Taylorism 2.0: Gamification, scientific management and the capitalist appropriation of play

Abstract

By making work seem more like leisure time, gamification and corporate training games serve as a mechanism for solving a range of problems and, significantly, of increasing productivity. This piece examines the implications of gamification as a means of productivity gains that extend Frederick Winslow Taylor's principles of scientific management, or Taylorism. Relying on measurement and observation as a mechanism to collapse the domains of labour and leisure for the benefit of businesses (rather than for the benefit or fulfillment of workers), gamification potentially subjugates all time into productive time, even as business leaders use games to mask all labour as something to be enjoyed. In so doing, this study argues, the agency of individualswhether worker or player-becomes subject to the rationalized nature of production. This rationalization changes the nature of play, making it a duty rather than a choice, a routine rather than a process of exploration. Taken too far or used unthinkingly, it renders Huizinga's magic circle into one more regulated office cubicle.

Big Data in Organizations and the Role of Human Resource Management

“…This causes them to adapt their behavior. At first, big data may resemble Taylorism and could possibly lead to Taylorism 2.0 (deWinter et al 2014), both with negative connotations, although at a second glance Taylorism has the benefit of being comprehensible. On the other hand, the algorithms behind big data are becoming increasingly unintelligible and potentially inaccurate (Kleinberg & Mullainathan 2015).…”

Gaming and the Arts of Storytelling

“…It is an opting in; forced play ceases to be play and becomes something else. While learning games are often, to their detriment, made compulsory, as in the case of games used to train employees, the appeal and true potential of learning games and most serious games lies in the possibility that players will choose them of their own accord (deWinter et al 2014). In this, too, they echo Benjamin's storytelling. After all, children submit to lectures, but beg to hear stories.…”

More than just a game: ethical issues in gamification

“…Any adequate normative account of gamification, thus, must evaluate activities understanding how the game frame and the non-game frame interact with each other. What is legitimate in one may be problematic in the other (Dewinter et al 2014).…”