Gamification strategies and visual management: A model for disseminating production information and feedback to civil construction workers

Organizations have integrated game mechanics into their processes to promote the engagement and motivation of employees who deal with repetitive tasks. In civil construction, in search of more efficient management, managers open space for new approaches to motivate their workers to fulfill production goals. The workers often do not know what is expected of them due to the lack of transparency in the goals and objectives established by the manager of construction. Furthermore, communication failures can lead to wasted hours of service. The lack of transparency in the construction process leads to difficulties for the workers to understand and, to communication problems between the tactical and operational levels. It is in this context that gamification, defined as the insertion of game elements in non-game contexts, appears as an innovative idea for the construction sector, to improve communication between managers and the construction team, which can motivate and engage workers. This study aimed to understand gamification and visual management strategies as a mechanism to disseminate production information to construction workers. The specific objectives of this research were: (1) to analyze the communication and management difficulties found in the production environment of the construction site (2) identify requirements and information necessary for the use of gamification in civil construction (3) produce the gamified system (4) evaluate the gamified model and the theoretical and practical contributions of gamification strategies. It is an exploratory, qualitative research whose Design Science methodology and the Design Science Research method. Divided into four phases, namely: (1) Understanding, (2) Development, (3) Assessments, and (4) Reflections. A gamified model was conceived, developed, and evaluated by: 10 testers, focused on the functionality and usability of the system (System Usability Scale - SUS), the model's ability to promote (Net Promoter Score –NSP- adapted), and the user experience (User Experience Questionnaire – UEQ), 15 engineers, and 10 workers through the user experience (User Experience Questionnaire – UEQ-S) and capacity to promote (Net Promoter Score - NSP- adapted). Testers evaluated the system through SUS with 61 on its scale [0-100]. On the UEQ benchmark scales, they rated with concepts: good (innovation), good (attractiveness, efficiency, control, stimulus), and above-average (transparency), and NSP-adapted obtained 90%. Engineers and Workers evaluated the UEQ-S with an excellent concept for Pragmatic Quality, Hedonic Quality, and General Quality and, in the NSP-adapted 90% of workers and 100% of engineers were obtained, in addition to making significant contributions to corrections and improvements of the model and the gamified system. Finally, based on the results presented, was possible to assume that the proposed model contributes to disseminating production information to civil construction workers. Furthermore, it is assumed that it is possible to adapt it to apply in other areas of industrial production that depend directly on manual work ethically maximizing its purpose.