Boosting Team Engagement through Gamification: Mitigating the Effects of Social Loafing

Developed by Francesco Magnani- s230227

Abstract

Gamification has recently attracted the attention of academics, educators, and practitioners from a number of fields. The idea of "gamification" is not new, it has been a trend in the business and marketing sectors for the past several years. Clarifying the terminology and ideas surrounding “Gamification” is one contribution of this study .

Using gamification in a project, program, and portfolio management is becoming increasingly popular as a way to reduce social loafing and improve team performance. This paper provides a theory of work gamification that positions it as a planned improvement to the conventional practice of performance management.

Gamification is the process of integrating game principles and components into real-world settings like the workplace and commerce. Workplace gamification, on the other, does not entail turning work into a game; rather, it involves integrating game elements to motivate and guide desirable employee behavior. For instance, points, levels, badges, leaderboards and avatars are game elements that are frequently linked to gamification. Gamification in this context aims to instil a sense of accountability and competition among team members, hence lowering the tendency for social loafing, in which individuals do not fully contribute to the group effort .

The article explains an overview of what Gamification is and how it can be applied in a work context so as to improve performance both by the individual and the collectivity of work groups; It is divided into the following sections:

1. What is Gamification and its purpose.

2. Gamification in Project Management.

3. Principles of Gamification in Enterprise Systems:

4. Applying Gamification Design Elements and the main limitations.

5. The motivational power of game design elements

6. Case Study

7. Conclusion.

The paper also gives an annotated bibliography of meaningful readings to aid firms in applying Gamification in Project, program, and portfolio management.

What is Gamification and its purpose

Over the last 15 years, there has been a significant increase in the usage of digital games in entertainment and how they have become such a vital part of our popular culture that it has become an academic topic of study. These themes have sparked research on their effects and relevance in the digital era, as well as the benefits of digital gaming have encouraged its use in endeavours beyond pure enjoyment. Gamification is the technique of incorporating game-like components into non-game activities to boost motivation and engagement, they are made to exploit human psychology in a similar manner to how games do . It can be used at work to increase team performance by making work more engaging and exciting, as well as making tasks more enjoyable, so that team members perform better, feel more motivated and connect one another more effectively; These gamification strategies have recently been used by companies across industries to improve performance and increase employee engagement. It can be utilized specifically in the workplace for instance introducing challenges, awards, and recognition programmes through badges. When people are part of a larger group, they are less inclined to contribute to group activities, and a behaviour known as social loafing occurs. Gamification can decrease societal laziness by motivating people to take responsibility for their labour and compete with one another; Motivation is the internal force that drives people to carry out tasks and achieve their goals . However, there is no universally accepted definition of gamification yet, attempts to define "gamification" are hampered by the term's ambiguous usage, which also highlights its diversity. This blurs the distinction between systems that use it or are fully-fledged games. The varied use of the term "gamification," which resulted in a range of false positives that expressed comparable but different concepts, was a significant issue in locating acceptable sources. Nevertheless, despite the dearth of empirical evidence and best practices for design and implementation, several attempts have been made to capitalize on the purported motivating benefits of gamification approaches. The conceptual immaturity of gamification and this disagreement among researchers present a chance for further investigation of gamification as a topic of study and method of design.

Gamification in Project Management

In the field of project management, gamification can be used to increase team members' engagement by making compelling tasks that employees usually do not find interesting. One of the main challenges is staff motivation, so it is imperative to improve motivation. The PMBOK in relation to the domain of team performance states that “Motivating project team members has two aspects: the first is understanding what motivates project team members to perform, and the second is working with project team members in such a way that they remain committed to the project and its outcomes “. Gamification stands as a new working method that exploits design elements such as points, levels, badges and dashboards in order to increase the engagement of the project team members and improve the final performance and deliverables. In order to gamify the processes of the project, the design elements have to be aligned with the project methodology and related standards. As analyzed in the PMBOK, motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is defined as doing a task because it is intrinsically satisfying, whereas extrinsic motivation is defined as performing an action because it results in a separable outcome . Self-Determination theory (STD) has already been successfully applied in the context of games, emphasizing the importance of the environment in fostering motivation; This part of the article investigates from a psychological point of view using STD theory how gamification design elements such as points, levels, badges and leaderboards might improve employee intrinsic motivation.

The Self-Determination theory explains three basic psychological needs:

-Competence: every human being aspires to feel competent when asked to carry out a task that interacts with the surrounding environment, for example, in a work team. Related to the gamification approach the need for competence can be handled by points, levels, leaderboards and badges. Each of these game elements has the function to provide immediate feedback on the employee's actions.

-Autonomy: Psychological freedom is the sensation of making decisions based on one's own principles and interests without being pressured by others. Related to the gamification approach the need for autonomy, it might be given using avatars, using them, the employees are free to customize their own character without having to worry about external judgement.

-Relatedness: It symbolizes the individual's fundamental need for cohesive integration with the social environment. Related to the gamification approach the need for social relatedness can be influenced by a story given by the type of gamification that the project manager wants to create in a project. Creating a story for a project makes it easier for team members to empathize with their avatars in it. This generates a greater sense of belonging to the project among the workers and stimulates them to complete the project tasks with greater motivation, increasing performance and final outputs .

Figure1:STD applied to gamification, own illustration

Gamification can assist project manager in:

1. Improve team performance: Gamification may increase the fun and engagement of project tasks, enhancing team members' performance and productivity .

2. Encourage teamwork and collaboration: Gamification can motivate team members to cooperate to accomplish shared objectives, encouraging teamwork and collaboration .

3. Raise motivation: Gamification can increase motivation and encourage desired behaviours among team members by offering challenges, recognition, and rewards