To Play or Not to Play As the gamification trend continues to grow, employees ma

Question

To Play or Not to Play

As the gamification trend continues to grow, employees may be asking themselves wheter a virtual badge of gaming accomplishment is truly better thann a good old-fashioned pat on the back and verbal "job well done" from a manager. Clearly it's no cure-all for all of the issues that can potentially decrease the performance of a team, or an organization. "Adding gamification to the workplace drives performance but it doesn't make up for bad management'" say Kris Duggan, chief executive of game-maker Badgeville.

1. What arguements can you make that support the legitimation of gamification in an organization's culture? What examples can you give or create to justify your arguments?

2. What arguments can you make against trying to make gamification part of an organization's culture? What examples can you give or create to justify your arguments?

3. Consider yourself the go-to "idea person" for friends who head two local organizations--- a fire department and a public library. Both complain about morale problems and ask you for advice on creating a positive organizational culture. They want to know how your interest in gaming can be used to improve staff morale and performance. What will you suggest and why?

4. Review how organiztions, including major corporations, nonprofits, and the military, are using gaming. What role is gaming taking on in these settings, and how does its use affect the organizational cultures? What does the evidence suggest-- is gamification merely a passing trend, or is it here to stay and may even grow in use in the future?

Explanation / Answer

Gamification is one of social business buzzwords most debated, but if we condense it to other familiar terms, it is nothing but a feedback mechanism, meant to provide incentives for employees to perform better, but also a tool for managers to identify individual progress.

         Thus, the employment of gamification plays a dual role within an organization:

·         One is to make work more fun and enjoyable. Whether we are talking about routine tasks or more challenging ones, introducing rewards or other forms of acknowledgement makes everything more entertaining.

·         The other is for managerial insights. Gamification doesn’t bring to the table only badges and other fun concepts from the gaming industry, but also different reports about employees activity.

Older people are not likely to adopt new technologies. Older people’s lack of adoption has been attributed to the perceived barriers of the complexity of digital devices (mobile phones and laptops), and previous bad experiences and lack of motivation. For older people, the technology they are familiar with is being phased out.

Typically the government and organizations provide digital literacy support for older people predominately through technology classes at local libraries or day centers which has at best limited reach in the community while these initiatives are based on good intentions, they are short sighted since the scheme does not consider barriers of mobility, motivation and perceived usefulness.

We can only hope that hope that new opportunities for gamification are modified to lower the barrier to entry to new digital experiences across all age groups.

4. Review how organiztions, including major corporations, nonprofits, and the military, are using gaming. What role is gaming taking on in these settings, and how does its use affect the organizational cultures? What does the evidence suggest-- is gamification merely a passing trend, or is it here to stay and may even grow in use in the future?

Corporations, small or large, have begun adopting gaming principles to do the business. These principles have a positive impact on the organizational culture as it uses game like features such as leaderboards, via which efficient employees are produced along with more satisfied customers. The growing interest in gaming stems from the desire to increase the engagement levels among employees and recognition in the workplace. It is the employing game mechanics whereby employees develop their interest in non – game activities like training, health, wellness, recruitment, hiring, etc.

Gamification is considered as a passing trend. Currently, it is being driven by hype and novelty. In the year 2014, around 80 percent of the gaming applications failed to achieves objectives due to its poor design. According to Garnter, it is good if the businessman is able to implement it in the true sense such that employees are able to perform, it can help in future growth. Gamification works well in learning environment and it is expected to grow in future as this can help in maintaining and developing high performing teams.

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