Level Up Your Strategy: Towards a Descriptive Framework for Meaningful Enterprise Gamification

Abstract

Gamification initiatives are currently top-of-mind for many organizations seeking to engage their employees in creative ways, improve their productivity, and drive positive behavioural outcomes in their workforce-ultimately leading to positive business outcomes on the whole. Despite its touted benefits, little empirical research has been done to date to investigate technological and individual personal factors that determine the success or failure of enterprise gamification initiatives. In this article, we provide a summary of our preliminary research findings from three case studies of gamification initiatives across different business contexts and present an empirically validated descriptive framework that details the key success factors for enterprise gamification. Our adaptation of the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics (MDA) framework for enterprise gamification aims to explicate the connections between end-user motivations, interactive gameplay elements, and technology features and functions that constitute effective gamification interventions in the enterprise. Following a discussion of the core elements in the framework and their interrelationships, the implications of our research are presented in the form of guidelines for the management and design of gamification initiatives and applications. The research findings presented in this article can potentially aid in the development of game mechanics that translate into positive user experiences and foster higher levels of employee engagement. Additionally, our research findings provide insights on key success factors for the effective adoption and institutionalization of enterprise gamification initiatives in organizations, and subsequently help them enhance the performance of their employees and drive positive business outcomes. Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.

Gamification approaches to the early stage of innovation

“…On a business level, gamification can be applied to many different business functions including marketing and sales, human capital and customer service, with different impacts inside and outside the firm's boundaries (Piligrimiene et al, ; Robson, Plangger, Kietzmann, McCarthy, & Pitt, ; Ruhi, ).…”

“…Gamification is a recent concept and should not be confused with others, such as play, traditional games or even reward systems and loyalty programs that merely persuade people to perform actions in order to earn points (Ruhi, ). Games introduce an explicit or implicit set of rules and an element of extrinsic motivation or work in a playful context that is free, different from real life, and usually characterized by satisfaction, enjoyment, fun, and other hedonic aspects (Holbrook, Chestnut, Oliva, & Greenleaf, ; Kultima, Niemelä, Paavilainen, & Saarenpää, ).…”

“…Conceptually, gamification relates to traditional games, typically associated with a well‐defined set of rules and regulations aimed at the achievement of objectives and competitive elements, and not so much to play or playfulness, i.e. a large variety of voluntary actions that are the result of intrinsic motivation (Koivisto & Hamari, ; Ruhi, ). Gamification is different from traditional games as these are typically focused on an entertainment value, while the former is focused on a business value and is used to advance goals outside of the game (Koivisto & Hamari, ; Ruhi, ).…”

Co‐creation of new solutions through gamification: A collaborative innovation practice

“…to improve employee engagement), or external (e.g. to codevelop products with customers) (Piligrimiene et al, 2015;Robson et al, 2015;Ruhi, 2015). Neither is it restricted to digital approaches such as software for computers and smartphones (Deterding, 2015).…”

Gamification as a Concrete Strategy for Teaching in a Vocational Education Setting

“…Dynamics describes how rules manifest themselves during the game in realtime, according to players' system inputs as well as interactions between players. Aesthetics describes the results presented by the users when they interact with the gamified system.In this way, we use these concepts in our experience [8].…”