun and games because there are real risks both for the business and the people and there is the need to be alert to the various risks that gamification brings to the workplace.
The very first risk is the risk to the business environment especially if the gamification is not well designed. Gamification failures in organizations fail because of two reasons which include the design and the rules of engagement. Improperly designed gamification programs will not yield the desired results. Instead, they may result in a lot of apathy towards the management and those intent on using gamification to influence and change people’s behaviors. Similarly, improperly designed gamified environments may be affected by the prejudice that characterizes self-reporting in that when the employees learn the design of the game and its goals they may opt to manipulate the systems by learning patterns in the game and playing with an idea of what the management thinks is the actual position instead of providing the actual position as it is. Through this process the goals of gamification are defeated. With respect to rules of engagement and gameplay, employees are likely to increasingly spend time on the platforms for the fun of it thereby leading to lost productivity hours in the organization. To mitigate these risks there needs to be a lot of focus on the design of the gamified programs and to critically look into the rules of the game. Since many organizations do not have gamification experts there is the need to hire experienced consultants to guide the organization through the process of gamification.
The second risk is the potential of setting unrealistic expectations in the gaming environment. This risk faces many business where the product design is not bespoke thereby meaning that a business may have picked an off-the-shelf game for application in the organization. When a game with unrealistic goals is used in an organization it becomes a total waste of resources as the employees use the game merely for fun and not for the purposes of learning. Additionally, creating a game with unrealistic expectations may result in demotivated employees similar to what happens when an organization sets ideal goals instead of goals that are achievable. The best approach to overcoming this risk is by providing a gamified program that mirrors the working environment to the best extent possible. The implications are that the employees would be able to transition seamlessly from the gaming environment to the work environment, learning best practices from gaming patterns, and implementing the lessons in the workplace environment.
There is the risk of leaderboards in the gaming environment being used as a source of pride for those at the top public humiliation for those at the bottom of leaderboard. What the gaming environment therefore requires is that there are mechanisms of ensuring that all persons learn without piercing the confidence of any of the employees as the latter would greatly impact effectiveness of the games in a negative way. Similarly, the gamified environment would result in the potential of some employees not participating just to avoid the humiliation that comes with the leaderboard rankings. These are features that come with the design of the game and must be considered at the stage of designing the games.
The goal of using gamification in the workplace environment is to effect positive change and not to negatively affect the well-being of the employees. When designing the game and rules of the game it is important to prioritize the well-being of the employees by putting into consideration all the interests of the employees. In the next subsection is a discussion of the ethical risks associated with gamification
Gamification Ethical Risks
The idea that technology can be used to influence behavior change among the people and while at it, doing so to benefit the organization is always a question characterized by ethical dilemma. Gamification can be interpreted as manipulative and exploitative. Some commentators have referred to gamification as overt and maniacal. These aspect relate to the very fact that organizations are inspired by the potential to increase productivity and enhance performance when investing in gamification. This risk should be avoided when dealing with gamification in the organization.
There is the potential of gamification influencing behavior change that is good for the organization but bad for the people. For instance, there is the potential of turning employees into zombie-like beings in the place of work and the same translates outside the place of work. While this may result in improvements in performance at work it may be counterproductive in other aspects including the applications in social relations. So long as gamification has the potential of making employees less human, then it will consistently be criticized on ethical grounds.
The last ethical risk is the breach of confidentiality and privacy of the employees. Gamification will essentially generate a lot of information that can be used in profiling employees in the organization. While it may not be directly intended for the gaming environment or by the organization, the information thus created and generated can be used for purposes other than for which it was created. Any such breach of confidentiality and privacy would greatly impact the organization including threatening the performance of the organization. However, the potential impacts on the employees are of the greatest concern given that the information can be a threat to mental and physical wellness of the employees if it gets to the wrong hands. It is therefore the responsibility of the organization to prevent the potential that confidentiality and privacy of information can be breached in the gamified working environment.
The risks discussed in this section are generally theorized risks on gamification considering that gamification has not been applied widely enough to allow for testing of the risk environment. However, the fact that the risks are conceivable means that there is a high likelihood of occurrence and this provides a good platform for helping deal with the risks by creating risk mitigation strategies when designing a gamification strategy for the organization. Most importantly, the identification and definition of the risks creates an alert mindset for individuals and organizations contemplating the use of gamification in the organization. In the subsection that follows there is a focus on risk mitigation strategies in gamification.
Gamification Risk Management Methods and Approaches
Research on risk management methods and approaches in gamification is conspicuously scanty. Partly, the observation is because gamification has not attained mass adoption hence there being shortage in evidence based information on the risk environment facing gamification. The second major problem is the fact that researchers appear to have focused a lot on the applications of gamification and the development thereof, giving little attention to the risk environment both in design and application.
Ethical principles in data and information management as well as usage are considered a generally acceptable approach to the management of risks especially in an environment where many the practical and technical risks are not fully understood or are still theoretical as is the case with gamification. These aspects of gamification are critical for the gamified workplace environment as currently characterized. However, there is the need for a targeted approach that includes standards or practice and a conceptual framework.
Risk mitigation strategies in the gamified environment begin with understanding the need and importance of standards for gamification and a conceptual framework for the same. In a conceptual framework the development processes for gamification are correctly enumerated, risks identifies, and codes developed on how to safeguard against each and every potential risk. Through the approach it becomes possible to identify all the potential risks in practice, followed by design of risk mitigation strategies for the same.
There are currently no standards and no conceptual frameworks for gamification. The process of developing gamification has not been decomposed and broken down to the important technical details that would result in proper definition of risk mitigation strategies for the gamified environment. The implications are that the current understanding of the gamified environment fails to capture all the important details that would lead to proper risk management and approaches for the gamified environment.
The lack of a standards and a conceptual framework for gamification is underscored by the lack of adequate research targeted towards the development of standards and conceptual framework, part of why this research is designed. To cure the problem there is the need to look into the possibility of developing standards including who should be tasked with the development of the standards, a conceptual framework for the development of standards and for practice in gamification, and an accurate understanding of the environment of employing gamification in the place of work. This is only possible if there is continued research on gamification in general and specifically on A Software Engineering Framework for Agreeable and Evolvable Gamification in business environment.
The proposed research focuses on developing knowledge that can be used in understanding the evolving gamification environment. The research is essential in determining all the practical and technical risks that face the evolving gamification environment. Most importantly, the study is designed to build knowledge that can be used in building a conceptual framework for gamification as well as build standards of practice and use of gamification in the workplace. The study will therefore contribute greatly to the identification of the risks and approaches of mitigating those risks, among other important factors of the gamified environment.

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