Proposed Framework for Measuring Enterprise Gamification Impact on Employees' Performance: ABANA Enterprises Group Company Case Study

Nora AlMadi, Wafi AlBalawi
2015 Journal of Management and Strategy  
Gamification is an emerging information system concept that only got popular in 2010 under the human computer interaction sciences. Gamification is rapidly growing thanks to its success in enhancing the user engagement and being positively changing user's behavior. After acknowledging its role, it has been utilized in different fields of business for both of their customers; the externals and internals (their employees). Previous studies have proved Gamification role in changing external
more » ... rs' behavior and achieving the desirable objectives. Unfortunately, no clear results or models have been proved or standardized regarding the internal customers (the employees). The objective of this research is to explore the factors should be taken into consideration when developing or studying a Gamification application in order to enhance employees' performance. Gamification applications in Saudi Arabia are mainly utilized in education and health applications. Therefore, utilizing it in business is still considered to be new, especially in the employee engagement area with no precise model that can be used to measure Gamification efficiency. This paper aims to explore the factors and concepts that will be expressed in a conceptual framework, which should be taken into consideration when developing or Gamification impact on employees' performance by interviewing and monitoring the performance of the employees of HR, sales, and finance departments in ABANA Enterprises Group Co. during one-month period. The Research Problem In this competitive business world, enterprises are eager to success, while enterprises success depends on their employees and how much engaged they are. Therefore, motivating employees is a must to ensure their engagement. Motivation can be either intrinsic (beliefs, values, enjoyment, etc.) or extrinsic (salary, insurance, rewards, etc.). Businesses for decades have been focusing on the extrinsic motivations ignoring the intrinsic ones and their importance. Fortunately, businesses have started realizing the importance of the intrinsic motivations and their role in enhancing employees' engagement in the recent years in cost-effective manners. Moreover, the rapid growth of technology have facilitated this mission for enterprises by introducing innovative and creative techniques that may help businesses in achieving this goal in order to improve work performance effectively and efficiently. Gamification is one of these fast emerging technologies that still covered with uncertainty when developing or studying it in the field of employee engagement. Therefore, this research is trying to study the possibility of proposing a framework that will facilitate studying and measuring the impact of Gamification on employees' performance. The Purpose of the Study The intention and purpose of this research is to explore the factors and concepts that will be expressed in a conceptual framework, which should be taken into consideration when developing or studying Gamification impact on employees' performance by studying ABANA Enterprises Group Company experience with their gamified application with the aim to identify the relationships between the Gamification concept and these factors. Moreover, the lack of researches in this field has given this research the importance to be done, so future researches can benefit from its collected data and results. Research Significance This study got its significant due to the following points:  Gamification can resolve a numerous business issue related to employee engagement in order to produce a more efficient work.  The willingness to adopt and use this kind of application can be noticed due to the big number of population who play games in Saudi Arabia.  Gamification is considered to be one of the newest and trendy concepts in the Management Information System research area.  This research will be handy for future researches about Gamification.  Starting from its rise in 2010, Gamification utilization in general has became a great and huge interest to the researcher.  Moreover, the magnificent help and support from ABANA Enterprises Group Co., which facilitated collecting data have increased this research significance. The Research Questions and Objectives This research will be discussing and achieving the following objectives:  To identify the factors and concepts that should be measured when studying or developing a gamified system in order to enhance employees' performance.  To create a conceptual framework for these factors.  To explain the relationships between these factors and how it can affect the concept.
doi:10.5430/jms.v6n4p50 fatcat:jrkztcskx5cz3ddznchjocfcbe