Abstract:

In retrospect, one may assume that as a society evolves, new technologies and practices come along to change the way people behave. Gamification is an example of such a practice, with the ability to disrupt the current standards of learning, working, or even interacting. Gamification may be defined, broadly, as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. Game design elements are elements found and associated with games which play a significant role in gameplay [1].
Having multiple uses, one of the most promising areas in which gamification may have a role is in the workplace. As one of the main aims of management in organizations is to encourage employees to achieve goals and outcomes consistent with the organizations’ objectives, it becomes congruent to assume that organizations always look for maximizing the efficiency of their systems. Gamification, from a point of view of the top of the hierarchical organization, is expected to amplify the employees’ productivity, while it may also act as a tool for control. Work gamification may, then, be defined as applying game elements in the work environment to improve the performance of the employees, and gamified workplaces may be defined as organizations that use gamification to convert some of their work processes into a game-like experience for its employees. In a gamified system, individuals tend to change their behavior, revealing willingness to engage in tasks that are repetitive, expose themselves to failure and make multiple attempts disregarding the risk of failure [2].
In this study, we propose to use a bibliometric review on this topic, aiming to understand how the literature has been evolving over the years on such a recent thematic. We sought to identify the main trends among the literature, the most common areas in which it is being used and understand if it has been having reported success or not, making it a viable tool to be applied in the workplace, and to identify the gaps in the literature.

Keywords:

Gamification, Work Gamification, Bibliometric Review, Performance.