The impact of gamification on employee engagement in advertising agencies in South Africa

Abstract

Objective: This research project aimed to research the impact of gamification on employee engagement, using the context of advertising agencies in South Africa. Employee engagement is an increasingly important factor in workplace performance, and the use of gamification as a possible antecedent to increased employee engagement is a viable research topic. Methodology: Quantitative research via Internet questionnaires was done to determine employee engagement levels, and 211 responses were collected from employees of advertising agencies in South Africa. Statistical tests were done on the collected data to observe if employees from companies that use gamification had significantly higher levels of employee engagement than employees from companies that did not use gamification. Outcome: Employees from companies that use gamification were found to have significantly higher overall engagement levels, intellectual and affective engagement levels, and social engagement levels, as well as increased organisational citizenship behaviour levels and reduced intent to turnover. As employee engagement has highly positive benefits for the organisation, gamification is an important tool for businesses to use to increase employee engagement and thus improve their performance. Academically, the research has shown that an antecedent of employee engagement can be applied to the ISA Engagement Scale. Further academic research can now be done applying other antecedents to the ISA Engagement Scale.