Do games hold the secret to better productivity? If you’ve ever found yourself engrossed in Angry Birds, Call of Duty, or a plain old crossword puzzle when you should have been doing something more productive, you know how easily games hold our attention. Hardcore gamers have spent the equivalent of 5.93 million years playing World of Warcraft while the world collectively devotes about 5 million hours per day to Angry Birds. A colossal waste of time? Perhaps. But what if we could tap into all the energy, engagement, and brainpower that people are already expending and use it for more creative and valuable pursuits? Harnessing the power of games sounds like a New-Age fantasy, or at least a fad that’s only for hip start-ups run by millennials in Silicon Valley. But according to Adam L. Penenberg, the use of smart game design in the workplace and beyond is taking hold in every sector of the economy, and the companies that apply it are witnessing unprecedented results. “Gamification” isn’t just for consumers chasing reward points anymore. It’s transforming, well, just about everything. Penenberg explores how, by understanding the way successful games are designed, we can apply them to become more efficient, come up with new ideas, and achieve even the most daunting goals. He shows how game mechanics are being applied to make employees happier and more motivated, improve worker safety, create better products, and improve customer service. For example, Microsoft has transformed an essential but mind-numbing task—debugging software—into a game by having employees compete and collaborate to find more glitches in less time. Meanwhile, Local Motors, an independent automaker based in Arizona, crowdsources designs from car enthusiasts all over the world by having them compete for money and recognition within the community. As a result, the company was able to bring a cutting-edge vehicle to market in less time and at far less cost than the Big Three automakers. These are just two examples of companies that have tapped the characteristics that make games so addictive and satisfying. Penenberg also takes us inside organizations that have introduced play at work to train surgeons, aid in physical therapy, translate the Internet, solve vexing scientific riddles, and digitize books from the nineteenth century. Drawing on the latest brain science as well as his firsthand reporting from these cutting-edge companies, Penenberg offers a powerful solution for businesses and organizations of all stripes and sizes.

Despite the traditional opposition between play and work, games and their structure are increasingly used in workplaces. This phenomenon of using game elements or mechanisms in other contexts than games is named “gamification”. In workplaces, the gamification is supposed to abolish the separation between work and leisure or between constraint and pleasure. This book reviews a century of game theories in the social sciences and analyzes the uses of games in workplaces. We critically question the explicit functions (learning, experimentation…) which are supposed to be conveyed by games. Finally, we show that game, understood as a structure, could have efficient social functions in the workplace.

Since its original printing in 1984, The Game of Work helped thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of managers and employees experience increased job enjoyment while producing extraordinary results. The Game of Work examines the question of why people work harder at sports and recreation than they do on the job and uses these as metaphors for inspirational leadership strategies. Corporations worldwide have enjoyed the increased productivity, employee satisfaction and motivation, and bottom-line profits by implementing the concepts taught in The Game of Work. As qualified people become increasingly difficult to attract and retain, the implementation of the five principles in this book is the one key factor to improving results, retention, and recruitment. Five principles of The Game of Work: Frequent feedback; Better scorekeeping; Clearly defined goals; Consistent coaching; A higher degree of personal choice.

Make workplace conflict resolution a game that EVERYBODY wins! Recent studies show that typical managers devote more than a quarter of their time to resolving coworker disputes. The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games offers a wealth of activities and exercises for groups of any size that let you manage your business (instead of managing personalities). Part of the acclaimed, bestselling Big Books series, this guide offers step-by-step directions and customizable tools that empower you to heal rifts arising from ineffective communication, cultural/personality clashes, and other specific problem areas—before they affect your organization's bottom line. Let The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games help you to: Build trust Foster morale Improve processes Overcome diversity issues And more Dozens of physical and verbal activities help create a safe environment for teams to explore several common forms of conflict—and their resolution. Inexpensive, easy-to-implement, and proved effective at Fortune 500 corporations and mom-and-pop businesses alike, the exercises in The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games delivers everything you need to make your workplace more efficient, effective, and engaged.

"Young readers will love this exciting, in-depth yet accessible look at how video games work and how they are made."--

Wouldn't it be great to develop high-impact, transferable soft skills by playing fun games at work? Wouldn't it be even better if those games helped future-proof your career against artificial intelligence? We know developing soft skills is not easy; the 'soft stuff' is often, in reality, the hardest part of our work. But scientific data and experience suggest that playing games is one of the most effective ways to develop valuable, uniquely human skills. In this science-based book, you will learn about the 21st-century human skills your team needs to flourish in a world of advancing AI, and how each of those skills can be taught by playing games. You'll discover:* An in-depth exploration of each of the skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity/innovation* Several specific game suggestions to develop each 21st-century skill* Real-life stories about the powerful impact of playing games at work* A step-by-step guide to facilitating game sessions for best resultsWe will show that playing games doesn't just improve your soft skills. Play can also boost employee engagement, work relationships, personal happiness, and business results. It's your turn; game on!

In many professions daily work life has become unthinkable without the use of a computer with access to the Internet. As technological innovations progress rapidly and new applications of interactional media are invented, organizational behaviour continues to change. The central theme of this book is how new media affect organizational behavior and employee well-being. A variety of topics are considered: applications of new media in both personnel psychology and organizational psychology tools to improve selection and assessment issues arising in the context of training, learning and career development the use of online games for education and recreation the impact of mobile devices on organizational life the implications of new forms of collaboration by means of virtual teams. The research documented in this volume consists of high quality, quantitative studies illustrated by lively practical examples. The combination of science and practice ensures that new insights supported by empirical studies are translated into practical implications. The book will be essential reading for researchers and students in organizational psychology and related disciplines.