Gamifying communities of practice: blending the modes of human-machine identification

Gamification is a growing field of study in the management literature, and its impact on the situated, practice-based learning remains a promising direction of research. To build the further ground for application and study in this area, in this chapter we discuss the impact which the gamification approaches can have on organizational Communities of Practice (CoPs). We observe this question by focusing on the role of gamified materiality in building CoP members’ sense of mutual identification. Importantly, in addition to affecting materiality, gamification elements amend the spatial and temporal dimensions of situated learning which affects the relationships among community members as well as the ways in which they enact local practices. Within the gamified context, members develop relationships with fictional characters who thereby become enacted as non-material actors, and hence achieve a form of personification. Furthermore, within the gamified space and time, CoP members use game elements to re-negotiate their identities or even adopt altogether new identities. Thereby, gamification becomes something more than merely a motivational device, but rather an organizational process which touches on the very texture of organizing as it meshes with practitioners’ identities in the making.