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<article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>April</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Relationship between gameful experience in the workplace and employee socialization: A pilot study</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <string-name>Žigimantas Pečiūra</string-name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff0">0</xref>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="aff0">
          <label>0</label>
          <institution>Institute of Psychology at Vilnius University</institution>
          ,
          <addr-line>Universiteto Str. 9-202, Vilnius, 01513</addr-line>
          ,
          <country country="LT">Lithuania</country>
        </aff>
      </contrib-group>
      <pub-date>
        <year>2023</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>1</volume>
      <fpage>8</fpage>
      <lpage>21</lpage>
      <abstract>
        <p>As organizations continue to adopt gamification practices to create favorable behavioral change outcomes in employees, it is important to understand these interventions' role in the socialization process for newcomers. While gamification is often thought to rely solely on specific elements, such as points and rewards, research suggests that the gameful experience generated by gamification may be a critical factor in creating these outcomes. Therefore, based on a cross-sectional design, this pilot study aims to examine the relationship between gameful experience and socialization outcomes. The results suggest that gameful experience is positively related to social integration, role clarity, and task mastery, with social experience being the most important dimension. In contrast, the competition was not related to any socialization outcomes. However, the role of gamification elements in this process remains unclear, as the interaction with these elements was not a significant predictor of socialization outcomes and did not influence the relationship between gameful experience and socialization outcomes when controlled for. Nevertheless, these results provide insight into the specific work environment conditions that contribute to better employee socialization. This is important for practitioners as it allows them to target specific areas for improvement in order to facilitate the adjustment of newcomers in the organization. Additionally, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of gameful experience as a construct, suggesting that its creation is not solely dependent on gamification elements. Gamification, gameful experience, organizational socialization, newcomer adjustment.</p>
      </abstract>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <body>
    <sec id="sec-1">
      <title>1. Introduction</title>
      <p>
        The use of gamification, or the incorporation
of game design elements such as points, badges,
and leaderboards, into non-game contexts [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">1</xref>
        ] has
gained
increasing
attention in the
field
of
organizational behavior as a means to enhance
employee motivation and engagement [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">2</xref>
        ]. It is
predicted that the human resources field
will
account for most of the growth in the gamification
market [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">3</xref>
        ] as organizations seek to improve
employee engagement and performance through
the use of these techniques. While research has
shown that gamification, in general, is related to
mixed work-related outcomes [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref10 ref4 ref5 ref6 ref7 ref8 ref9">4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10</xref>
        ],
      </p>
      <p>2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative
a more detailed approach suggests that it is not the
gamification elements that solely lead to these
outcomes but rather the gameful experience they
can</p>
      <p>
        create [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref11 ref12">11, 12</xref>
        ]. Therefore, gamification
interventions are most effective when they create
a gameful user experience rather than just
implementing specific gamification elements.
      </p>
      <p>
        Given the subjective nature of the gameful
experience induced by gamification techniques
and its potential to lead to a range of behavioral
change
outcomes
that
are
desirable
or
advantageous for organizations, it is important to
consider how this experience may impact various
organizational
processes,
including
the
socialization of newcomers in the workplace.
These employees, who are in the process of
learning the norms, values, and behaviors of the
organization and becoming integrated into its
culture, may be particularly affected by
gamification elements and the gameful experience
they create. Some of the main tasks that
newcomers must undertake in order to effectively
integrate into the organization are building
relationships with supervisors and colleagues,
learning job tasks and procedures, and clarifying
their role within the organizational context [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref13">13</xref>
        ].
Accordingly, gamification elements in a work
environment can provide immediate feedback for
achievements and activities, ensure the accuracy
and clarity of assigned tasks, and offer support
from a focused social community [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref14">14</xref>
        ].
      </p>
      <p>However, the relationship between gameful
experience and employee socialization in the
context of organizations that use gamification
techniques is currently understudied. This
exploratory study aims to fill this gap in the
literature by examining the potential impact of
gameful experience on socialization outcomes for
newcomers in organizations that utilize
gamification techniques. By understanding this
relationship, we can gain insight into
gamification's potential benefits and drawbacks
for employee socialization in the workplace.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-2">
      <title>2. Theoretical background</title>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-3">
      <title>2.1. Organizational socialization</title>
      <p>
        Organizational socialization indicates a
process by which an individual becomes
integrated into an organization's culture and
acquires the knowledge, skills, and values needed
to succeed in their role [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref15">15</xref>
        ]. It is a form of social
learning that occurs when an individual is
influenced by other members of the organization
and develops new perceptions, behaviors, and
attitudes in response to the work environment
[
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref16">16</xref>
        ]. Organizational socialization can take many
forms, from a short trial to long-term, formalized
training and development programs. Therefore, it
is crucial to consider the role of organizational
socialization in the workplace, as it can
significantly impact an individual's success and
well-being within the organization [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref15">15</xref>
        ].
      </p>
      <p>
        Organizational socialization is a continuous
process and can vary in duration depending on the
individual and the organization. However, the
initial effects of socialization are often measured
soon after employment through indicators of
adjustment, such as role clarity, task mastery, and
social integration [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref15">15</xref>
        ]. Role clarity refers to an
individual's understanding of job duties and
responsibilities within the organization [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref17">17</xref>
        ].
Employees ought to have a clear understanding of
their role in order to be able to perform their tasks
effectively and efficiently. Task mastery refers to
an individual's ability to understand and
effectively carry out the tasks required for their
role [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref18">18</xref>
        ]. This includes having the necessary
knowledge and skills to complete tasks, as well as
the ability to adapt to new tasks and challenges.
Finally, social integration refers to an individual's
ability to build relationships and become a part of
the social network within the organization [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref18">18</xref>
        ]. It
involves developing a sense of belonging and
fitting in with the organization's culture and
values.
      </p>
      <p>Overall, these adjustment indicators can
provide insight into the effectiveness of the
organizational socialization process and help
identify areas for improvement.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-4">
      <title>2.2. Gamification experience and gameful</title>
      <p>
        Gamification is said to create experiences
similar to traditional games [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
        ]. Therefore, when
creating gamification-based processes, it is
crucial to include gamification elements and
ensure that they interact with the user in a way that
produces the desired psychological effects. Based
on this, gamification has been conceptualized as a
process that motivates users to participate in
gamified activities actively and leads to the
desired behavioral outcomes [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref20">20</xref>
        ]. The feeling of
enjoyment and fun, known as playfulness, may be
one of the psychological effects generated
through this process.
      </p>
      <p>
        Recently, there has been a tendency to
characterize these psychological effects as
gameful experience [e.g., 11, 21, 22], which
generally refers to the experience of interacting
with a gamified system. It is argued that gameful
experience may mediate the relationship between
how gameful a system is and the behavior caused
by that system [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref11">11</xref>
        ].
      </p>
      <p>
        Gameful experience is a multifaceted concept
[
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref21">21</xref>
        ]. Therefore, it is not sufficient to focus on a
single aspect of this experience. However, initial
findings suggest that it involves psychological
states related to need fulfillment, affective states
related to emotional arousal, and altered states of
consciousness achieved through deep engagement
with the gamified environment [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref11">11</xref>
        ].
      </p>
      <p>
        Even though there are various ways of
measuring gameful experience [e.g., 21], one of
the recent attempts to thoroughly conceptualize it
was by developing a gameful experience model
and questionnaire GAMEFULQUEST [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
        ],
which proposed seven dimensions:
accomplishment (the desire for successful
performance, goal achievement, and progress),
challenge (need for a great effort in order to be
successful, testing an individual's abilities),
competition (the sense of rivalry towards one or
more actors in order to achieve a desirable
outcome.), guided (a sense of being directed on
how to perform a task and improve behavior),
immersion (a sense of being fully absorbed in an
activity and disconnected from the real world),
playfulness (engagement in voluntary and
enjoyable behaviors driven by imagination or
exploration, often without strict rules), and social
experience (encompassment of the presence of
people, both in person and in service, and the
interaction with them).
      </p>
      <p>
        There is limited research on gameful
experience in the workplace, but it appears that
gameful experience is associated with higher
levels of self-directed learning among employees
in an online training environment [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref23">23</xref>
        ] and has a
moderating effect on the relationship between
task performance and engagement of gig workers
(e.g., drivers, food delivery riders) [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
        ]. However,
it is difficult to compare these results due to the
use of different methods to measure gameful
experience.
2.3.
      </p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-5">
      <title>The current study</title>
      <p>
        Gamification has been shown to positively
impact new employee onboarding experiences,
with studies finding that it increases engagement
and motivation [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref25">25</xref>
        ] and improves information
retention throughout onboarding [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref26">26</xref>
        ]. However,
the effects of gamification on other aspects of
organizational socialization, such as employees'
adjustment or long-term integration into the
workplace culture, have not been thoroughly
examined.
      </p>
      <p>
        There is limited research on the effects of
gamification on organizational socialization
outcomes, such as task mastery, social integration,
and role clarity. While it has been suggested that
gamification may have a low impact on role
clarity [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">4</xref>
        ], further investigation is needed to
determine the actual effect size. Additionally,
there is a lack of research on the relationship
between these adjustment indicators and gameful
experience, which is a central focus of this study.
A recent study demonstrated that constructing an
employee onboarding app without addressing
gameful experience can result in low user
engagement and a lack of perceived usefulness
[
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref33">33</xref>
        ]. This highlights the importance of
considering the elements of gameful experience in
the design and implementation of gamification
techniques for employee onboarding and
socialization in general, and emphasizes the need
for further research in this area.
      </p>
      <p>
        The work environment is a crucial aspect of
organizational socialization for new employees.
Researchers often rely on uncertainty reduction
theory [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref27">27</xref>
        ] to explain this process, as new
employees initially encounter high uncertainty
when entering a new and unfamiliar environment.
This situation creates tension and prompts
newcomers to seek ways to reduce the existing
uncertainty in order to make the work
environment more predictable, understandable,
and ultimately controllable. However, it is
unknown how the presence of gamification
elements and the resulting gameful experience
may impact this perception of the work
environment.
      </p>
      <p>Despite the potential benefits of studying
gameful experience in the workplace, such
research may be limited due to the tendency to
examine gameful experience in isolation (e.g., by
focusing on a single gamified system or app, or
conducting experimental studies using gamified
tasks). However, the socialization process of new
employees is complex and cannot be fully
understood by isolating individual gamification
elements. Additionally, in real-world
environments, employees may simultaneously
interact with multiple sources of gamification.
Therefore, in this study, we introduce the concept
of gameful experience in the workplace, which
refers to the overall employee's experience while
interacting with multiple sources of gamification
in the work environment.</p>
      <p>
        It is important to note that the gameful
experience may not necessarily be created
through traditional game elements alone [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
        ].
Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that various
factors in the workplace environment, such as the
nature of work, organizational culture, and others,
may contribute to or enhance the creation of a
gameful experience. It is important to consider the
broader context in which the gameful experience
is being created rather than simply focusing on
traditional game elements.
      </p>
      <p>In summary, the goal of this study is to
understand the relationship between gameful
experience and employee socialization in the
workplace, with a particular focus on three
specific socialization outcomes: task mastery,
social integration, and role clarity. The first
objective is to examine the relationship between
gameful experience and these three socialization
outcomes. The second objective is to understand
how the presence of gamification elements may
impact this relationship. Finally, the third
objective is to assess the predictive properties of
gameful experience on role clarity, social
integration, and task mastery.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-6">
      <title>3. Methods and study design</title>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-7">
      <title>3.1. Participants and study design</title>
      <p>This study utilized convenience sampling to
collect responses from 161 employed individuals
who were recruited via public invitations on
various social media channels. All ethical
guidelines were followed, including obtaining
informed consent from participants and ensuring
anonymity.</p>
      <p>After excluding 12 responses due to missing
data, the final sample consisted of 129 women
(86.58%) and 20 men (13.42%) with an average
age of 35.97 (SD = 11.27). Of the respondents, 98
(65.77%) had a university degree (bachelor level
degree or higher), 21 (14.09%) had a college
degree (professional bachelor level degree), and
30 (20.13%) had a high school education. In terms
of job-related variables, 45 participants (30.20%)
had held their current position for less than one
year, whereas 104 (69.80%) had held it for more
than one year. Furthermore, of the total
respondents, 46 (30.90%) occupied managerial
positions and 103 (69.10%) were in
nonmanagerial roles. To further clarify, it should be
noted that this study did not limit participants by
their job tenure (i.e., the amount of time they had
been working in a particular organization)
because this was a pilot study intended to explore
the relationship between organizational
socialization outcomes and a gameful experience.
There is no concrete time frame within which
these organizational socialization outcomes are
expected to occur, and the timing may vary for
each individual. As such, some statistical
measures will be tested to determine if a group
with different levels of job tenure exhibits
different socialization outcomes.
3.2.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-8">
      <title>Measures</title>
      <p>Participants in this study completed a
questionnaire that assessed demographic and
jobrelated variables, as well as variables related to
gameful experience, interactions with
gamification elements, and the outcomes of
organizational socialization (i.e., role clarity,
social integration, and task mastery). The
questionnaire was administered in Lithuanian,
and back-translation was utilized for any
measurements that were not available in
Lithuanian. Permission to use and/or modify the
instruments was granted by the authors.</p>
      <p>
        Interaction with gamification. To measure
interactions with gamification elements in the
workplace, this study used three components: the
number of encountered gamification elements, the
frequency of interaction with encountered
gamification elements, and engagement level with
encountered gamification elements. While
frequency is a common measure when assessing
interaction with gamification elements (e.g., [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref30">30</xref>
        ],
[
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref31">31</xref>
        ]), we also included an engagement level
measure in this study as intensive interactions
with gamification elements have been found to be
more strongly associated with
gamificationrelated outcomes [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref32">32</xref>
        ]. Participants were first
presented with descriptions of nine different
gamification elements and were asked to indicate
whether they had encountered any of these
elements in their workplace (Yes or No question).
If a gamification element had been encountered,
participants were asked to rate the frequency of
their interaction with the element on a 5-point
Likert scale (from "1 – Rarely" to "5 – Very
often") and their level of engagement with the
element on a 5-point Likert scale (from "Not at all
engaged" to "Very engaged"). A score of 0 was
attributed to these aspects if a gamification
element was not encountered. To calculate the
average interaction score for each participant, the
frequency and engagement scores for each
encountered gamification element were summed
and divided by two to get the mean score for each
element. These mean scores were then added
together and divided by the total number of
encountered gamification elements. This score
was then used in the analysis. It was chosen to
combine these measures to better capture the
general interaction with gamification, as different
elements may elicit different patterns of
interaction. For example, a participant may
encounter one element rarely but engage with it
intensively, while encountering another element
frequently but engaging with it superficially or not
at all. By combining the frequency and
engagement scores, we aim to obtain a more
comprehensive picture of the overall interaction
with gamification in the workplace. The following
is a list of presented gamification elements:
Points/Point system, Leaderboards,
Badges/Trophies, Levels/System of levels,
Avatar/Profile, Progress tracking/Progress bar,
Chat channels/Clans/Guilds, Challenges,
Competitions/Contests. These gamification
elements were selected because they are
wellrecognized, easily assessable through self-report
measures, and have been used in previous
research [e.g., 31].
      </p>
      <p>
        Gameful experience in the workplace. During
the study, no instruments were found that
evaluated gamification in the workplace.
Therefore, the GAMEFULQUEST model [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
        ]
was used in this study, and scales were developed
based on this model to assess the seven
dimensions of a gameful experience. The
instrument was adapted to evaluate overall
gamification in the workplace, which may come
from multiple gamification sources. This
approach differs from other gameful experience
measurement instruments in that it does not
evaluate a single gamification system but rather
the overall gameful experience in an environment
where the individual interacts with multiple
gamification sources. Each dimension of gameful
experience was treated as a separate scale and
assessed using four items, with responses rated on
a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly
agree" to "Strongly disagree". To examine the
psychometric properties of this instrument,
exploratory factor analysis was first conducted.
As this is a pilot study and the existing literature
indicates that gameful experience is not a unified
construct [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref19">19</xref>
        ], this step aimed to investigate
whether each scale of gameful experience could
be considered a distinct entity. The results
supported this, as a single factor was identified in
all factor analyses (KMO ranged from 0.629 to
0.792, p &lt; 0.001, and factor loadings ranged from
0.533 to 0.886). Upon evaluating the Cronbach
alpha for each scale, good internal consistency
was found for all dimensions of gameful
experience (the coefficient ranged from 0.763 to
0.823), except for the immersion scale. Here, the
Cronbach alpha was inadequate (0.526), so the
results for this dimension were not included in
further research. Detailed psychometric properties
of the gameful experience measures used in this
study are provided in Table 4.
      </p>
      <p>Organizational socialization outcomes. To
measure role clarity, a 6-item scale developed by
Morrison (1993) was used. Task mastery and
social integration were each assessed using 6-item
and 7-item scales, respectively (Morrison, 2002).
An example item for task mastery was "I rarely
make mistakes when conducting my job
assignments," and for social integration, "My
coworkers seem to accept me as one of them." All of
these measures required participants to evaluate
the items on a 5-point Likert scale, where "1"
indicated "Strongly disagree" and "5" – "Strongly
agree". The Lithuanian translations of these items
demonstrated good internal consistency, with
Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.832, 0.750, and
0.848 for role clarity, task mastery, and social
integration, respectively. This suggests that the
items are reliable indicators of these constructs.
3.3.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-9">
      <title>Data analysis</title>
      <p>Data collected in this study were analyzed
using SPSS 24.0 software and a variety of
statistical methods. Descriptive statistics were
calculated, including means, standard deviations,
and percentage response rates. The psychometric
properties of the measurement instruments were
assessed by exploratory factor analysis or by
calculating their internal consistency using
Cronbach's alpha.</p>
      <p>To examine relationships between research
variables, the Pearson correlation coefficient was
used. Partial correlations were also calculated to
examine the relationship between socialization
outcomes and a gameful experience while
controlling for the interaction with gamification.
This approach was used to better understand the
specific relationship between certain variables
and more accurately interpret the analysis results.
Differences between groups (gender, job tenure,
job position) were analyzed using Student's t-test.
Finally, linear regression analysis was also
employed to investigate the interdependence of
variables.</p>
      <p>Before conducting these analyses, the
normality of the data was assessed integrally,
taking into account a variety of indicators
including skewness and kurtosis values, visual
inspections, and Q-Q (quantile-quantile) plots.
The obtained values for skewness and kurtosis fell
within the range of -0.7 to 0.7, indicating a normal
distribution of the data.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-10">
      <title>4. Results</title>
      <p>The following results section presents the
sample's descriptive statistics for all measured
scales, which are summarized in Table 1.</p>
      <p>In the study sample, the gamification element
that occurred most frequently was
Competitions/Contests, with 46 participants,
followed by Chat Channels/Clans/Guilds, with 44
participants. More than half participants (54.4%)
reported encountering at least one gamification
element in their workplace. On average,
participants reported encountering 1.42 (SD =
1.71) gamification elements.</p>
      <p>To determine if there were any significant
differences in the socialization outcomes of role
clarity, social integration, and task mastery based
on sociodemographic and work-related variables,
we conducted a Student's t-test. The results
indicated that there were no significant
differences in these variables, allowing us to
continue our analysis with the entire sample,
regardless of job tenure.</p>
      <p>In order to investigate the relationship between
socialization outcomes and gameful experience
dimensions while controlling for the effect of
interaction with gamification, we conducted
correlation analyses (Table 2). In particular, there
are strong positive correlations between role
clarity and guided (r = .600, p &lt; .001), social
integration and social experience (r = .537, p &lt;
.001), and moderate positive correlation between
task mastery and guided (r = .306, p &lt; .001). It is
worth noting that there was no significant
correlation between socialization outcomes and
the competition dimension. When controlling for
the effect of interaction with gamification, the
relationships between the variables remained
largely unchanged. This means that the
relationship between the variables was not
significantly influenced by the perceived presence
of gamification elements in the workplace but
rather may be mediated by other factors. Overall,
these findings suggest that higher levels of
gameful experience, with the exception of
competition, are mostly associated with better
outcomes of organizational socialization.</p>
      <p>In the final part of the analysis, separate
multiple regression analyses were performed with
the six gameful experience dimensions and
interaction with gamification as independent
variables and socialization outcomes as dependent
variables (Table 3). The model results for each
regression were as follows: role clarity (Adjusted
R2 = .442, F = 17.746, p &lt; .001), social integration
(Adjusted R2 = .465, F = 19.374, p &lt; .001), task
mastery (Adjusted R2 = .136, F = 4.321, p &lt; 001).
(Constant)
Accomplishment
Competition
Guided
Playfulness
Challenge
Social experience
Interaction with
gamification
Significant p-values are presented in bold.</p>
      <p>The results of the multiple regression analyses
showed that the gameful experience dimension of
social experience was a significant predictor for
all three socialization outcomes. In addition, the
challenge and accomplishment dimensions were
significant predictors for role clarity and task
mastery, respectively. Also, the guided dimension
significantly predicted role clarity. It is worth
noting that the interaction with gamification was
not found to be a significant predictor in any of
the models. These findings suggest that certain
aspects of gameful experience are related to the
socialization outcomes of role clarity, social
integration, and task mastery in the work
environment. Furthermore, these results suggest
that incorporating certain elements of gameful
experience into the work environment may
positively influence employees' socialization
process.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-11">
      <title>5. Discussion</title>
      <p>The present study aimed to investigate the
relationship between gameful experience in the
workplace and socialization outcomes (i.e., role
clarity, task mastery, social integration) for
newcomers in organizations utilizing
gamification techniques.</p>
      <p>
        Our results suggest that, to some extent,
gameful experience in the workplace is related to
all three socialization outcomes. The perceived
work environment can significantly contribute to
the process of newcomer adaptation. While
gameful experience is not a one-dimensional
construct, many of its dimensions are related to
the satisfaction of particular needs or the
experience of positive emotions [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref11">11</xref>
        ]. Therefore,
gameful experiences can likely make new
employees feel more comfortable and secure in an
unfamiliar work environment, potentially helping
them better cope with the main tasks of
adjustment in the organization. According to our
results, a work environment that motivates
striving for the best results, encourages stepping
out of one's comfort zone, helps understand what
is being done correctly or incorrectly, is playful,
and offers a social experience can strongly
contribute to how quickly a newcomer integrates
into a new team and learns their role within the
organization. This is in line with other studies
[e.g., 8] that have found a link between
gamification and employee learning and the
creation of social relationships. However, it is
important to note that in this study, we were not
evaluating the value of the gamification elements
themselves but rather the psychological
experiences they potentially create. Despite the
fact that dimensions of gameful experience, such
as guided, social experience, and challenge, are
also related to task mastery, this relationship is
significantly weaker. This may be because
gameful experiences do not directly impact how
an employee understands and effectively carries
out the tasks required for their work role but rather
act as a secondary factor, such as in a study that
found the gameful experience to be a moderating
relationship between task performance and
engagement [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
        ]. Finally, it is worth noting that
none of the socialization outcomes in this study
were statistically significantly related to the
experience of competition in the workplace. In
general, competition experienced in the
workplace can negatively impact employees,
particularly newcomers who are still adjusting to
their new organization. For example, in teams
with high levels of competition, newcomers may
show less initiative in contributing to
ideageneration processes, which can negatively affect
or hinder teamwork in the long run [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref28">28</xref>
        ].
      </p>
      <p>
        Another objective of this study was to
determine the impact of the interaction with
gamification elements in the work environment
on the relationship between gameful experience
and socialization outcomes. Partial correlation
analysis showed that, when controlling for
interaction with gamification, the relationship
between gameful experience and task mastery,
social integration, and role clarity remains
unchanged. There are a few possible explanations
for this result. Firstly, as traditionally thought,
gameful experiences may not be created solely
from gamification elements. It is possible that
both environmental and individual variables also
contribute to the strength of this relationship, such
as organizational culture or the personal
characteristics of co-workers. This would suggest
that gamification elements play a secondary role
in creating a gameful work environment
experience. It was already argued that the ability
to create gameful experiences might not be
limited only to gamification elements [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
        ].
Another possible explanation for these results
may be related to the timing of the application of
gamification elements. It has been observed that
the effectiveness of gamification tends to suffer
from the novelty effect – a gamified system may
gradually lose its ability to produce psychological
effects (especially if no changes are made to it)
over time [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref29">29</xref>
        ]. Since this study did not control for
the factor of when the employee began interacting
with gamification, it is not ruled out that
gamification elements could have initially made
the work environment more gameful, and this
experience could later be strengthened and
maintained by other organizational factors.
However, further research is needed to confirm
these assumptions.
      </p>
      <p>Finally, in terms of the predictive properties of
gameful experience, the strongest relationship
was found with role clarity. In this case, the
expression of this variable was able to be
predicted from four dimensions: accomplishment,
guided, challenge, and social experience. On the
other hand, social integration could only be
predicted from social experience in the
workplace. For task mastery, although this
variable had several significant predictors (social
experience, accomplishment, challenge), these
results should be viewed with caution, as the
regression model explained a small portion of the
data variance. In general, it can be concluded that
since social experience predicted all three
socialization outcomes, the ability to interact with
or communicate with others, social
connectedness, and the feeling of being part of a
group are particularly important for the
adjustment of new employees. This result is
crucial from a practical perspective, as it identifies
specific factors that organizations should focus
on, whether gamified systems or other factors
ensure them.
5.1.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-12">
      <title>Limitations and future research</title>
      <p>One limitation of this study, as it was a pilot
study, is a relatively small sample size; therefore,
the results may not be widely applicable. A larger
sample size would be necessary to strengthen the
findings.</p>
      <p>It should be noted that there were certain
biases in the sample, as evidenced by the
overrepresentation of women and participants
with higher education levels. Although these
differences were controlled for in the data
analysis, they remain a limitation of the study as
they may affect the generalizability of the
findings. Future research should be cautious of
these biases and strive to obtain a more diverse
and representative sample to increase the external
validity of their results.</p>
      <p>Also, the gamification practices in different
organizations may vary. However, this study's
measuring interaction with gamification elements
was based on descriptions of nine specific
gamification elements. It is possible that other
gamification elements were present in the work
environment that were not included in this study
and could have affected the results. Future
research should aim to capture a more
comprehensive picture of the gamification
practices in the workplace in order better to
understand their impact on gameful experience
and socialization outcomes. In addition, it would
be significant to conduct a longitudinal study to
examine how gameful experience and
socialization outcomes change over time in
response to gamification practices in the
workplace.</p>
      <p>Furthermore, this study used a newly
developed questionnaire to measure gameful
experience in the workplace. While most
questionnaire dimensions showed good
reliability, additional data is needed to ensure its
structure, especially since the immersion
dimension was not used due to low internal
consistency. Future research should aim to refine
the measurement of gameful experience in the
workplace to capture better the full range of
psychological experiences associated with
gamification in the workplace.</p>
      <p>While interaction with gamification elements
did not significantly influence the relationship
between gameful experience and socialization
outcomes, the role of gamification elements in this
process is not known, as many important
workrelated variables (e.g., group size and leader
support) were not controlled for. In order to better
understand the role of gamification elements in
socialization outcomes, future research should
consider these variables. Also, it is worth noting
that in this study, interaction with gamification
elements was measured as a combination of
frequency and engagement level with
gamification. Future studies could evaluate these
types of interaction separately to gain a more
nuanced understanding of the role of gamification
elements in socialization outcomes.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-13">
      <title>6. Conclusion</title>
      <p>This study has provided insights into the role
of gameful experience in the socialization process
of new employees. The results suggest that some
gameful experiences are significantly related to
better socialization outcomes, such as task
mastery, social integration, and role clarity. While
the socialization process is a complex
phenomenon, these findings suggest that gameful
experiences may be an overlooked factor in
helping new employees adapt to their new work
environment.</p>
      <p>These findings contribute to the idea that
gameful experience, rather than specific
gamification elements alone, may be a key factor
in creating behavioral change outcomes. Also,
this study provides some insights for a deeper
understanding of gameful experience as a
construct, highlighting that its creation may not
solely be dependent on gamification elements.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-14">
      <title>7. References</title>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-15">
      <title>8. Appendix</title>
      <p>
        To measure gameful experiences in the
workplace, the GAMEFULQUEST [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
        ] model
was utilized. As gameful experiences are
considered a multidimensional construct, seven
separate scales were developed to assess it. The
psychometric characteristics and items of these
scales are presented in Table 4.
(SCcraolenbach α) Items* Floaacgdtoinr
      </p>
      <p>Encourages me to step out of my comfort zone .743
(C.h7a8l3le)nge (&lt;..707011) 60.94 FMoorctievsamtees mtoeptuoshenmgaygseelfintochthalelemngaixnimgaucmtivities ..785194
Challenges me .804</p>
      <p>Allows me to be spontaneous .764
(P.l7a8y8fu)lness (&lt;..703061) 61.05 IAglnloitwess mmey ctouruiosesitmyy imagination ..783625
Allows me to be playful .760</p>
      <p>Creates a sense that I can share with others what I want .780
(Se.ox7pc6ie3ar)lience (&lt;..706051) 58.77 GMiavekessmmeeafseeenl stehaotfIbaemingnontoatilcoendeby others ..777988
Makes me feel included in social activities .708</p>
      <p>Creates a sense that the workday passes quickly .613
I(m.5m26e)rsion (&lt;..602091) 41.67 aCraoputinvdatmesemy attention as if I don't see anything .533
Makes me forget about my everyday worries .780
Makes me engage emotionally .631</p>
      <p>Inspires me to adhere to high work standards .750
(A.8cc2o3m)plishment (&lt;..707061) 65.48 CMroetaitveasteassmenesetothmaatkIehparvoegtroessstraivned improve ..872705
Encourages me to pursue the best results .886</p>
      <p>Creates a sense that I have to be better than others .600
(C.o7m93p)etition (&lt;..705081) 62.17 EEnnccoouurraaggeess mmee ttoo sceoemoptehteerwsaitshcootmheprestitors ..883224
Creates a sense that I have to win against others .870
Creates an impression that I am heading in the right .852
direction
(G.8u2id1e)d (&lt;..709021) 65.56 Phreoavdieddes clarity about where I am and where I am .820
Helps me understand what I am doing correctly or .759
incorrectly</p>
      <p>Creates a sense that I have someone to follow .805
*The items presented in this table were originally presented to participants in Lithuanian. The English
translations of the items are provided for the purposes of this table. Each item begins with a phrase “My work
environment…”</p>
    </sec>
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