How to Motivate and Engage Generation Clash of Clans at Work? Emergent Properties of Business Gamification Elements in the Digital Economy

TL;DR

This paper explores how business gamification, inspired by video game design elements, can motivate and engage Generation Y employees by examining their emergent and temporal properties in real-world systems.

Contribution

It investigates the properties of game design elements in business systems, highlighting their emergent and temporal nature based on ethnographic research with GenY staff.

Findings

Game design elements are emergent in business contexts.

Properties of these elements are temporal and context-dependent.

Gamification can potentially increase employee engagement.

Abstract

Organisations are currently lacking in developing and implementing business systems in meaningful ways to motivate and engage their staff. This is particularly salient as the average employee spends eleven cumulative years of their life at work, however less than one third of the workforce are actually engaged in their duties throughout their career. Such low levels of engagement are particularly prominent with younger employees, referred to as Generation Y (GenY), who are the least engaged of all groups at work. However, they will dedicate around five cumulative years of their life immersed playing video games such as Clash of Clans, whether for social, competitive, extrinsic, or intrinsic motivational factors. Using behavioural concepts derived from video games, and applying game design elements in business systems to motivate employees in the digital economy, is a concept which has come to be recognised as Business Gamification. Thus, the purpose of this research paper is to further our understanding of game design elements for business, and investigate their properties from design to implementation in gamified systems. Following a two-year ethnographic style study with both a system development, and a communication agency largely staffed with GenY employees, findings suggest properties in game design elements are emergent and temporal in their instantiations.