Gamification in training and development processes: perception on effectiveness and results.
| Autor | Santos, Simeia Azevedo |
| Cargo | Research paper |
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Introduction
The past two decades have witnessed an unfolding of major human resource activities, making the function's responsibilities evolve to a more strategic level. The first evolution has progressively added the areas of labour and union relations, recruitment and selection, remuneration and benefits, performance, quality of life, training and development into human resource management procedures. More recently, this evolution has also involved computerisation and use of algorithms for management of these human resource subsystems, as addressed by Posthumus, Santora and Bozer (2017).
The area of training and development is one of these sub-systems, which is aimed at improving personal competencies in the labour context. Training is an educational process which helps express the individual's potentialities by providing information so that he or she can learn new knowledge and skills for professional application. This is also a process of short-term assimilation aimed at recycling knowledge, skills and attitudes directly related to tasks performed in the work settings (Marras, 2016).
According to Dutra (2016), the learning process goes through several steps whose actions of different nature interact to each other synergistically, allowing the individual to achieve his or her purposes of personal development and contribution to the organisation. The search for necessities and the selection of method are one of the pillars for the application of the training process in which there should be adhesion and context so that progress and points of improvement can be verified at the end of the training (Noe, Hollenbeck & Gerhart, 2005).
With the emergence of new responsibilities in the management of human resources, new trends have gained prominence in the business in general. Meeker (2018) conducted a report on the trends enabled by the wide use of Internet, including speed in adopting disruptive technologies, availability of Internet access and cloud network, and on how these new technologies are changing the way of communication and learning and the labour world in general.
According to Meeker (2018), the service provided by Sony PlayStation allowing access to games increased significantly in 2017, being ranked fourth in the list of on-line services and only behind Netflix, Amazon and Spotfy, the most popular champions of entertainment. There are also new tools available in the context of increasing access to new technologies, such as the increasing use of personnel management platforms based on gamification for collaboration and share of information.
The use of games in training and development is a theme which has been addressed in the literature since the 1990s (Gramigna, 1994; Falcao, 2008), in which ludic learning was considered a major force in on-site games (e.g. board games and off-line games), if compared to the approaches in the 2000s and onwards.
With the availability of technologies and their increasingly low cost and popularisation, the possibilities of training based on gamification elements also began to be spread and listed among prominent trends for the next years, as presented in the Great Place to Work report (2018).
Notably, the digital serious games market has gained an increased projection in Brazil over the past years, a fact supported by the publication of the Second Census of the Brazilian Digital Games Industry in 2018 under sponsor of the Ministry of Culture. Serious games are defined as those simulating high-risk situations, such a medical training in emergency situations and experience in risky situations (e.g. military training). Among the companies participating in the census, 16.3% cited the development of games for corporate training (Sakuda & Fortim, 2018).
According to Poyatos Neto (2015) and Mattar (2018), the term "gamify" was originated in the 1980s, although the words "gamify" and "gamification" only first appeared in 2008. However, it was only in the mid-2010 that the term was consolidated as a technical jargon, and since then has been widely adopted.
The classical widely cited definition by Deterding, Sicart, Nacke, O'Hara & Dixon (2011) addresses the gamification as being the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. Gamification consists of using aesthetic and reasoning mechanisms of the games out of the usual context and in association with entertainment in order to solve practical problems, awaken engagement and promote knowledge.
Game elements can be referred as well-designed rules, score, challenges, collaboration, puzzles, role-playing, among other factors related to the mechanics of motivation, interaction and reward (McGonigal, 2011; Marczewski, 2017). Activities from different sectors can be gamified, such as child and adult education, administration and marketing. In the latter case, for instance, gamification of tourism marketing might involve branding or selling to help the relationship with brands (e.g. point programs for airline tickets), sciences and several other activities and sectors. In this sense, other examples are presented by Mattar (2018), who also cite cases reported by Meister (2012) and Vianna (2013) in which gamification is applied to corporate and business areas.
From the contextualisation of the relationship between training, development and gamification trends, the main objective of the present study is to identify the perception on effectiveness and results measurable in the process of gamification so that training and development can be significantly enhanced.
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Theoretical reference
2.1 Training and development
As late as the 1980s, the authors who studied the human resources management divided it into three or four groups in which training and development is one of these, as exemplified by studies by Tichy, Fombrun & Devana (1982). Fidelis & Banov (2006) define training as a process of qualification and provision of professional skills to prepare the individual to perform specific tasks in the job. According to Marras (2016), training is a way to adjust knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding work or position held.
Swanson (2009) defines training and development as a process of developing and boosting proficiency in order to improve the performance of the organisation, working groups and each worker regarding the work processes, which also culminates in career development and leadership.
Training of individuals in the organisations, performed by the personnel management, is a process which can be elaborated by the company in order to facilitate the employees' learning of the functions or competencies related to their performance in the work (Noe et al., 2005). These competencies include knowledge, skills and behaviours which are basic for a successful performance.
Training can be introductory, that is, aimed at providing initially required information to the new employees and allowing their integration to the organisation or can be performed throughout the employee's tenure in the company in order to recycle and update specific knowledge in his or her area of work. (Marras, 2016). The learning generated by the process of training can result from observation and joint experience, as well as from the interaction with other employees, in which the joint use of all these approaches is common.
With regard to learning in training, it is also important to cite the assumptions of Andragogy introduced by Knowles (1980),namely: autonomy, in which adults feel capable of making own decisions; experience, which provides the basis for learning new concepts and skills; readiness to learn, which is related to the fact that adults are more interested in learning what is related to real situations in their life; application of learning, which is aimed at practicality, i.e. where learning is focused on problems rather than on knowledge; and motivation to learn, which is related to personal values and goals.
To assess the success of a training module, one can use increase in productivity, improvement in the result quality, reduction in the cost related to time and re-work, optimisation of efficacy, perception of change in attitudes and behaviours, increase in knowledge and awareness, as shown by Marras (2016). Improvement of corporate environment and increase in personal motivation are also considered.
In studies on this theme, situations in which training and development were not effective in the context of organisational culture were also explored and have citations. For instance, Argyris (1986) addresses the problems regarding training and development as being actions, termed by the author as "defensive loop", which appear at the levels of leadership and even reach the purpose of developing new skills, but whose knowledge is simply not applied to the situations as expected in practice, thus ironically resulting in loop (Argyris, 1986).
The concern is on correctly performing the application of the training modules on a quality basis. According to Marras (2016), the factors influencing the quality of a training program are the following: teaching experience of the instructors and technical qualification of the training promoters; module's rationale, which must show learning process and its application to the everyday work; quality of the resources used, such as exhibition activities, lectures and symposiums by using presentations, films and audios; interactive activities involving case studies, simulations and symposiums on Internet, computer or smartphone; and use of activities with game elements carrying the experience in the context addressed.
The new technologies are changing more quickly than ever before in the history the way people live, including how they relate to each other and how they work, which consequently also affects significantly the way how organisations operate and...
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