Investigating the potential for using gamification to empower knowledge workers

Abstract

The increasingly popular trend of gamification has proved powerful in many areas, such as education and marketing, and has started making its way to the corporate environment. This exploratory study is focused on a particular part of corporate applicationsusing gamification to empower knowledge workers and to help them to interact with each other. Based on a review of the extant literature and an exploratory case study, we conceptualise different ways in which gamification supports knowledge workers and influences the dynamics of their interactions. The case study we present is that of online retailer Zappos who have been pioneers in this field. This paper is intended as the beginning of a journey towards utilising gamification in various aspects of knowledge work. Through studying the Zappos case, we draw out key learning points that can be used by other organisations in their journey to use gamification to empower knowledge workers. The paper also identifies areas for further research relevant to expert and intelligent systems, including the potential for synergies between gamification and intelligent systems, and the use of gamification in intelligent systems implementation.

Bracketing: a phenomenological theory applied through transpersonal reflexivity

“…Whenever we were interested in the lived experience, we did engage in some form of bracketing, which was always achieved through transpersonal reflexivity. This was true when we have worked together or with other co-authors, and even when it was just one of us, we invited someone to 'bracket with' (Dörfler, 2010;Stierand and Zizka, 2015;Baracskai and Dörfler, 2017;Bas, Dörfler, and Sinclair, 2019;Miralles, Stierand, and Dörfler, 2019;Pyrko, Dörfler, and Eden, 2019;Stierand et al, 2019;Dörfler and Bas, 2020b;Harrington, Dörfler, and Stierand, 2020;Miralles, Stierand, Lee, and Dörfler, 2020;Rayan, Dörfler, and Lennon, 2020;Shpakova, Dörfler, and MacBryde, 2020;Spanellis, Dörfler, and MacBryde, 2020;Stierand, Heelein, and Mainemelis, 2020). Why is it always transpersonal reflexivity?…”

Meaningful engagement with a gamified knowledge management system: theoretical conceptualization and empirical validation

“…In a gamified environment, competition motivates people to learn and strive to improve their performance (Nardi, 2010). For instance, gamified KMSs enable employees to show colleagues their expertise, skills, and competence, which might otherwise remain invisible (Spanellis et al. , 2020).…”

“…As a result of the increasing attention given by scholars to gamification (Hamari et al, 2014;Spanellis et al, 2020;Tep et al, 2021)-that is, the use of game elements in non-entertainment contexts-many organizations have introduced this strategy into their knowledge management systems (KMSs) to facilitate knowledge contribution in the workplace (Friedrich et al, 2020;Holzer et al, 2020;Van Toorn et al, 2020). Gamified KMSs reward employees with points when, for example, they create new documents, generate ideas, participate in discussions, answer colleagues' questions, or comment on content (Shpakova et al, 2016).…”

“…As a result of the increasing attention given by scholars to gamification (Hamari et al. , 2014; Spanellis et al. , 2020; Tep et al.…”

Gamifying situated learning in organisations

“…As a family of techniques, gamification can be understood as the use of game elements and game principles in non-game contexts (Deterding et al, 2011;Shpakova et al, 2017;Werbach and Hunter, 2012). As is evidenced in the literature, gamification lends itself well to improving organisational processes (Dale, 2014), routines (Hamari, 2017), innovation management (Petersen and Ryu, 2015) or knowledge management (Spanellis et al, 2020). In particular, the relationship between gamification and knowledge and learning in organisations appears to offer a promising direction for research (Hutter et al, 2011;Jorge and Sutton, 2017;Landers, 2014).…”