This is a presentation for a paper published in PoEM 2014 Conference

1. Towards a Code of Ethics for
Gamification at Enterprise
Alimohammad Shahri, Mahmood Hosseini, Keith Phalp, Jacqui Taylor, Raian Ali
Bournemouth University, UK

2. Outline
• Gamification
• Ethics
• Problem and Aim
• Study Design
• Results
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3. Gamification
• “Gamification is the use of
game elements in a non-game
context”1
– Leader-boards
– Points
– Badges
– Progress Bars
• It is mainly used to
increase motivation
and engagement
1. Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R. and Nacke, L., 2011. From game design elements to gamefulness: defining gamification. In:
International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments 9–15.
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4. Gamification could be
a relief
• ILO report “We found out that 47.7 per cent
of Filipino BPO workers surveyed are
suffering from insomnia while 54 per cent
are suffering from fatigue”
• Carlos Dominguez, senior vice president at
Cisco Systems
– Call centres are very stressing... Angry and
demanding customers
– We gamify by measuring the anger at the
beginning and the end
– The bigger the delta, the more points the
agents gets
– Agents will be wishing for angry customers
– We can also gamify it by letting the agents
know how they are doing against their peers
A call centre personnel presses her hand to
her forehead at an online brokerage company
in Tokyo October 23, 2008.
CREDIT: REUTERS/YURIKO NAKAO
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HTTP://WWW.REUTERS.COM/ARTICLE/2009/04/27/US-STRESS-
DEPRESSION-IDUSTRE53Q5IA20090427
HTTP://WWW.INTERAKSYON.COM/INFOTECH/IN-STRESS-FILLED-
BPO-WORLD-GAMIFICATION-COULD-OFFER-RELIEF

5. What is ethics?
• According to Blackburn1,ethics
determine:
– What we find acceptable and not acceptable
– Admirable or contemptible
– Our conception of when things are going right or
wrong
– What can be forgiven and what cannot
– What is the cause of anger or attitude
– What can be forgiven and what cannot
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1. S. Blackburn. Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2001.

6. Adding Gamification
to an enterprise
• Applying gamification
should fit into the
enterprises’ business
process
• It should not violate the
business goals, such as
professional and ethical
standards
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http://futurefreefromdepression.files.wordpress.com/2
012/02/blog1.png

7. Problem and Aim
• There is a lack of study and
understanding of the ethical and
professional issues that may arise when
applying gamification in a
working/business environment
• We aim at empirically investigating these
issues and provide a check-list of ethical
and professional issues for system
analysts
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8. Study Design
• We have used a three-phase sequential mixed
method
• First two phases contained broader view of
gamification and all are not discussed here
• Third phase was designed to clarify the findings
related to ethics and gamification from the users’
and managers’ points of view
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9. Results
• The result of our study shows that five aspects need
to be considered while applying gamification:
– Gamification and tension at work
– Gamification as a monitoring mechanism
– Gamification and privacy
– Gamification as “exploitation-ware”
– Gamification vs. Personal and Cultural Values
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10. Gamification and Tension at Work
• Gamification can create tension
in a working environment,
depending on different factors
– As an example, if the nature of
the working environment is
collaborative, it will lead to
tension amongst colleagues,
but if it is added to a
competitive environment, the
competition is already there
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11. Gamification as a Monitoring
Mechanism
• Gamification can be seen as
a monitoring system
• Despite monitoring systems
being in use in corporations,
they are not as accurate and
in details as gamification
• As an example, having the
leader-board available
publicly may raise issues for
those who are not in the
top list
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12. Gamification and Privacy
• Gamification can store
detailed information about
employees
• It can raise issues in some
cases. For instance, the
availability of the information.
Some people may not like
others to see their
weaknesses or unique areas
of expertise
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13. Gamification as “Exploitation-ware”
• Exploitation-ware means exploiting the presence of a rewarding system to
get more from employees than they are expected to give without any cost
for the enterprise, such as working more unpaid hours
• Gamification can be seen as “exploitation-ware” depending on some
factors
– If employees are rewarded based on their progress comparing to other colleagues
rather their own individual performance
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14. Gamification vs.
Personal and Cultural Values
• Using gamification may make people to act in a way that they
would not do if gamification was not there
– The desire to win and also the fear of being at the bottom of the list
may make people to cheat and do the tasks in a way that is in
contradict with their own values
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15. Conclusion
Although gamification can be seen as an
effective tool for increasing productivity, it
should be considered that applying it may cause
some ethical issues.
This puts an ethical responsibility on
gamification developers and managers when
designing and applying it.
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16. Acknowledgements
The research was supported by an FP7 Marie
Curie CIG grant (the SOCIAD Project) and by
Bournemouth University through the Fusion
Investment Fund and the Graduate School
Santander Grant for PGR Development
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17. Thank You!
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