Gamification in knowledge management: How to score intrinsically in the game of motivation

Gamification is an increasingly common motivational tool, and knowledge management is rising to become an important part of strategies in knowledge intensive organizations. The academic infancy of gamification and the relatively young field of knowledge management provide ample opportunities for novel research. This thesis attempts to understand what needs to be considered when designing a practical application of gamification to increase motivation for knowledge management in a knowledge-intense organization. Abductive action research was carried out at Ericsson AB to answer the question, where the researchers where embedded in a knowledge management transformation team. Empirics primarily gathered from interviews, together with a theoretical framework was used to synthesize a set of guidelines. These guidelines served to help with the development of a gamified application for knowledge management. Finally, a plausible concept of an application based on the guidelines and theory is presented, together with recommendations of how to proceed with the development of the concept