Email: peter.lehmann@scubical.com

Twitter: mrlehmann

Turning work into play: how to use

game mechanics to motivate employees

II

Abstract

Diese Bachelorarbeit untersucht die Möglichkeit des Einsatzes von

Spielmechanismen am Arbeitsplatz, um auf diese Weise Mitarbeiter zu motivieren.

Ziel ist hierbei nicht, die Arbeit spaßerfüllter zu gestalten, sondern gezielt

Spielelemente auf den Arbeitsalltag zu übertragen und somit die Mitarbeiter zu

einem leistungsorientierten Verhalten zu motivieren. Als Grundlage hierfür dienen

klassische Managementprobleme, welche mit Hilfe einer exemplarischen Fallstudie

hervorgehoben werden.

Zunächst werden klassische Motivationstheorien vorgestellt, welche sowohl das

Spiel als auch die Arbeit beeinflussen. Anschließend wird der Terminus “Spiel”

erläutert, um eine Beziehung zur Arbeit herzustellen. Dann werden einige

Spielelemente vorgestellt, welche Einfluss auf das Spielerverhalten haben. Diese

werden anhand von Beispielen verdeutlicht, um ein Verständnis über den generellen

Spielverlauf zu erlangen. In der Analyse konzentriert sich die Arbeit auf die in einer

Fallstudie umrissenen Probleme, welche mit geeigneten Spielmechanismen gelöst

werden. Im Abschluss werden die zukünftige Entwicklung der vorgestellten Theorie

sowie ihre möglichen Nachteile diskutiert um eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung zu

gewährleisten.

This bachelor thesis explores the possibility of applying game mechanics in the work

environment in order to motivate employees. The goal is not to make work more fun,

but to apply game elements and thereby strengthen performance-driven behavior.

Classical management problems are highlighted with the help of a case study.

Initially, classical motivation theories with close connection to human work and play

are introduced. Afterwards, the terms “play” and “game” will be defined with the

help of literature to be able to make a connection to work. Since the act of playing

often constitutes a planned behavior, game elements that influence gameplay will be

presented. These will be clarified with the help of examples. In the analysis the focus

will be put on the problems outlined in the case study, which will be solved by

applying game mechanics. The solution process will concentrate on game elements

that could have a motivating influence on the work of employees. The conclusion

III

will discuss future developments of the proposed theory while taking possible

disadvantages into account to ensure a holistic treatment.

IV

Table of Content

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... V

Index of Figures and Tables ........................................................................................ VI

I Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1

2.1 Level 1 - A Fresh Start ................................................................................ 4

2.2 Level 2 - Overcoming Obstacles ................................................................ 8

III Motivation between Work and Play ....................................................................... 10

3.1 Classic Theories on Motivation .................................................................. 10

3.1.1 Flow Theory ......................................................................................... 12

3.1.2 Goal-setting Theory ............................................................................. 13

3.2 Motivation in Games .................................................................................. 15

3.2.1 Bartle‟s Player Types ........................................................................... 15

3.2.2 Motivation Components ...................................................................... 15

3.3 Compensation and Incentives ..................................................................... 16

3.4 Work Design ............................................................................................... 17

IV Games and Play ...................................................................................................... 18

4.1. MDA Framework ............................................................................................. 20

4.1.1 Game Aesthetics .................................................................................. 20

4.1.2 Game Dynamics ................................................................................... 20

4.1.3 Game Mechanics ................................................................................. 21

4.2 The Application of Game Mechanics in Games ......................................... 22

4.3 Serious Games and Gamification ............................................................... 24

V Applying Game Mechanics at Work ....................................................................... 25

5.1 Motivating Employees ................................................................................ 26

5.2 Setting Goals ............................................................................................... 26

5.3 Evaluating Performance .............................................................................. 28

5.4 Rewarding Performance ............................................................................. 30

5.5 Email ........................................................................................................... 31

Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 35

Ludography .................................................................................................................. 41

V

List of Abbreviations

FLM - FreemanLindstromMeyers

HR - Human Resources

JCM - Job Characteristics Model

MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

VI

Index of Figures and Tables

Figures

Figure 1: A visual model of flow 12

Figure 2: MDA framework 20

Tables

Table 1: Work and games – a comparison based on flow 27

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I Introduction

Games have been played since the beginning of mankind and even Friedrich Schiller

noted early that man „...is only completely a man when he plays.“ (Schiller, 1795, p.

62-63). The global distribution of games, the ability to connect players around the

globe and the possibility to carry your games with the help of mobile devices has

helped them to spread around the world. One of the most prominent of these global

games is called “World of Warcraft”, a massive multiplayer online role-playing

game, which has been able to aggregate a following of 12 million players (see

Blizzard Entertainment Inc., 2010). Its players are spending an average of circa 20

hours on the game weekly, which is as much as a part-time job (see Yee, 2005;

Wang, 2010). More than 50 million people visit social networking services like Fa-

cebook on a daily basis to play social games made by the industry leader Zynga

alone (see Zynga, 2011). The demographics of video game players have changed as

well. Even though many people still attribute playing to children and adolescents,

statistics prove that video games online and offline have spread and reached nearly

every age group (see ESA, 2010; Williams et al (2008)).

Many game players are voluntarily spending significant amounts of time doing game

related tasks that many would indentify as work. In these game environments players

are organizing, categorizing, analyzing and evaluating different types of data on a

daily basis, with pleasure and excitement. (see Yee, 2006b) What makes these games

successful and at times even addictive, are certain game mechanics that can be found

in all kinds of games starting with card or board games and have been perfected over

the years in the development of video games.

Until now, workplaces have been designed around tasks needed to produce or deliver

a specific service to the customer, at times neglecting characteristics that could

increase the motivation of employees. This has in many cases resulted in low

employee engagement (see Gallup, 2010) and high employee turnover, especially in

occupations that deal with highly repetitive tasks. Every game, on the other hand, is

designed around the same central element: the player‟s experience.

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II The Management Game

The following case study describes examples of management issues frequently

encountered in relevant literature. They include, but are not limited to, talent

management, project management and performance management. The case

study remains a work of fiction and any resemblance to companies or

specific personal is unintended.

FreemanLindstromMeyers (FLM) is a globally operating service company which

offers consulting and other services related to tax and accounting issues. The

company has performed well in the past. However, after the global recession in 2009

and its following consolidation of some industries, it has been confronted with harsh

competition in several key sectors. This has lead to a high performance initiative

called “Focus.Excel.Innovate.” intended to fortify their positions as one of the

industry leaders. Focus standing for the industries that FLM wants to concentrate on

in the future, Excel representing the companies need to improve performance while

Innovate voices their wish to explore new sectors and services. The initiative was

accompanied by annual performance goals and benchmarks for every country and

their respective. These goals included a general improvement of efficiency and

effectiveness of the services offered. One of the topics that arose at a regional

leadership meeting was the constantly underachieving department of accounting

specialists in Germany. The managers agreed that just hiring more employees could

not solve the performance problem and concluded that replacing the current

department manager should be considered. A discussion between the partners ensued

over who should be appointed as new head of the department.

Juan Garcia, head of global assurance initiated the discussion while reviewing

global performance of his offices. “I know some of us have talked about this

before, but I think this would be a good time to address the problems of our

accounting department in Germany. They have underperformed for the third

year in a row now, even though they have hired five new consultants, just in

the past year.”

“I have heard through the grapevine that some clients have considered

terminating relationships with us that we have kept over many years. This

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would be a disaster, not just financially but also in terms of public relations,”

Mike Butcher, senior manager of global business development noted.

Competitors had been trying to woe costumers by undercutting FLM‟s prices

on services that would help them to get a foot into large organizations for

more profitable projects.

After a short moment of silence, Wolfgang Meier responded, “I think, I am

not just speaking for myself when I say that I think that Dr. Schmitt is a

person with very high expertise in his field.” Meier, the head of FLM

Germany he had endorsed Dr. Ralf Schmitt, an old colleague, when it came to

naming a new head for the accounting department in 2006. “When I

suggested him for the position, he seemed like an obvious choice due to his

track record, but maybe he is just not a leader,” he justified himself. A few

opinions followed, voicing open questions about who should fill the open

spot and if the decision should be moved to the next meeting to give Schmitt

another chance.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have delayed this decision for too long already. If

we want to stay competitive in Germany, we need to think about replacing

him with someone who can get more out of the department right now,” Mr.

Garcia reminded them bluntly.

“What if we just assign Schmitt to one of our big projects in China? Most of

our accounting services there are still in development due to the difficult legal

matter. I am sure that he is up for the challenge and I would hate to lose his

know-how to a competitor”. This idea seemed to satisfy everybody and by

popular vote, Dr. Ralf Schmitt was to be offered an assignment in China over

the next week.

“We should consider a fresh start. I suggest, we hire somebody from the

outside to head the department. He might be able to bring a different

perspective of the company and our business to the table. If this does not

work out, we can always try to find somebody in-house and put him through

leadership training or ask Schmitt to come back.“

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2.1 Level 1 - A Fresh Start

Martin Richards applied for a position as department manager at

FreemanLindstromMeyers. Although still relatively young, he had gained extensive

experience in several international accounting departments of large organizations

ranging from automotive manufacturing and industrial sales to medical research

throughout his career. Looking to move up into a management position, he had

recently finished his MBA with the highest honors at a highly respected institute

landing him an interview at FLM.

After completing several interviews with the HR experts and surpassing his peers in

assessment centers, he was invited to a last interview with two of the senior

managers of FLM Germany. There he learned that the management had decided to

appoint a new head for the innovative accounting department in Germany, due to its

poor performance in the last three years and that they wanted him to play a major

part in their efforts. Richards was to be put in charge of a team of 30 employees

which consisted of employees of different ages and expertise. Most of them were

young professionals that had entered the organization within the last few years as

consultants and were accompanied by senior consultants and specialists. The two

managers made sure to point out the expectations to Richards, but also reassured him

that he could expect full support of his experienced colleagues.

“The department you will be heading has been having trouble meeting

deadlines in the past. Certain benchmarks and key performance indicators that

we have set on a global level have not been met. We have invested in

infrastructure and training; performance will have to improve in the future.”

Meier, the head of FLM Germany, continued by explaining why

“Focus.Excel.Innovate” was put in place and stressed how important it was to

the success of the company in the future.

“We hope that you and the very talented team already in place can manage to

increase the productivity. Improved results should be visible within the next

months. As you know, only the most talented people are considered for a job

at FreemanLindstromMeyers, but they need guidance. We want to keep

improving and innovating to stay ahead in these highly competitive times.”

5

This job offer seemed to be the big challenge that Richards had been waiting for and

although slightly intimidated by the high expectations, he was sure that he could get

the best out of his new team.

The department‟s primary responsibility was to provide assurance and accounting

services to FLM‟s clients in Germany. This was accompanied by two goals that

every department had to pursue. The first goal was to acquire new clients by

leveraging FLM‟s existing client-base and the second asked every department to

develop a new service that competitors were not offering at the time. Richards was

glad that his team had a foundation of longtime employees. This way he could

concentrate on learning the ropes of the business rather than having to supervise his

team right from the get go.

As some of the more senior colleagues did not appreciate the forced departure of

Ralf Schmitt, it took Richards a couple of weeks to build respect and trust within

their ranks. The younger consultants had generally not been as attached to Schmitt as

their older colleagues and tried to impress him doing whatever possible.

Most of the department was working on client specific projects that required their

special expertise while a small portion reviewed new legislature and tried to improve

existing services. The department had been plagued with bad attendance in the last

months and even at Richards‟s first meeting at which he was to be introduced to his

new employees, only 25 of his 30 team members were present.

After he had reshuffled some of the seating arrangements in the office to match at

least one senior employee with a group of consultants, Richards tried to spend time

with every team observing their daily routine and absorbing as much knowledge

about the department‟s issues as he could. While visiting with one of the teams, he

followed up on an email he had received from Linda Schilder, one of the few female

consultants.

“What are you working on at the moment, you had mentioned an idea?”

“I think I have come up with a new service that we could offer. I have been

trying to understand what ramifications some upcoming EU legislature could

have for our clients and I am sure we could advise our clients on these

issues.” Ms Schilder was the first one to present his new boss with an idea for

6

a service after Richards had urged all employees to think of ways to expand

the product line in one of his early meetings.

This was the value proposition of FLM. It offered the expertise and special

knowledge of their consultants and accountants to other companies to reduce the cost

of operating on a global scale and to ensure compliance with international accounting

standards.

After his first month at FLM, Richards sent a status report to his superiors in which

he noted his first observtions. Only a few of the consultants that had entered in the

past years had completed their basic training, including courses that were designed to

introduce them to the software available. However, every employee seemed to be

knowledgable enough to complete the required amount of cases during the year.

Unfortunatly, there seemed to be a high amount of sick leaves and many employees

were behind the time they were required to work.

A few weeks after Richards spent his day in the office of Schilder, he was

approached by Schilder, who presented him with the now finished service

proposition she had been working on. Richards told her to invite the colleagues that

were responsible for innovation proposals to a meeting in order to discuss whether

this was a service that the company should offer or not and if Ms. Schilder‟s research

would stand up to lawmakers when their clients were audited.

Only a few members of the department showed up for the meeting which Ms.

Schilder had invited them to. After waiting a few minutes to see if somebody else

would show up she started her presentation.

“I have been doing some research and it looks like…,” Schilder started and

introduced her findings to the seven people that were in the room and

concluded with a question. “So what do you guys think?”, Schilder asked.

“Sorry Linda, I think no company would be interested in even doing that,”

answered Winter looking up from his notes.

“Did you not listen to what I just said? It is going to become a big issue in the

future and it would give us a head-start if we were prepared for it.” Silence

followed.

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“I think it is an interesting start. I could do some mock up calculations and

see what impact it would have on the bottom line of one of our existing

clients,” one of the specialists chimed in.

“That would be such a waste of time; it is all hypothetical. It is not even sure

that these laws will pass, right?”, Winter interrupted.

After the meeting came to an end, Linda Schilder had been able to rally up some

support for her project, but unfortunately Richards had not attended the meeting.

Since hierarchies were relatively flat at FLM and reporting was kept to a minimum.

Richards had appointed the senior employees as leaders of each team to be able to

hold somebody accountable for the work done. Richards himself only reported to two

of the senior managers on a quarterly basis and the department remained his own

responsibility. The teams had enjoyed relative freedom in the past as Dr. Schmitt had

been too busy to overlook daily operations, due to his own focus on specialty issues.

To insure compliance with benchmarks and deadlines, the company had put in place

reporting software that all employees were required to use.

Richards had started at FLM in August and the end of the year was approaching fast;

reports showed that performance was still inconsistent even though his department

started very strong in the month of August when he first joined. Performance

decreased gradually during the remaining months and only peaked again before the

end of the year. One reason for this fluctuation was the fast approaching deadlines

that the department had to meet, while the other might have been the upcoming

performance reviews. Bonuses and raises were only awarded at the end of the

reporting period, but these monetary incentives had apparently missed to motivate

the well-paid workforce. An alarming call from Juan Garcia, head of global

assurance, reminded him that there were still a lot of open cases and that it should be

his primary concern to complete them before the end of the year.

“Did you not check the reports over the few last weeks, only 50 percent of the

accounts are finished and there is only about three weeks left!” Mr. Garcia‟s

voice rang in Richards head. How could he have missed this?

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2.2 Level 2 - Overcoming Obstacles

A problem that Mr. Richards was confronted with daily was his inbox. It was

overflowing with emails and filled up more by the minute. Although his secretary

made sure to only forward important messages to him, he was still not able to answer

all of the queries on time. Emails included invitations to industry conferences, status

updates on the performance of FLM, queries by employees about vacation and sick

days, newsletters of expert circles that he was asked to attend and worst of all, he

was being copied on seemingly every email that left the office. Richards sometimes

resorted to ignoring or even deleting messages of senders that he did not recognize or

messages that were sent without a title. This sometimes led to more follow ups and

some of the emails had to wait weeks to be answered which led to the delay of

important projects and decisions. If Richards went out of town for a week to receive

additional training, he was met by a wall of new emails and voice mails that

demanded instant attention.

Although genuinely interested, he had missed the presentation of Schilder‟s research

project, which he had been invited to last week. She was sure to follow up with an

email stating that they discussed the new service and that the team was generally

interested. This was not the only message he received regarding the meeting. Winter

had also followed up and voiced his concern about the usefulness of Schilders‟s

project to FLM. In the end, he modestly requested a private meeting with Richards to

discuss his own ideas, attaching a promising overview to the email.

As December came to an end, it was time to inform employees about their

performance in the past year and give them feedback. Although Richards had only

been with the company for the second half of the year, it was he who was supposed

to hold performance reviews with his team members. Cindy Bach, one of the HR

managers gave him an envelope full of standard questionnaires and told him to

prepare for this year‟s performance reviews. “I know they are silly, but we have to do

it; it is our policy”, she said.

Richards had always disliked standard performance reviews. The first form was

filled with questions regarding the behavior and performance of his employees and

asked him to evaluate it on a scale of one through ten, based on what he had

9

experienced in the past year. The second was intended for the interview and

consisted of questions about the employee‟s personal goals and career development

at FLM.

Apart from the project that Schilder had presented, Richard was not sure how much

she was contributing to her team. According to the reporting tool, only 70 percent of

the cases that were assigned to Schilder‟s team were closed on time, but Richards

assumed that she was performing well. After working through the 20 questions,

Richard realized that he had scored Schilder in the midrange in all occasions and he

never scored her below five. This was surely coincidence he thought while he started

to fill in Winter‟s name into the next questionnaire.

When he realized that he had positively assessed the past performance of each

employee, it occurred to him that the feedback he was providing would not help him

improve his team‟s performance. In January, after meeting with every department

member in person and discussing their goals and achievements over the year, the

department‟s statistics were improving. The motivation that their feedback talk had

provided had encouraged many of the employees to make bold moves and teams

were eager to receive new cases.

The new found optimism unfortunately did not last long and only a month after their

reviews, employees seemed to be disinterested and the speed of case completion was

plummeting again. This led Richard to believe that the interviews must have been the

source of the departments improved performance. His employees could perform

great after all; they just needed feedback and the right motivation. Disappointed that

he could not improve his team‟s performance significantly during his tenure,

Richards decided to look for advice outside of the organization to find new ways to

improve his employee‟s performance.

The upper management urged him to meet with several consulting firms that had

offices nearby and ask them to submit proposals based on the issues that Richards

had observed in his first 6 months at FLM.

One company whose ideas stood out, was a small firm called Super Lehmann Bros.

It consisted of only a few young consultants that offered a service which promised to

increase motivation and performance by introducing game-like features into the work

10

environment. Richards had always enjoyed games of all kinds and was curious to see

what solutions Super Lehmann Bros. had to offer.

III Motivation between Work and Play

In literature work motivation is often described as psychological processes which

direct an individual‟s energy towards a certain task or project (see Grant/Shin 2011).

On the one hand, work motivation is influenced by the motivational potential of the

performed work itself and the employee‟s personal motives which can be attributed

to his intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, the motivation to work is influenced

by conditions under which the employee performs his work, including his physical

work environment, compensation and rewards and other benefits provided to the

employee. These kinds of rewards generally belong to the field of extrinsic

motivation. Intrinsically motivated activities are driven from within, meaning that the

individual derives satisfaction from the task itself rather than from the outcome. The

task is interesting and the individual is willing to pursue it further without being

forced to do it or rewarded for performing it. Extrinsic motivation does not

necessarily stand in contrast with intrinsic motivation but rather exists in parallel.

Motivation of extrinsic nature is generally derived from an outside source and

provides the individual with external satisfaction, for example monetary rewards.

These motivations directly influence an employee‟s work performance, his

attendance on the job and the satisfaction received from working. (see Lawler/

Porter, 1967)

3.1 Classic Theories on Motivation

The research on motivation has resulted in different theories that try to explain the

motivations that are fundamental to human behavior. Some of these theories are

regularly covered in management literature. These will only be mentioned briefly in

order to leave room to expand on lesser known concepts which are able to explain

the motivational power of games and play. The first major group of theories on

motivation are known as content theories and deal with the individual‟s needs, which

motivate it to pursue activities to satisfy them. Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs

describes a hierarchy of different factors that are based upon the most basic

11

physiological needs such as food, water and sleep. He asserted that when one type of

need was met, the next will emerge and thereby control the individual‟s behavior

(see Maslow, 1943). McClelland‟s theory of needs, on the other hand, singles out the

need for achievement, the need for power and the need for affiliation. It concludes

that every individual exhibits a combination of these three needs and their relative

strength subsequently influences its behavior. Another often cited motivation theory

is Herzberg‟s motivation-hygiene factors. These factors are based on a survey he

conducted with a small set of employees and divided work characteristics into

motivators and hygiene factors. He concluded that the factors that were able to

motivate employees were different from the ones that demotivated them. Although

these theories have been proven to have their downsides and limitations, they can

help managers to understand that employees exhibited different motivational needs.

(see von Rosenstiel et al (2003); Oechsler(2000))

The second string of motivation theories that try to determine the individuals

behavior are the process theories. These try to explain how motivation emerges and

how it can be shaped in the process. (see Schanz, 1991) Equity theory proposes that

the individual‟s behaviors yield from the ratio of his inputs (contributions to the job)

and outputs (rewards and compensation) he receives for them and how this ratio

compares to his peers. This is especially important when contemplating

compensation. The most important process theory is called expectancy theory. The

theory proposes that an individual will select one behavior over another as a result of

valence which is the value of the reward offered, instrumentality the probability

that performance will be rewarded and the probability that performance will lead to

success defined as expectancy. (see Oechsler, 2000)

Behavioral modification is a psychological theory that is often disregarded in work

motivation literature as it is seen as manipulative and unethical. (see Schanz, 1991) It

roots in Skinner„s research on operant conditioning and describes the shaping of

behavior by rewarding (positively reinforcing) or punishing (negatively reinforcing)

certain actions. His research further concludes that the influence of the reward or

punishment on the subject‟s behavior also depends on the frequency and timing of

reinforcement (schedules of re-inforcement). (see Schanz, 1991)

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3.1.1 Flow Theory

On top of what is known about the possible sources of intrinsic motivation and its

consequences, Csikszentmihaly researched the qualities of an experience that made it

intrinsically rewarding. Through observation of individuals performing strenuous

activities without external reward, he wanted to understand what motivated them and

how they felt during the process. As result of his finding, Csikszentmihaly coined the

term, autoletic experience, auto meaning self and talos meaning goal. He describes it

as an optimal state that is so desirable to the individual that it wants to repeat the task

from which the experiences is derived as often as possible. In order to become an

autoletic experience for an individual, it has to present the right balance between a

challenge to overcome and the skills that the individual possess (see

Csikszentmihaly, 1991). Csikszentmihaly developed the following model to illustrate

his findings.

Figure 1: A visual model of flow

Source: own illustration based on Csikszentmihaly (1991), p. 67.

To remain in this flow, as the concept was later renamed, the challenge has to

increase in complexity while the individual‟s skills mature. While an overly complex

challenge will lead to a feeling of anxiety, an overly simple challenge will result in

boredom ultimately decreasing the individual‟s performance or leading him to abort

the activity totally. In his research Csikszentmihaly indentified certain qualities that

Apathy

Flow

∞

(High)

Boredom

(Low)

0

Chal

lenge

Skill 0 (Low)

Anxiety

(High) ∞

13

an activity has to have in order to be able to provide individuals with a flow

experience. First, the individual has to be able to complete the task. Second, the task

itself has to have a clear goal and ultimately it has to provide frequent feedback,

Csikszentmihaly‟s research concluded. As most of the challenges in life only provide

a poor balance between challenge and skill, Csikszentmihaly was only able to

identify autoletic experiences in certain fields such as sports, games, artistic

performance, rituals and work. (see Csikszentmihalyi/ Csikszentmihalyi, 1988)

In his later works, Csikszentmihaly connected his flow theory directly to Huizinga

and his theory that games and play are the foundation of society as we know it.

“Flow is a sense that humans have developed in order to recognize patterns of

action that are worth preserving and transmitting over time. This was Huizinga’s

([1939] 1970) great insight: that the “serious” institutions that constitute society –

science, the law, the arts, religion, and even the armed forces – all started out as

games, as context in which people could play and experience the enjoyment of

goal-directed action.” (Csikszentmihalyi/ Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, p. 34).

3.1.2 Goal-setting Theory

Through more than four decades of research, Locke and Latham were able to prove

that goals and certain qualities they need to possess could positively influence task

performance. They found out that the difficulty of a task positively correlates with

high performance. Performance decreases if the goal exceeds the individual‟s

abilities or the commitment to the problem decreases, which is very much in line

with Csikszentmihalyi‟s flow theory. Another factor that improves performance on

difficult tasks is specificity. It adds an outside reference and thereby reduces the

variation in outcomes. They distilled four mechanisms with which goals affect

individual performance. First, the direction of goals can direct attention and effort

toward activities that are relevant to the goal‟s completion. Second, the effort needed

to completing more difficult goals energizes the individual. The individual

automatically applies task specific knowledge and there is no need for further

planning. Third, the persistence with which goals are pursued meaning that a

deadline can positively affect the time spent on tasks and speed up their completion

and ultimately the strategies that are developed and applied in order to reach goals.

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If the task is new to the individual, they will actively plan and develop new strategies

to attain the goal. (Locke/Latham, 2002)

Apart from these mechanisms that enable goals to improve performance, Locke and

Latham were able to identify moderators that influence effectiveness of goals and

how strong the relationship between a goal and an individual‟s performance is. The

relationship is the strongest when individuals exert high commitment to a goal which

is especially important if the goals difficulty is high and the chance of success is

lower than for easy goals. Therefore, more effort is required to reach them.

Commitment consists of the goal‟s importance to the individual as well as the belief

that it is able to attain the goal (self-efficacy). There are multiple ways to increase an

individual‟s commitment. Leaders have the possibility to develop and communicate

an inspiring vision that excites and energizes the individual. This vision can take

clues from the organization‟s overall vision, mission and value proposition but

ultimately it has to appeal to the employee. Making the individual commit to the goal

publically will increase social pressure; however, letting the individual participate in

setting the goal will increase the feeling of self-efficacy and make the goal more

desirable to complete due to as the individual‟s identifying with it. Self-efficacy can

be increased by providing the individual with the skills needed to complete the task

and expressing confidence that the goal will be reached. This will lead to the mastery

that ensures successful experiences in the future. For a goal to be effective,

individuals have to be provided with feedback that allows them to measure the

progression towards the goal. Observing progress over time will allow an employee

to adjust his strategies, the effort put forth and the direction in which he guides his

efforts. Task complexity is the third moderator of goal effectiveness. When the

complexity of a task increases, the individual will reach a point at which he does not

have the appropriate strategies or skills. Goal effectiveness then largely depends on

whether the individual is able to develop a new strategy and how much time he will

need to do so. (see Locke/Latham, 2002)

The framing of goals was later introduced to the goal-theory and is concerned with

the setting in which goals are presented. Goals can be framed negatively (you should

not sell less than ten units this year) or positively (the goal is to sell more than 9 units

this year) (see Locke/ Latham, 2006). Although research that positive effects from

15

framing can not always be triggered (see McElroy/Seta, 2007), it might explain why

goals in games seem desirable to the player.

3.2 Motivation in Games

It is easy to assume that the same motivations that employees have for work will hold

true for games and play but there is still not enough research that suggests this.

Csikszentmihalyi was able to observe flow in sports (1991) of which some are

unarguebly games and researchers have been trying to apply flow theory to video

games (see Cowley et al, 2008). As players exhibit different behaviors within games,

it is apparent that not all of them are driven by the same motives.

3.2.1 Bartle‟s Player Types

In a first attempt to categorize players in role-playimg games, Richard Bartle

developed a player personality test based on behavior that he observed while playing

multi-user dungeon games. This test puts players into four different categories.

Achievers are motivated by goals and challenges posed by the game and engage in

behavior that will help them gain points and other forms of rewards. Explorers are

players that are driven by curiosity and try to find out as much as they can about the

game and its underlying mechanics. Socialisers seek interaction with other players as

their main source of satisfaction from games. Killers, only a very small part of the

player population, can be categorized as players that gain satisfaction from

interfering with the game play of others (see Bartle, 1996).

3.2.2 Motivation Components

Bartles‟s model was clearly limited as it did not take into account players that

exhibited more than one type of behaviour. Moreover, it assumed that the behavior of

players was static. These limitations inspired empirical studies conducted by Nick

Yee within the Daedalus Project, which was an ongoing research project within

MMORPGs. He designed a questionnaire on the basis of Bartle‟s player types and

earlier experience from surveys conducted with MMORPG players. His study was

able to empirically expand and classify the player‟s motivations into three main

16

components which then expand into ten subcomponents. Players in the study were

motivated by game elements that Yee seperated into the achievements

(advancement, mechanics and competition), the social (socializing, relationship and

teamwork) aspects that online play offered and the immersion in the game world

(discovery, role-playing, customization and escapism)(see Yee, 2006a). Some of

these motivations can be traced back to more formal research about motivation as

achievements seem to be in line with McClelland‟s research. Social interaction is

part of human nature and MMORPGs offer another platform to foster it while the

immersion in play is a central part of human culture and tribal customs (see Sutton-

Smith, 2009).

3.3 Compensation and Incentives

Organizations use both monetary and non-monetary compensation to motivate their

employees. Tangible compensation, which is sometimes referred to as monetary

compensation, can include raising the salary, granting bonus payments for finished

projects or participation in a company share-plan that ties the individual‟s

performance to the long-term performance of the company. The salary is the standard

form of compensation in today‟s work environment and while it was historically

used to pay employees as an exchange for the labor they provided, it now also serves

as a tool to acquire and tie employees to a company. (see Söllner, 2008) Intangible

compensation is reached by status gains that the employee receives when being

promoted as well as the more direct influence praise from superiors as source of

satisfaction. The different compensation options can be used as incentives, most of

the time presented as rewards, to drive performance of an employee by motivating

him to overcome certain goals. The challenge that managers face is to determine

which reward will work for a particular employee. The influence of incentives on

performance has been proven by using three of the theories that were presented

above. Incentives increase the valence to performance (expectancy theory) as well as

the acceptance of difficult goals (goal-setting theory) while rewarding high

performance increases the probability that it would reoccur (reinforcement theory)

(see Barnes/Morgeson, 2007).

17

Unfortunatly, there is a growing body of research that claims that monetary rewards

are counterproductive, do not increase performance and even decrease intrinsic

motivation (see Kohn, 1993; Deci et al, 1999). This has put organizations into a

difficult situation. It is in their own interest to motivate their employees. However

their current tools seem limited. When we look at games on the other hand, we notice

that players do not have to be rewarded with monetary rewards to be motivated to

play.

3.4 Work Design

Maximizing worker efficiency has a long history in management research, going

back to Smith (1776) and his divisions of labor. This lead to research on work design

which can be defined as research on “…how jobs, tasks, and roles are structured,

enacted, and modified, as well as the impact of these structures, enactments, and

modifications on individual, group, and organizational outcomes.” (see Grant/Parker,

2009). Unfortunately, this trend had negative effects on worker satisfaction which led

to increased research on the motivating features of work refered to as job enrichment.

The Job Characteristics Model introduced by Hackman and Oldham (1976) is one of

the most influential in this field (see Humphrey et al., 2007). They developed five

characteristics that they thought would predict the motivational value of jobs. The

variety of skills needed to perform the job, how much the employee identifies with

the task and how significant their contribution is to the overall success of the

company increase the experienced meaningfulness of work. Letting the employee

work autonomously was another suggestion offered by the JCM in order to increase

the feeling of responsibility for the product. Feedback from superiors is also

regarded as enrichment tool and knowledge about the results of the employees work

will further improve his job satisfaction (see Hackman/Oldham, 1976)

To revive this particular field of research Humphrey, Morgensen and Nahrgang

(2007) conducted a meta-analysis of the prior research done in work motivation and

design. They were able to compound the existing work design theories including the

JCM and proved their significance for job satisfaction through empirical verification.

Apart from the knowledge and task specific motivation that work offers, they also

conclude that the social aspects of work, the interaction with co-workers like

18

feedback and social support as well as the context, the physical conditions under

which the work is performed, largely influence the worker‟s motivation (see

Humphrey et al., 2007).

Even though there has been a lot of research in the fields of work motivation and

beneficial work design, there are still large gaps in the understanding of how to

match work and the individual‟s knowledge, skills and personal preferences more

successfully (see Grant/Parker, 2009).

IV Games and Play

In order to understand why games and play are so popular and how they can

contribute to motivating employees we need to look at the following aspects: first of

all we have to understand “play” as part of human nature and culture. Further, we

need to define what “to play” and “a game” means and how these relate to each other

in order to explain their possible relationship to work.

J. Barnard Gilmore noted that “Play refers to those activities which are accompanied

by a state of comparative pleasure, exhilaration, power, and feeling of self-initiative.”

(see Herron/Sutton-Smith, (1971), p. 311)

Certain types of play can be found in every culture and even traced back to the

origins of man and even animals (see Sutton-Smith, 2001). Johan Huizinga was the

first to propose the „homo ludens“, the playing man, and even went as far as

suggesting that play was the source of laws, politics, sports and arts (see Huizinga,

2009). We refer to many activities as play or playing, for example the act of making

music, deceiving another person, the playful movement of light or slowing down

play in sports. (see Salen/ Zimmerman, 2003)

The following definition of games was proposed by Clark C. Abt in his book

“Serious Games” (1976):

“Reduced to its formal essence a game is an activity among two or more in-

dependent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limit-

ing context. A more conventional definition would say that a game is a con-

text with rules among adversaries trying to win objectives.” (p. 6-7)

19

An activity in a game as defined by Abt can be a process as well as an event and

players take part in these activities. Players are independent decision-makers,

meaning that games require that players actively choose between options presented

to them within the game. Objectives are presented to the player as goals or contests.

In fact, the Greek word for game is “agôn” and literally means “contest”. When a

player achieves these objectives he generally wins the game and therefore ends the

contest. The limited context that Abt refers to is represented by the rules and

mechanics of games that structure and guide the player‟s activity in them (see Abt,

1970). This definition is not perfect as it leaves out some games that are not contests,

but it allows us to compare work and games.

Although the presented definitions do not clearly identify the complex relationship

between games and play, it is possible to make two observations:

1. Games are a subset of play: whereas games represent a bundle of activities

that are considered to be play.

2. Play is an element of games: where play defines the actions taken within the

frame of a game and therefore also makes play an element of games.

(see Salen/Zimmerman, 2003)

In his game design manual “The Art of Game Design” (2008), Jesse Schell defines

games even more simple: “A game is a problem solving activity approached with a

playful attitude” (p. 37).

These definitions allow us to draw a connection between work and play as a job

clearly exhibits the characteristics that identify a game according to Abt: a limited

context (the job itself), objectives (sell, buy or produce a product), independent

decision makers (employees, managers and customers) and an activity (work). If this

activity is then approached playfully, we have met all criteria for a game and as play

takes place within games, one can argue that play can in fact be similar to work.

In order to introduce the same pleasure that players experience during play into

modern day work, work design has to take clues from game design. Therefore, it is

helpful to identify the underlying elements that govern gameplay. Although not

obvious to the untrained eye, games and play within these games are a structured

20

process and can be manipulated and guided by a game‟s designer.

(Salen/Zimmerman, 2003; Schell, 2008)

4.1. MDA Framework

The MDA framework was developed in order to improve the way of communicating

elements of games between different fields of application such as game design, game

development, game criticism and technical game research. The initials M-D-A stand

for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics and divide a game into three layers that

influence each other and cannot exist independently. (Hunicke et al, 2004)

4.1.1 Game Aesthetics

The top layer of every game and the most obvious to the player is its aesthetics.

These represent the most visual part of the three elements and are described as

emotions that are invoked in the player when he is interacting with the game system.

The framework tries to move the vocabulary away from primitive terms such as

“fun” and “gameplay” and introduces aesthetic goals to be able to define game

experiences more clearly. Examples include but are not limited to Sensation (game as

sense-pleasure), Challenge (game as obstacle course) and Discovery (Game as

uncharted territory). (Hunicke et al, 2004)

4.1.2 Game Dynamics

Game Dynamics are the source of these experiences and could be described as the

actual act of playing. Dynamics are the result of the interaction between the game‟s

mechanics and the player. The mechanics are influenced by the player‟s inputs and

both of them influence each others‟ outputs resulting in a feedback loop. It is

important to mention that play may not always turn out as intended by the designer

as players might re-purpose game elements to provide for novel experiences

(Boardgame Remix Kit, 2010) or use loopholes in the game‟s design to overcome

challenges with less effort. Designers have to take all options and outcomes into

account when creating games. When shaping the intended gameplay they have to

21

limit actions and outcomes by boundaries and rules, the game‟s mechanics. (Hunicke

et al, 2004)

Figure 2: MDA Framework

Source: own illustration based on Hunicke et al (2004)

4.1.3 Game Mechanics

Although the term game mechanics is widely used in game design, there is no clear

consensus as to what constitutes a mechanic. One possible defention is that game

mechanics are the rules that make gameplay possible and encourage a user to explore

and learn the properties of the game space through the use of feedback mechanisms.

(see Koster, 2005) The term “game mechanic” was first used in the design of board

games and largely referred to the rules of play. The MDA-framework separates

mechanics from the other layers with the following definition:

“Mechanics are the various actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms

afforded to the player within a game context.” (Hunicke et al, 2004)

Every game consists of at least one core mechanic that is the main activity pursued

in the game and is generally performed throughout the whole game

(Salen/Zimmerman, 2003). The other game mechanics revolve around this action and

provide additional information, new settings and constraints that influence the

interaction between players and the game space.

An epic challenge, also known as epic meaning or global goal inherited in a game is

the final goal of heroic proportion that a player tries to reach within the narrative of

Player

experience

Aesthetics

Dynamics

Mechanics

Design

process

22

the game. Overcoming this challenge or defeating the greater evil will end the game.

Games with infinite play, on the other hand, generally do not offer a type of narrative

and overcoming the current challenge will only lead to a more difficult challenge.

In order to perfect the skills that the player requires to overcome the “epic challenge”

he has to complete certain missions or quests. Quests are smaller goals of increasing

difficulty which require him to learn new skills or increase the efficiency of the skills

he has already mastered. Achieving a goal is then typically rewarded with points.

Points are the most widespread reward that is used in games to shape the players

behavior. Players can receive a constant amount stream of points for completing the

core mechanic while more complex tasks generally lead to more points. The rewards

can be handed out in form of a virtual currency that the player can exchange for

upgrades or experience points which pave the player‟s way to the next level of his

character‟s development. Many video games are now incorporating status-only

rewards called achievements or badges. These are usually separated from the core

mechanic and reward the player for exploring the game.

Although the term level was first used to represent the stages of the game world in

video games, it is now increasingly used as a term for player status. Players reach

higher levels for achieving certain goals or collecting a certain amount of points.

Being the highest level in a game now inherits expertise and gives the player a type

of social status among his playmates.

As a lot of players are driven by competition, introducing a ranking into the game

can further increase the individuals urge to play. These rankings, often referred to as

leaderboards are generally a subset of the game as players can still play without

leading the ranking and use a predefined performance indicator to rank its players.

4.2 The Application of Game Mechanics in Games

To facilitate a better understanding of the application of these mechanics in games, it

is helpful to review some of the most successful game titles. A boardgame that was

able to celebrate its 75 birthday in 2010 is the game “Monopoly”. The goal of the

game is to bankrupt the other players and thereby establish a monopoly (epic

23

challenge). The player advances on the board by rolling dice (core mechanic) and

pays rent and properties with a virtual currency (points).

In one of the most classic infinite games, “TETRIS”, the core mechanic is

represented by the stacking of blocks. These blocks come in variable shapes and the

player is rewarded with points (reward) when stacking the incoming blocks and

completing a horizontal line. The player is able to rotate the pieces, but is not able to

change the shape of it. After failing to diminish the descending blocks, the game

ends and leads the player to a ranking in which he can sign his initials which are

portrayed at the end of every round played (ranking).

The epic challenge presented to the player in the iconic game “Super Mario Bros”

(1987) is to rescue a princess. The game consists of levels with different themes

through which the player advances by jumping (core mechanic) over or on top of

obstacles and adversaries. Additionally, the player collects coins (points) which yield

the player an extra life. These are usually situated in the “air” to facilitate more

jumping.

Due to technological improvements, games grew more sophisticated and now offer

new revenue streams to developers. Game subscriptions were introduced to provide a

constant revenue stream from titles that needed additional sources of cash to support

server structures and development costs for games that offer online play. One of the

most successful of these MMORPGs is “World of Warcraft”. The main task of the

game is to kill monsters (core mechanic) to gain experience points and money in

form of copper, silver and gold. The experience points help the player to advance to

the next level of his character‟s development while the virtual currency is used to

purchase upgrades and supplies. The player‟s level is always visible to his peers and

enables him to unlock new content and thereby kill new adversaries while it also

establishes a social ranking between players. While the game world offers a cheer

endless amount of quests, the epic challenge is only accessable to players of the

highest level thus increasing the urge to level-up.

To lure in the more casual players, games are offered on social networks such as

Facebook free of charge. These are supplemented with in-game purchases that

improve the player‟s abilities or help him overcome challenges. In-game product

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placement and advertisement has also increased as marketer‟s attention is drawn to

this new fast growing medium. To adapt to these changes, developers and designers

have put in place strong incentive schemes to engage players over longer periods of

time.

The game developer that is currently most successful at using non-monetary rewards

to persuade casual players to engage with their games is Zynga Inc. Concentrating on

“Farmville”, the first in a series of similarly themed “Ville” games; we can identify

the planting of crops as core mechanic of the game. When harvesting the crops after

their timed growth, players are rewarded with coins and experience points which

they can use to plant more crops and get to the next level respectively. In addition,

players receive cash, a third type of points, for reaching a higher level, which is

required for other items as the player progresses. The player‟s progress is fast in the

beginning and slows down over time. It is constantly visible through a progress bar

which adjusts to the player‟s level to give him the impression of being close to

completion at any time. Due to the fact that “Farmville” is played in a social

network, the player has the possibility to compete against his friends directly or ask

them to help out with supplies. As it is a game of infinite play, it offers no epic

challenge, but a lot of incentives to reach the next level, such as social status and

exclusive items.

There is a lot of discussion in the game design community (see Bogost, 2010), as

these games do not offer the player more than “…a series of mindless chores on a

digital farm, requiring the endless clicking of a mouse to plant and harvest crops.”

(see Fletcher, 2010, p. 9), but as they are frequented by millions of players on a daily

basis it is hard to dismiss them.

4.3 Serious Games and Gamification

The first attempts of using games for purposes other than entertainment led to the

introduction of the “Serious Games” genre. These are often problem oriented games

that are designed without entertainment purpose and are used in fields such as

science, education, management and training (see Abt, 1970).

25

One of the most recent examples of the application of games in medical science is a

game called “Phylo”. It is a puzzle game in which the player uses blocks of different

color to match patterns that drive forward the mapping of genetic code.

(see McCarthy, 2010) “Foldit” is another game, much like “Phylo”, that uses human

brainpower to solve problems that computers can not address adequately. The game

developed in 2008 uses the player‟s natural 3-D problem solving skills to fold

proteins into shapes with beneficial properties. It is important to note that, despite

their serious intent, these games use the same mechanics as entertainment focused

games to engage their players such as points and levels of different difficulty.

Due to the natural affiliation of children with games, they have found a lot of

applications in education. These games are used to teach math and reading skills and

in one case even about the dangers of landmines in Cambodia. (see McMillan, 2010)

“Gamification” is a relatively young concept which has recently gained a lot of

media attention (see MacMilan, 2011). It is broadly defined as the use of game

mechanics in non-game application similar to the idea of this thesis. Although the

definition is able to describe a variaty of uses, it has largely been used in connection

with online marketing and loyalty programs. Many game designers have criticized

that making a website or online service more engaging through reward mechanisms

does not constitute a game. Nevertheless, it remains a trending topic and adds to the

influence of games on daily life.

V Applying Game Mechanics at Work

Research and practice have proven that motivation has a large impact on the work

performance of individuals. It should therefore be one of management‟s top priorities

to provide their employees with a work environment in which they can prosper and

reach their maximum potential. The following paragraphs will try to show how the

challenges, which Richard faces at FreemanLindstromMeyers, could be solved with

a combination of knowledge of human motivation and game mechanics. Even though

game mechanics clearly favor work settings in which the employee‟s performance is

easily measurable at any point in time, it is possible to apply them to almost any

work environment.

26

5.1 Motivating Employees

The first lesson that work can take from game design is that games cater to different

player types and their underlying motivation to play. Much like the research

conducted by Nick Yee, employers should try to identify their employees specific

motivation to be able to address it with the appropriate measures. Employees clearly

have the same consumption pattern as players. They worker derives an experience

(aestethics) from their job (dynamics) which consist of various activities (core

mechanics) which are influenced by control mechanisms and rules (mechanics). It

should therefore be possible to influence the experience derived from work by

introducing appropriate mechanics. As the activity performed has to produce value

for the organization it cannot be substituted itself, therefore improvements can only

be made to the control mechanisms that influence the activity.

5.2 Setting Goals

Basic management literature demands that organizations set clear goals, provide an

exciting mission statement and follow a strong vision for the future. This is the

responsibility of the upper management and is usually formulated rather broadly to

be able to address all departments of the organization equally such as the

“Focus.Excel.Innovate.” initiative at FLM. Unfortunately, Martin Richards had

missed the opportunity to set clear goals for their departments and actively

communicate them to their employees. The vision and mission of an organization of

thousands does not easily translate into goals that a single employee can aspire to

reach.

Goal-setting theory has proven the performance increasing properties of well defined

goals in the business setting. Much like game designers, managers have to make sure

that the employee or player understands the victory condition and provide smaller

goals much like quest on the way to the “epic challenge” paired with frequent

feedback to motivate employees. This challenge could be constituted by becoming

leader in the market segment or identifying a specific competitor the department has

to beat, while missions could include the acquisition of a new customer or selling a

specific amount of a product. Apart from the satisfaction that an employee receives

27

from achieving a goal, it is also much easier for the manager to reward great

performance.

Similarly to games, organizations can actively influence how fast these goals can be

attained by their employees by insuring that they are adequately trained. Employees

cannot ask that gaining a higher skill level or being promoted should be as easy as in

video games, because they are made to entertain the player. However, we should try

to take clues from their design. In real life, people have to put in a lot more time to

perfect skills and talent can accelerate or slow down this progression. The entry

barriers are significantly higher, but nevertheless, it is possible to gain proficiency if

enough effort is put towards a goal. Setting smaller incremental goals along the way

can help to motivate the employee while also providing small milestones which can

be celebrated upon completion.

A questionnaire similar to Nick Yee‟s can help to understand what part of their job

motivates employees the most. Using the employee‟s personal motivations in human

resource planning, managers can formulate personal goals with every employee and

secure that critical skills needed in a department are developed along the way. When

an employee is identified as a player who is driven by his urge to understand

mechanics and competition, the manager can lay out a personal epic journey for

them. This journey can include the knowledge and skills that the employee has to

acquire to advance a level as well as mapping his performance on tests and

certifications against another employee to give him a sense of competition.

Introducing standard levels of expertise which are awarded for gaining further

education or completing a project can serve employees as status symbol as well as

identify them as masters of their subject to peers. In doing so, the organization is able

to introduce a second hierarchy that appeals to employees that do not want to assume

leadership roles while certain “levels” in critical skills can become mandatory for

leadership positions as well, thereby increasing the transparency of the promotion

process.

Although flow theory is a rather abstract model, we can assume that addressing these

issues can lay the groundwork for employees to be able to reach flow more easily in

28

their daily work routine. The following table illustrates how both games and work

can and do meet the criteria needed to provide an individual with a flow experience.

Table 1: Work and play – a comparison based on flow

Flow theory Games Work

Challenge to complete Players can complete lev-

els as subsets of the over-

all game experience.

Employees finish projects

or negotiate contracts as

parts of their overall goal.

Feeling of full control The player knows the

genre, mechanics that

drive the game and con-

trols that are to be used.

The employee knows the

rules and regulations of

the industry and the tools

he uses to produce the

product or service.

The challenge has clear

goals

Players are provided with

a quest or level to com-

plete.

Workers have to reach

weekly sales goal or level

of quality.

Immediate feedback Points that are awarded

for reaching a goal or a

type of leader board pro-

viding instant feedback.

Points that are awarded

for making a sale or re-

ceiving a certain quality

rating from a customer

and a resulting leader

board providing instant

feedback.

Source: own illustration adapted from Jones (1998)

The presence of these prerequisites explains why some individuals report flow

experiences during games and work.

5.3 Evaluating Performance

In most organizations, performance reviews are conducted on an annual basis by the

responsible managers to provide feedback. They consist of an interview which is

29

held with every employee, in which the employers discuss the employee‟s

performance in the prior year and assess fields of improvement for the coming year.

Managers largely rely on the behavior they can observe throughout the year and the

results that the department or team produces to form an opinion. This practice has a

lot of disadvantages as it is hard to distinguish the contribution that a single

individual had towards the final outcome, and the behavior that managers recall can

be biased by that which they had observed just before the review period. Developing

mechanisms such as key performance indicators and benchmarks has improved the

managers‟ ability to evaluate whether performance of their department has improved

or deteriorated over the year, but the frequency of evaluation still has to be increased

in order to be helpful for decision making. Feedback has been proven to play a major

role in goal-setting and flow theory as well as work design and by this means

highlighted its importance for performance driven behavior. With the aim of

motivating employees, FreemanLindstromMeyers should introduce a system through

which their employees can observe their progression on personal as well as

organizational goals and their performance relative to peers.

In most strategic building or combat simulations players are provided with constant

feedback of their overall performance. These measures include but are not limited to

unit output, resources available and losses endured after and during play. This offers

players a direct feedback of their current actions and helps to assess whether the way

they are playing will lead to success. The most sophisticated system of performance

measurement to date was implemented by players themselves in “World of

Warcraft”. They introduced their own per second evaluation of team member

performance when players developed their own tools, so-called add-ons to measure

performance while trying to conquer larger goals in the game. The raw data is

provided by the game, but players developed a system that records the players‟

actions and then outputs detailed statistics about per second performance, average

performance and performance when compared to their peers. These give the players

the possibility to improve gameplay as well as an easy way to evaluate the

performance of each member of a team in real time.

A system at FreemanLindstromMeyers could include a dashboard for every

employee, which enables them observe their personal as well as organizational goals.

30

The reporting system already in place can provide information which feeds

dashboard that shows employees‟ performance. Richards can use the information to

set goals for every team which they can observe on the dashboard. These can include

a ranking that displays the department‟s performance relative to other offices as well

as a team‟s performance within the department which appeals to workers driven by

competition. A custom profile can help employees to follow their progress towards

reaching the next level of expertise, including the qualifications they still have to

acquire as well as the other learning opportunities that the completion will unlock.

By setting up different career tracks that link levels to positions,

FreemanLindstromMeyers can actively influence and plan the talent development

within their workforce.

5.4 Rewarding Performance

It is in the nature of work that not all people pursue it voluntarily, but in order to earn

a salary that will support themselves and their family. Consequently, salaries will

always be an important part of the employee-employer relationship. However, there

is evidence that employees are more intrinsically motivated by intangible rewards

such as praise, status and the satisfaction of mastering a new skill. Game developers

like Zynga Inc. and Blizzard Entertainment Inc., on the other hand, have harnessed

the power automated of non-monetary, intangible rewards to convince players to

spend significant amounts of time and money on their games. Although behavioral

manipulation might be frowned upon outside of games, management should

concentrate on the power of scheduled intangible rewards themselves.

FreemanLindstromMeyers should start by identifying the behavior they would like to

reinforce and then plan a reward system accordingly. While rewarding the speed in

which the cases are closed by a single employee seems like an obvious choice, it is

important to take into account that this might decrease the quality of the service over

the long run. A better approach could be awarding points for cases closed by each

team in relation to the quality of service that the customer experiences, thus adding

another source of feedback while also ensuring that competition does not decrease

crucial collaboration between team members. Since these rewards are meant to

31

trigger the intrinsic motivations of employees, FLM should not make the acquired

points exchangeable for monetary rewards.

5.5 Email

Many work environments provide activities that could be identified as core activity

of the employee‟s work responsibilities. However, not all of them provide a constant

activity that can be measured well. To prove the applicability of game mechanics in

the work environment we can resort to email as our core activity. Email is a common

denominator in many work settings today and as employees have to cooperate to be

able to produce outputs successfully, communication through emails has become

ubiquitous. Although it is one of the most efficient communication tools in the

business environment, it has come under criticism. Due to information overload

employees are inhibited in their work performance, wasting significant amounts of

time on email management (see Webb/Dean, 2011).

The core activity of email is processing the electronic messages. In order to improve

the efficiency it seems helpful to concentrate on the following two problems:

1. Providing the employee with an incentive to read and respond to emails in a

timely manner.

2. Helping the employee to sort the incoming messages for their importance.

To improve the time in which the employee reads and responds to his emails can be

directly influenced by showing him his email balance; for instance, how many emails

does he have answered in comparison to the emails that linger in his inbox unread?

Showing the employee the balance with the help of a progress bar will be helpful if

messages accumulate faster than he can read, making the bar move up slower instead

of setting it back. Giving the employee a time-limit to respond to every email will

instill in him a sense of urgency that can be reinforced by rewarding fast answers

with more points (see Baydin Inc, 2010).

Another approach to making emails more efficient is introducing a virtual economy

into the email system of an organization. Employees receive a limited amount of an

artificial currency that they can attach to emails and meeting invites. This currency

represents the perceived value of this message or the importance of attendance to the

32

meeting. New currency enters the economy only when new employees join the

organization and balances are reset in fixed time periods. This method will protect

the system from inflation, giving no employee an unfair competitive edge and

ensuring that no individual amasses currency without using it, thereby bankrupting

active participants. The true power of this approach is its ability to decrease the

complexity of deciphering which messages are important to their senders. As

currency remains scarce, it will decrease the noise of copying other employees on

emails that are not of primary interest to them. (see Reeves/Read, 2009)

33

VI Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the application of game mechanics in a work

environment in order to motivate employees. Based on the current findings it is

possible to argue that applying game mechanics could have the same influence on

employees as they have on players by addressing their specific motivations.

Although many critics of “gamification” argue that assigning points to tasks does not

make them game-like and that a fun activity has to be at the core of every game to

make it enjoyable. As the short excurse into games and play shows, this arguement

largely depends on the definition of what constitutes an enjoyable activity.

A problem that might arise from the implementation of a game system could be that

individuals try to corrupt or “game” the system to receive higher payouts without

much effort. Organizations will have to address these issues by actively adapting the

game to ensure fair gameplay between employees. The game mechanics need to

support the employee in his work and decision making, rather than making it more

complex while companies have to be mindful of the behavior they reward.

Motivation along with the factors that drive it is still a relatively young field of

research and motivation factors might change with society‟s standards. There has not

been much research about age differences in work motivation, but there are signs that

different generations might have different motivational needs. Research has shown

that younger employees are more interested in extrinsic rewards than learning

opportunities and social interaction. (Twenge et al, 2010)

Eric Schmidt fromer CEO of Google stated at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh,

“Everything in the future online is going to look like a multiplayer game. If I were 15

years old, that's what I would be doing right now." (see Laughlin, 2011)

New opportunities to introduce game mechanics into the work environment will

surface over the coming years as more and more work is conducted or recorded

electronically. This knowledge will result in more information that can be used to

evaluated employee performance more accurately and allow more behavior to be

rewarded and the feedback to be more precise.

34

It might just be a matter of time until an employee receives his first point for

answering an email or acquiring a new customer.

35

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42

Ehrenwörtliche Erklärung

Ich versichere hiermit, dass die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit mit dem Thema:

„Turning work into play: How to use game mechanics to motivate employees“

selbständig verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel benutzt habe.

Die Stellen, die anderen Werken dem Wortlaut oder dem Sinn entnommen wurden,

habe ich in jedem einzelnen Fall durch die Angabe der Quelle, auch der benutzten

Sekundärliteratur, als Entlehnung kenntlich gemacht.

Ort, Datum ________________________

Unterschrift