International Journal of Finance & Managerial Accounting

International Journal of Finance & Managerial Accounting

Exploring the Impact of Implementing Gamification on the Work engagement of Accountants

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Bahar bateni 1
alireza matoufi 1
Mansoor Garkaz 1
Ali Khozein 2
1 Department of Accounting, Gorgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan,Iran
2 Department of Accounting, Aliabad Katoul Branch, Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul,Iran
10.30495/ijfma.2024.77754.2140
Abstract
Abstract
Work engagement issues heavily influence the self-esteem of the middle-class workforce, rendering process gamification an effective approach to motivating employees through both financial and non-financial rewards. In this regard, the current research examines the effect of gamification approaches on various dimensions of work engagement. This study is applied in nature and was conducted quantitatively. To assess the effectiveness of the gamification model on work engagement for accountants, a semi-experimental method implemented in a three-stage, two-group design (one group as a work engagement training group and one as a control group) to test the validity of gamification’s impact on dependent research variables. Our results suggested a significant difference in the work engagement group between the average scores of the pre-test and the stages of the post-test and follow-up (P < 0.05). Comparing the average work engagement score at the three stages, we observed that the average scores have significantly decreased in the post-test and follow-up stages compared to the pre-test stage (P < 0.05). The difference between the scores of the post-test stage and the follow-up stage score was not significant (P < 0.05), indicating the stability of the intervention effect over time. Based on the results presented, gamification has significantly improved work engagement for accountants in this pilot study.
Keywords
Keywords: Gamification
Work engagement
Accountants
Job Motivation
Akbari, P., Karimi, A., & Hoseini Nasab, S. (2023). The role of gamification in increasing the self-leadership of employees and its effects on self-adjustment in the work environment. Comparative Public Administration Quarterly, 1(2), 123-153.
Akbari, P., Khastar, H., Vakili, Y., & Shariari, S. (2020). Conceptualizing employees'  based on gamification. Management Journal of Government Organizations, 8(3), 109-136.
Aminpor, A., Moradzadehfard, M., Shokricheshmesabzi, A., & Hoseini, H. (2024). Psychological capital, self-evaluation, job attachment, and ineffective behavior. Management Accounting and Audit Knowledge Journal, 13, 29-46.
Bani Amerian, S., & Esmaeeli, S. (2021). The role of gamification in learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 17(62), 107-130.
Barjava, S., & Keklkar, A. (2001). Examining the relationship between organizational structure, job involvement, job satisfaction, and empowerment: Implications for human resource development. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 1, 150-161.
Brown, P., & Thomas, W. (2010). A new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job involvement, effort, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 358-368.
Callan, R., Bauer, K., & Landers, R. (2015). How to avoid the dark side of gamification: Ten business scenarios and their unintended consequences. In Gamification in Education and Business (pp. 553-567). Springer.
Carmeh, A. (2015). Exploring determinants of job involvement: An empirical test among senior executives. International Journal of Manpower, 26(5), 457-472.
Chamberlin, B. (2013). Gamification: A 2013 horizon watching trend report. USA: IBM.
Chin Ling, H., et al. (2022). Relationship between job involvement, perceived organizational support, and organizational commitment with job insecurity. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1066734
Chris, P., Nicole, A. C., Brenda, S., & Catherine, L. (2016). Enhancing workplace motivation through gamification: Transferrable lessons from pedagogy. The International Journal of Management Education, 14(3), 327-335.
Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64(1), 89-136.
Deterding, S. (2011). Situated motivational affordances of game elements: A conceptual model. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 113-126).
Ghamshadzehi, P., & Nasti Zaee, N. (2018). Investigating the relationship between spirituality at work and job attachment with the mediating role of organizational loyalty. Knowledge and Research in Applied Psychology, 2(4), 46-56.
Gonzalez, J., & Grazzo, T. (2015). Structural relationships between organizational service orientations, contact employee job satisfaction, and citizenship behavior. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 17(1), 23-50.
Herger, M. (2014). Gamification in human resources. Estados Unidos: Enterprise Gamification: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Horngren, C., Sundem, G., Stratton, W., Burgstahler, D., & Schatzberg, J. (2007). Introduction to Management Accounting (14th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Hoy, W., & Clover, S. (1986). Elementary school climate: A revision of the OCDQ. Educational Administration Quarterly, 22, 93-110.
Jalilpor, P., Akbar Ayeshe, Y., & Pirozfar, M. (2013). The relationship between the quality of work life and job attachment among the librarians of Shahid Chamran University and Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz. Library and Information Research Paper, 3, 51-61.
Kanungo, R. N. (2015). Measurement of job and work involvement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 341-349.
Karimi, K., & Ghafari, G. (2018). Gamification, the new technology of audience persuasion. Media Scientific Quarterly, 29(3), 35-55.
Khajavi, M., & Barzegar, A. (2017). Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and willingness to change jobs among accountants, auditors, and university professors. In The Second International Conference on Management and Accounting.
Laurentiu Catalin, S., Alessandro, B., Alessandro, B., & Geert-Jan, H. (2016). Work and play: An experiment in enterprise gamification. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 346-358). https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2820061
Lompoliu, E. (2020). A gamification of a double-entry accounting system based on an Android application. Cogito Smart Journal, 6(1), 107-116.
Luca, T., Daria, L., Delia, V., & Andrei, R. (2020). Personality characteristics, job performance, and mental health: The mediating role of work engagement. Personality and Individual Differences, 1-6.
Mario, S., Giacomo, M., Andrea, C. P., & Matthijs, B. (2020). The effects of a gamified human resource management system on job satisfaction and engagement. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(2), 260-277.
Neal, A., Griffin, M., & Hart, P. (2018). The impact of organizational climate on safety climate and individual behavior. Safety Science, 34, 99-109.
Nowara, M., Almuntsr, H., & Ong Tze, S. (2024). Using gamification in accounting education. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(2), 1119-1134.
Pahlavan, M., & Roshanbin, S. (2015). The relationship between quality of life and job involvement of exceptional school employees. Exceptional Education Journal, 2, 23-30.
Pentti, H. (2018). Gamification & employee engagement: A case study of gamification in a performance research program. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Yukthamarani, P., Roselina Ahmad, S., Raja Suzana, R., & Bamini KPD, B. (2013). The impact of organizational climate on employees’ work passion and organizational commitment. Evaluation of Learning for Performance Improvement International Conference, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 107, 88-95.
Rabintz, S., & Hall, T. (2010). Organizational research on job involvement. Psychological Bulletin, 84(2), 265-288.
Raftopoulos, M. (2016). How organizations play: Creating stakeholder value with enterprise relations with teachers’ goal orientations, work engagement, and job satisfaction. International Journal of Management.
Shabani Naeem Sufiani, A., Faiz, D., Maleki Minbash Razgah, M., & Zaraee, A. (2018). The role of gamification as a growth strategy in the adoption model of transformational innovation in mobile payment applications. Journal of Technology Development Management, 3(7), 63-90.
Wendong, L. (2017). Effects of job satisfaction, affective commitment, and job involvement on job skill ratings. Frontiers in Business Research in China, 2(1), 137-154.
Ying-Chen, L., Chongfeng, L., Yoping, C., & Shufen, W. (2024). Examining the influence of organizational commitment on service quality through the lens of job involvement as a mediator and emotional labor and organizational climate as moderators. Heliyon, 10(2).
Young, H. R., Glerum, D. R., Wang, W., & Joseph, D. L. (2018). Who are the most engaged at work? A meta-analysis of personality and employee engagement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(10), 1330-1346.
Yong Joong, K., Woo Gon, K., Hyung-Min, C., & Kullada, P. (2019). The effect of green human resource management on hotel employees’ eco-friendly behavior and environmental performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 76(A), 83-93.
Zhang, K. (2017). How does goal orientation affect job involvement: A dynamics perspective. In International Conference on Management Science and Engineering (15th) Annual Conference Proceedings (pp. 97-103). ICMSE.