Influence OF
GRADUATE RESEARCH DISSERTATIONS
CHAIR: AARON FRENCH, PH.D. | SECOND: JOHN D’ARCY, PH.D. | READER: REZA VAEZI, PH.D.
Gamification
AFFORDANCES ON
BUSINESS IMPACT
SCHOLARLY ABSTRACT
TECHNOSTRESS
Once utilitarian, company systems increasingly include game-like features such as leaderboards, points, and badg - es to increase employee engagement and motivate system use. Combinations of these elements create gamification affordances, which are experience-based action opportu - nities that employees can engage in. However, in the work environment, these affordances can also lead to feelings of stress. Research on technology-related stress, technos - tress, do not adequately explain the emergence of stress in this motivated context through the existing frameworks. Drawing from the transactional theory of stress and cop - ing, feedback from gamified systems acts as stimuli to be appraised for the magnitude, valence, and identity involve - ment of any threats posed, as well as potential individual coping options. Identity involvement has been underde - veloped as a coping mechanism in stress research gener - ally and in technostress specifically as it relates to identity threats. Using a two-study, mixed methods approach, this study first identified through a qualitative critical inci - dent technique interview four emergent gamification af - fordances during technostress formation. A second study then quantitatively examine how feedback, competition, rewards and visibility of achievement affordances, in addi - tion to the existing technostress creators, influence the for - mation of technostress as moderated through identity. The results showed IT identity moderated the classical tech - nostress creators, while gamification affordances did not contribute to the formation of technostress. The results of this study will inform organizations and system designers with a more complete understanding of how gamification affordances can adversely impact employee technostress formation uniquely in a gamified work environment.
Gamification affordances (competition, rewards, visibility) did not directly increase technostress in this study. Leaders shouldn’t automatically fear gamification as inher - ently harmful—but they also shouldn’t assume it’s harm - less. Focus attention on classical technostress creators (overload, complexity, invasion, uncertainty) when diag - nosing burnout in gamified systems.
MODERATED
IT identity moderates the impact of technostress creators.
Employees who see work systems as “part of who they are” experience stress differently. For high‑IT‑identity staff (e.g., power users, developers, analysts), organizations can invest in co‑design and autonomy; for low‑IT‑identity staff, pro - vide more training, control, and non‑gamified alternatives. The study surfaces four emergent gamification affordances via critical incident interviews. UX and HR teams can use similar incident‑collection methods before and after rolling out gamified dashboards/ leaderboards to detect unintended stress patterns early and iterate designs (e.g., opt‑out options, cooperative vs purely competitive framing).
BY IT
IDENTITY
JOSEPH WASHBURN, PH.D.
Keywords: Technostress, Gamification, Affordances, Mixed Methods, Research, IT Identity
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