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Gamification als Führungsinstrument zur Steigerung der Mitarbeitendenmotivation – Eine Empirische Untersuchung und Handlungsempfehlungen für Unternehmen der Dienstleistungsbranche und der produzierenden Industrie im deutschsprachigen Raum
Get PDFThe dissertation titled „ Gamification as a Leadership Tool for Increasing Employee Motivation: An Empirical Study and Recommendations for Companies “explores the application of gamification strategies within corporate settings to boost employee motivation and engagement. The study aims to address the increasing challenges faced by organizations in maintaining high levels of motivation among employees, particularly in the context of continuous professional development and workplace productivity.
The research is structured around a comprehensive analysis of the current state of gamification in corporate environments, including a review of its theoretical foundations and empirical applications. The study begins by examining the concept of gamification, defining its key elements and distinguishing it from related practices such as serious games. It also highlights the theoretical underpinnings, particularly the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan, which suggests that gamification can satisfy essential psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—thereby enhancing intrinsic motivation.
The empirical part of the dissertation involves a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data to assess the effectiveness of gamification elements in various corporate scenarios. The study evaluates how different gamification components, such as points, badges, leaderboards, and narrative structures, impact employee motivation and performance. It also investigates the role of corporate culture and leadership in the successful implementation of gamification strategies.
One of the significant findings of the research is that gamification, when properly integrated into the organizational culture and aligned with the company’s strategic goals, can lead to substantial improvements in employee engagement and motivation. However, the study also identifies potential risks, such as the possibility of demotivation if gamification elements are poorly designed or implemented without considering the specific context of the organization.
The dissertation concludes with practical recommendations for companies looking to adopt gamification strategies. These include guidelines for selecting appropriate gamification elements, aligning them with organizational values, and ensuring they contribute to long-term motivational goals rather than short-term engagement spikes. The study also emphasizes the importance of ongoing assessment and adaptation of gamification strategies to maintain their effectiveness over time.
Overall, this dissertation contributes to the growing body of literature on gamification in the workplace by providing empirical evidence and actionable insights for companies seeking to enhance employee motivation through innovative, game-based approaches
Mismatch? Was Banken glauben und Kunden erwarten: eine empirische Studie ausgewählter Schlüsselfaktoren der Kundeninteraktion & -bindung entlang digitaler Customer Journeys am Beispiel deutscher Retailbanken
Get PDFThis dissertation explores the critical role of digital customer journeys in influencing customer interaction and retention within German retail banks. The study identifies a significant re-search gap, highlighting that previous studies have focused primarily on general customer experience aspects without a detailed analysis of specific expectations and their fulfillment in the evolving banking landscape of Germany. To address this gap, an empirical approach is employed, gathering direct insights into customer expectations regarding digital customer journeys in German retail banks and analysing their impact on satisfaction and loyalty using the Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT).
The research aims to understand how well customer expectations are met and how this influences their satisfaction and engagement. By examining the interaction between expectations, perceived performance, and satisfaction, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors that enhance customer engagement and retention within in the banking customer journey.
The findings offer valuable recommendations for optimizing digital strategies to better meet customer expectations and improve satisfaction, ultimately leading to stronger customer loyalty.
Key objectives of the dissertation include:
• Developing a theoretical foundation for understanding customer engagement, satisfaction, and retention within digital customer journeys.
• Employing a quantitative study through online surveys to capture customer expectations, experiences, and satisfaction levels with digital banking services.
• Analyzing the importance of seamless and personalized customer interactions across multiple channels and identifying the critical touchpoints that influence customer satisfaction.
The empirical findings reveal that high satisfaction with digital services, such as online banking and mobile apps, significantly enhances customer loyalty. Customers who perceive their bank as innovative and technologically advanced demonstrate higher loyalty and lower propensity to switch. Key factors negatively affecting customer retention include unattractive conditions, inadequate customer service, poor problem-solving competence, and security concerns.
The dissertation underscores the importance of continuous innovation and improvement in digital offerings to meet rising customer expectations. By integrating personalized and efficient digital interactions, banks can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study also highlights the necessity for a consistent omnichannel strategy and the proactive use of customer feedback to identify and address service gaps.
Overall, the research provides critical insights and practical recommendations for retail banks to improve their digital customer journeys, thereby fostering long-term customer relation-ships and competitiveness in the digital age
Distributed Ledger Technology als [R]evolution des Supply Chain Managements – eine empirische Untersuchung bei Schweizer Nahrungsmittelproduzenten
Get PDFThis dissertation examines the impact of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and blockchain on the supply chain management (SCM) of Swiss food producers, with a particular focus on the supply chain strategies of lean, agile, and leagile. DLT/blockchain offers promising applications, such as monitoring delivery conditions and enhancing product authenticity. A traceability test highlights the technology’s efficiency, demonstrating that product tracking times can be reduced from several days to just a few seconds, significantly improving the availability of critical information in the food sector.
The research problem stems from the insufficient differentiation between various SC strategies regarding blockchain deployment. Each strategy requires specific success factors that blockchain technology can support.
The academic relevance lies in investigating DLT/blockchain as a strategic influence within existing SC strategies, emphasizing the necessity of differentiation since different drivers are targeted depending on the strategy’s orientation. The practical relevance is found in optimizing supply chains through an enhanced understanding of DLT/blockchain’s specific impacts on different supply chain strategies. A better awareness of existing supply chain configurations allows for a more targeted application of the technology and more precise management of critical requirements, resulting in an improved cost-benefit ratio when integrating the technology.
The dissertation aims to identify the strategic relevance of DLT/blockchain for different SC strategies and to determine which SC drivers benefit most from its implementation. Furthermore, it analyses challenges and risks associated with adaptation.
The methodology is based on a systematic literature review and 14 expert interviews, which were transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis following Mayring’s approach.
The results show that the integration of DLT/blockchain technology is feasible and confirmed through pilot projects. Advantages such as traceability and transparency are evident, although strategic relevance remains limited due to challenges including inadequate IT infrastructure, unclear cost structures, and increased coordination efforts. Nevertheless, the technology shows potential for increasing supply chain efficiency. In agile SC strategies, blockchain enables a flexible and secure data infrastructure supporting rapid market responses. Lean strategies benefit from automation and waste reduction. Decentralized data storage enhances protection against manipulation and builds trust, for example by providing information on cultivation areas. The introduction of the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the increasing use of artificial intelligence further strengthen the potential and synergies of blockchain, with experts seeing promising future applications.
However, the findings are not generalizable due to the limited sample size and the selection process of participants. Industry- and country-specific differences further complicate transferability. Despite measures to reduce bias, complete elimination was methodologically impossible.
The dissertation concludes that DLT/blockchain has the potential to positively influence SC strategies among Swiss food producers. The forthcoming introduction of the EUDR and the growing need for tamper-proof and trustworthy information emphasize the importance of reassessing the technology
Challenging the bottom-of-the-pyramid narrative in Africa: a cross-cultural management perspective on the impact of mobile money
Get PDFThe “bottom-of-the-pyramid” (BoP) narrative underpins the introduction of fintech initiatives such as mobile money into Africa’s largely informal economies by multinational enterprises (MNEs) often endorsed by the international development community. This is claimed to enhance financial inclusion and enterprise development among poorer communities. By examining the cultural meaning of money and the impact of mobile money on traditional community initiatives like Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs), this work sets out to show how accepted truths may be challenged in power-laden international interactions. Four objectives guide our multidimensional approach: methodological (exposing hidden narratives in international business), epistemological (questioning prevailing knowledge of “Africa”), strategic (critiquing MNE-led technology transfers), and inclusive (advocating for marginalized perspectives in policy and research). It calls for more inclusive cross-cultural research in Africa that incorporates perspectives from less powerful groups excluded by dominant narratives such as BoP. Rather than seeing African countries as lacking and seeing mobile money as a means of plugging “institutional voids” such as access to formal institutional finance, we ask researchers to take account of existing community-led institutions in constructing alternative narratives to inform their research, business school curricula, MNEs’ strategies and international development policies
Effectiveness of YCMAP (youth culturally adapted manual assisted problem solving) intervention in adolescents after self-harm in Pakistan: multicentre, randomised controlled trial
Get PDFObjective
To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of the YCMAP intervention (Youth Culturally Adapted Manual Assisted Problem Solving) for adolescents after self-harm in Pakistan.
Design
Multicentre, randomised controlled trial that compared YCMAP with enhanced treatment as usual.
Settings
General practices, emergency departments, medical wards of participating hospitals, and community centres across Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi.
Participants
Adolescents with a recent history of self-harm identified at participating health centres by treating physicians between 5 November 2019 and 31 August 2021.
Intervention
The YCMAP group received up to 10 treatment sessions over three months; the intervention was based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy.
Main outcome measure
The primary outcome was the repetition of self-harm at 12 months after randomisation. Secondary outcomes were distress, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and health related quality of life at three, six, nine, and 12 months after randomisation. Participants’ satisfaction with the services was assessed at three and 12 months after randomisation.
Results
This trial was conducted between November 2019 and February 2023 and included 684 adolescents randomised to YCMAP (n=342) or enhanced treatment as usual (n=342). The YCMAP group had a significantly lower risk of self-harm repetition than the enhanced treatment as usual group at 12 months after randomisation (odds ratio 0.20, 95% confidence interval 0.06 to 0.70, P=0.006). YCMAP participants showed a statistically significant reduction in distress, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation at three months, but these differences were not statistically significant at 12 months. YCMAP participants also reported significantly better quality of life and satisfaction with services at three months, with these effects sustained at all follow-up points.
Conclusion
The YCMAP intervention was shown to be beneficial in self-harm prevention among adolescents. Further research and replication of findings in diverse settings are recommended to strengthen the evidence base for this public health intervention.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04131179 and ISRCTN registry ISRCTN57325925
When holiday small talk hurts inclusion at work
No full textIt’s that time of the year again! Decorations are up, Christmas songs are on repeat, and people get chatty at the coffee machine, at the office party or elsewhere about their upcoming plans. Against this backdrop, it’s common to hear the question “are you going home for Christmas?”
It’s meant as a well-intentioned conversation starter, but our experience is that it can sometimes lead to unintended harm. Despite our best intentions to put someone at ease, this seemingly innocent question may cause discomfort for those for whom “home” is a complex and layered concept. Without realising it, we might be contributing to a sense of exclusion
The right to freedom of thought and the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: examining the relationship in the case of the coercive and interrogational use of neurotechnology
No full textThe forum internum is a legal concept mainly developed in relation to the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It refers to a person’s inner realm, ‘where mental faculties are developed, exercised and defined’ . This chapter aims to tease out the prohibition of torture’s protection of the forum internum with reference to case law from the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The inclusion of case law from different courts and bodies is not for comparative purposes but rather to identify broader themes which relate to the protection of the forum internum and the permissibility of the involuntary use of neurotechnology against detainees in the context of military interrogations and against suspects in criminal investigations. The neurotechnology referred to here can be described as brain-imaging and includes neuroimaging to detect the recognition of stimuli to reveal information known by the suspect or reveal deception.
By reviewing jurisprudential developments and recent academic scholarship re-orienting the threshold of torture away from the severity of suffering towards the severity of conduct, this chapter identifies ways in which we can approach the question of whether and, if so, when and why the involuntary extraction of information from the mind of a suspect or detainee would amount to a violation of either or both of the right to freedom of thought and the prohibition against torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP). This question places certain conceptions of the prohibition of torture under strain given, for example, that human rights law in part prohibits torture or CIDTP because of the unlawful levels of pain and suffering that are inflicted. Thus, the law on the prohibition of torture ‘assumes that the interrogator will attempt to overcome the detainee’s will with pain’. But does this liberate the pain-free but coerced interrogational use of neurotechnology from the definitional bounds of the prohibition of torture or ill-treatment? Furthermore, does the ‘expansive’ interpretation of the prohibition of torture or CIDTP encroach into the protective territory of the right to freedom of thought in this context?
The right to freedom of thought and the prohibition of torture or CIDTP are both set out in almost all international and regional human rights treaties drafted and agreed in the post-World War II period. Much of the scholarship on both rights examines or critiques questions of definition and classification. This chapter does not speak to these questions directly but identifies two commonalities between these rights: the first being their shared site of protection as the forum internum; the second being their shared normative underpinnings of dignity, integrity and autonomy. Identifying this common basis might help develop principled guidance on the permissibility of pain-free but coercive and interrogational use of neurotechnology. The chapter provides a contextual overview of the relevant scholarly developments related to the questions set out above. It examines the distinguishing features of the prohibition of torture or CIDTP as they relate to the protection of the mind and brain (the relevant case law does not refer to the concept of the forum internum), and the right to freedom of thought’s absolute protection of the forum internum before exploring how the commonality between these two rights guides the legal position on the coercive and interrogational use of neurotechnology (whether painful or not).
In approaching the human rights protection of the mind in an integrated way, this chapter interrogates the conceptual, normative and doctrinal webs between the right to freedom of thought and the prohibition of torture or CIDTP. The contribution to the literature offered here is, firstly, to call to attention the normative and instrumental relationship between these two rights which the chapter interrogates in the context of the coercive and interrogational use of neurotechnology. Secondly, although the prohibition of torture or CIDTP under some treaties would prohibit the coercive and interrogational use of neurotechnology (despite the absence of pain), this chapter questions whether such protection may be more appropriately sought under the right to freedom of thought. On this second aspect, whilst acknowledging that all rights are interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible, clarity on the delineation between these rights would help develop the latent right to freedom of thought
No space in between: a case study of Theatrescience
No full textTheatrescience was a theatre company founded by Rebecca Gould and the late Jeff Teare in 2004, with the intention of making theatre that dealt with current scientific ideas. The work involved hundreds of practitioners and scientists and thousands of audience members and students. The company created a body of work that developed new techniques in bringing together theatre and science, and left a legacy of plays, performances, workshops and discussions, which serve as a case stiudy for future work in the same field
Transformative facilitation: the never-ending path in the act of becoming
Get PDFThis autoethnographic critique is based on four decades as an international facilitator. It describes how my transformative facilitation framework emerged in practice, in the forming of my company Alchemy Worldwide in 2016, and in the writing of my book Provoke: The Art of Transformative Facilitation in 2019. I have chosen four influential "mirrors" to critically reflect on and articulate the complexity of my practice: my background in Japanese martial arts (Budō); my influential spiritual teachers, or gurus; the beautiful revelations of working in 48 countries; and the alchemy of integrating Western methodological theories, including applied psychology, with Eastern philosophies. The critical lenses I move between are phenomenological hermeneutics, the study of reflective learning and integration, and ontology, the philosophical study of existence and the nature of reality. Autoethnography has provided me with a reflection of my own positionality, which is the inclusion of the person behind the narrated experience, both personally and in a reflexive relationship to the groups and sectors of which I am a member, and what I have shaped and what matters in my existence.
This approach goes beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to address complex problems by integrating knowledge from diverse fields and involving various stakeholders, including non-academic participants. It moves beyond simple multidisciplinarity or interdisciplinarity by incorporating perspectives and expertise from outside academia.
This critique documents my transformation from an "uneducatable" child to an international facilitator, and how deep inner conflict, a remorseless sense of knowing the norm was not working, and the emergence of a better way of learning guided my vision and implementation of change.
I reveal the inexorable, lived alchemy of my artefact, Provoke: The Art of Transformative Facilitation and the TRANSFORM8© framework, long before I even realised that was what I was doing, and the dream where I saw the framework unfold as a tangible thing I could describe in written form.
This critique presents my experiment with how phenomenological hermeneutics and ontology bridge the East and West, the philosophical teachings of both ancient and contemporary teachers, and an exploration of my passion for understanding and embodying learning. This has led to the emergence of clarity within my practice and how it can evolve, positioned as it is, for the advancement of incremental understanding of self in relation to others and things, through beautiful and often troublesome processes. It demonstrates how, in conventional facilitation, A plus B equals C doesn’t work, as each of us is on a unique trajectory. I firmly believe this critique advances my facilitation sector by showing how both theoretical and philosophical understanding, lived experience, and concerted application can be combined for the betterment of self and human development, should we choose to embrace our personal, never-ending story of becoming
Classical to quantum knowledge distillation: a study on the impact of hybridization
Get PDFKnowledge distillation (KD) is a widely explored technique in classical machine learning, in which a smaller or more efficient model is trained to mimic the behavior of a larger, more complex model. In this study, we extend the concept of knowledge distillation from classical architectures to quantum architectures, with the goal of improving the training of quantum models while potentially reducing the number of parameters compared to their classical counterparts. Given the inherent challenges in training quantum neural networks, leveraging knowledge from well-established classical models could provide valuable insights and advantages, particularly in terms of model efficiency and performance. In this work we explore the potential benefits of this approach, evaluating a hybrid quantum model against a nonhybrid quantum baseline. While the proposed study is still in the preliminary stage, it aims to set the scene for further investigation into the most appropriate architecture for classical-to-quantum KD in order to enhance the development and optimization of quantum neural networks more generally