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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

  Learning or Playing? The Effect of Gamified Training on Performance

  Ryan W. Buell, Wei Cai and Tatiana Sandino

  Gamified training is a novel management control system in which companies use gamification techniques to engage and motivate employees to learn. This study empirically examines the performance consequences of gamified training by conducting a field experiment in a professional services firm. We find that the main effect of adopting the gamified training platform on performance is not statistically significant at conventional levels. However, we also find that the effect is moderated by employee engagement, such that the gamified training platform improved performance in offices with high employee engagement and worsened performance in offices with low employee engagement. In offices with high levels of employee engagement—with above-median rates of employee retention and willingness to log onto the training platform—each additional minute of average platform engagement per employee led to an additional 0.28 new clients per month. In offices with below-median rates of employee retention and willingness to log onto the training platform, each additional minute of average platform engagement per employee resulted in 0.78 fewer new clients per month. Taken together, these results suggest that gamified training, which, in part, is intended to help engage and motivate employees to learn, may only yield performance benefits among those who are already highly engaged and motivated.

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., Wei Cai, and Tatiana Sandino. "Learning or Playing? The Effect of Gamified Training on Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-101, March 2019.  View Details

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• Article | Harvard Business Review | March–April 2019

  Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees

  Ryan W. Buell

  Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the scenes, causing them to place a lower value on the product or service being offered. To address this problem, managers should experiment with operational transparency—the deliberate design of windows into and out of the organization's operations to help customers understand and appreciate the value being added. Witnessing the hidden work performed on their behalf makes customers more satisfied, more willing to pay, and more loyal. It can also make employees more satisfied by demonstrating to them that they are serving their customers well. However, managers should be aware of certain conditions in which transparency can backfire.

  Keywords: operational transparency; customers; services; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Customer Satisfaction; Behavior; Service Industry;

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W. "Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees." R1902H. Harvard Business Review 97, no. 4 (March–April 2019): 102–113.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2018 (Revised February 2019)

  Babcom: Opening Doors

  Ryan W. Buell, Joshua D. Margolis and Margot Eiran

  Keywords: leadership; service operations; customer service; talent management; human resources; Growth; Middle East;

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., Joshua D. Margolis, and Margot Eiran. "Babcom: Opening Doors." Harvard Business School Case 418-026, June 2018. (Revised February 2019.)  View Details

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