The gamification of work: Lessons from crowdsourcing

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The increasing ubiquitous interconnectedness based on recent technological developments, such as the Internet and smartphones, has enabled new modes of economic coordination and management to become feasible, such as crowdsourcing [1] and sharing economies [3][9]. Although in the past, organizations commonly created value within well-defined organizational structures, recent technological advancements have made it feasible to coordinate and employ large groups of Internet users – the crowd – in a host of activities of collective value creation [6]. As a result, more and more organizations now apply crowdsourcing for outsourcing various kinds of work to the crowd rather than using employees or suppliers. The application of crowdsourcing reaches diverse array of domains, which include, for example, the creation of ideas and innovations [2][10], the gathering of knowledge, and the creation of user-generated content [13], the solving of complex problems that require creativity and human intelligence [1][4], the annotation of images, text, or video data [18], and even the funding of products [14] [15]. Business analysts expect that 75% of high-performing enterprises will employ crowdsourcing as part of their value creation by 2018 [7] and many start-ups are known whose workforce is primarily based on crowd workers [16].

In parallel, business analysts also estimate that at least 50% of all organizations that manage such innovation processes gamify their processes [8] and reviews of literature show that crowdsourcing systems are one of the largest domains employing gamification [11][12] that is, organizations seek to make the crowdsourced work activity more like playing a game [17] to provide other motives for working than just monetary compensation [5]. However, while the new phenomenon seems intuitively appealing, there is little coherent knowledge on the gamification of work and its potential opportunities and challenges. Furthermore, to be able to harness the full potential of gamification, a union of knowledge of interwoven areas of game design, motivational psychology and management is needed. Therefore, in this article, based on the accumulated body of research on gamification in crowdsourcing, we discuss the emerging opportunities and challenges of using gamification in management.

The Gamification of Work: Lessons From Crowdsourcing

Benedikt Morschheuser                                                          Juho Hamari

Citation: Morschheuser, B., & Hamari, J. (2018). The gamification of work: Lessons from crowdsourcing.  Journal of Management Inquiry.

Please see the paper for full details:  Journal              ResearchGate

Abstract:

The nature of work and management are in flux; work is increasingly distributed, sporadic, community-driven, and motivated by constant self-development. Developments such as sharing economies, crowdfunding, and crowdsourcing have emerged as new forms of organizing work and economic coordination. At the same time, increased gaming and gamification of our lives have arrived to address this newly found yearning for intrinsically motivated work. Thus, work is increasingly consciously and unconsciously gamified. Crowdsourcing is a frontrunner management domain in employing gamification to positively affect motivation and performance of workers. However, to be able to harness the full potential of gamification, a union of knowledge of interwoven areas of game design, motivational psychology and management is needed. Therefore, in this article, based on the accumulated body of research on gamification in crowdsourcing, we discuss the emerging opportunities and challenges of using gamification in management.

References:

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