Gamification model investigating potential non traditional game dynamics and creative ideation at workplace

Abstract

The research community has increased attention on investigating innovative mechanisms to induce creativity among the employees as creativity is instrumental to achieve desirable outcomes in the workplace. Interestingly, gamification, a concept that involves the inclusion of game elements in real-world scenario to solve real problems, represents a great opportunity to induce creativity since it falls in the realm of both hedonic and functional information system. Considering the significance of gamification, this research proposes gamification as one such potential creative ideation building strategy. This research is one of the initial studies conceptualizing how game dynamics promote creative ideation of the employees in the Information Technology (IT) industry. A broad embodiment of gamification literature has captured the significance of game features, yet most of the research works have concentrated only on the traditional game mechanics, such as points, leader boards, and badges, with competition as the most commonly used game dynamic. Considering the dearth of research on several other game dynamics, this research introduces non-traditional game dynamics including collaboration, network exposure, and time pressure, which were driven by the theories of social cognition, network externalities, and challenge stressors. While doing so, the research introduces two unexplored user experiences: transcendent and intellectual user experiences as parallel mediators in gamification literature to provide a systematic explanation of how game dynamics induce creative ideation. The current research also aims to determine whether the mediational mechanism is contingent upon the individuals with different ranges of sensation-seeking trait. newline