The potential and constraint of work gamification for employees’ creative performance

Drawing on the affordance theory, this paper theorizes about how workplace creativity could be influenced by employees’ interaction with game design elements incorporated into work systems. To comprehensively capture possible relationships, two vital theoretical frameworks -ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) and affordance theory, were employed to provide theoretical guidance and a basis upon which propositions were established. A review of literature in the field reveals that gamified work system, through the improvement of ability-, motivation- and opportunity-enhancing practices supports dimensions including employee’s motivation and competence which are prerequisites for a creative outcome. Furthermore, contrary to the common opinion, work gamification could constrain employees’ creativity at work. Theoretically grounded in existing theories and past literature, this conceptual paper touches on unpopular discussions in the literature, opens a research avenue for further studies by providing testable propositions and recommendations for practice.