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Redemption Through Play? Exploring the Ethics of Workplace Gamification

Butler, Nick LU and Spoelstra, Sverre LU (2024) In Journal of Business Ethics 193(2). p.259-270
Abstract
Today, it is becoming increasingly common for companies to harness the spirit of play in order to increase worker engagement and improve organizational performance. This paper examines the ethics of play in a business context, focusing specifically on the phenomenon of workplace gamification. While critics highlight ethical problems with gamification, they also advocate for more positive, transformative, and life-affirming modes of organizational play. Gamification is ethical, on this view, when it allows users to reach a state of authentic happiness or eudaimonia. The underlying assumption, here, is that the ‘magic circle’ of play—a sphere that exists entirely for its own sake—should be protected in order to secure meaningfulness at work.... (More)
Today, it is becoming increasingly common for companies to harness the spirit of play in order to increase worker engagement and improve organizational performance. This paper examines the ethics of play in a business context, focusing specifically on the phenomenon of workplace gamification. While critics highlight ethical problems with gamification, they also advocate for more positive, transformative, and life-affirming modes of organizational play. Gamification is ethical, on this view, when it allows users to reach a state of authentic happiness or eudaimonia. The underlying assumption, here, is that the ‘magic circle’ of play—a sphere that exists entirely for its own sake—should be protected in order to secure meaningfulness at work. However, we argue that this faith in play is misguided because play, even at its most autotelic, is ethically ambivalent; it does not lead inexorably to virtuous work environments, but may in fact have an undesirable impact on those who are playing. Our study thus contributes to research on the ‘dark side’ of organizational play, a strand of scholarship that questions the idea that play always points toward the good life.
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Business Ethics
volume
193
issue
2
pages
259 - 270
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85181942152
ISSN
0167-4544
DOI
10.1007/s10551-023-05584-w
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
13658530-47cc-490f-be81-267ca9e38365
date added to LUP
2024-01-10 10:49:30
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:19:50
@article{13658530-47cc-490f-be81-267ca9e38365,
  abstract     = {{Today, it is becoming increasingly common for companies to harness the spirit of play in order to increase worker engagement and improve organizational performance. This paper examines the ethics of play in a business context, focusing specifically on the phenomenon of workplace gamification. While critics highlight ethical problems with gamification, they also advocate for more positive, transformative, and life-affirming modes of organizational play. Gamification is ethical, on this view, when it allows users to reach a state of authentic happiness or eudaimonia. The underlying assumption, here, is that the ‘magic circle’ of play—a sphere that exists entirely for its own sake—should be protected in order to secure meaningfulness at work. However, we argue that this faith in play is misguided because play, even at its most autotelic, is ethically ambivalent; it does not lead inexorably to virtuous work environments, but may in fact have an undesirable impact on those who are playing. Our study thus contributes to research on the ‘dark side’ of organizational play, a strand of scholarship that questions the idea that play always points toward the good life.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Butler, Nick and Spoelstra, Sverre}},
  issn         = {{0167-4544}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{259--270}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Business Ethics}},
  title        = {{Redemption Through Play? Exploring the Ethics of Workplace Gamification}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/168843902/butlerspoelstra2024redemtptionthroughplay.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10551-023-05584-w}},
  volume       = {{193}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}