Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Serious Games in <strong>the</strong> Context <strong>of</strong> Organizational
Knowledge Management Practices
Albena Antonova 1 and Anandasivakumar Ekambaram 2
1
S<strong>of</strong>ia University, S<strong>of</strong>ia, Bulgaria
2
SINTEF – Technology and Society, Productivity and Project Management,
Trondheim, Norway
a_antonova@fmi.uni-s<strong>of</strong>ia.bg
siva@sintef.no
Abstract: Serious games (SG) are increasingly gaining popularity in various fields such as, education, business,
entertainment and research, and <strong>the</strong>y capture attention <strong>of</strong> learners, researchers and <strong>the</strong> business community.
Serious games are commonly defined as digital games used for purposes o<strong>the</strong>r than mere entertainment or fun.
SGs are considered as effective tools for enhancing knowledge building and testing <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>t skills and complex
competences. With <strong>the</strong>se characteristics, SG can lead to better visualization and understanding <strong>of</strong> reality and
high-order learning. Thus, being recognized as an enhanced learning platform, SG has entered in <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong>
corporate training and competence development. The development and <strong>the</strong> widespread implementation <strong>of</strong> SG
can influence knowledge management (KM) processes and knowledge flows in organizations. The present
research objectives are to investigate <strong>the</strong> impact <strong>of</strong> SG implementation on different organizational practices <strong>of</strong>
KM. SG directly influence individuals’ (employees’) attitudes toward knowledge acquisition, competence building,
and cooperation and motivation. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, SGs contribute to improve organizational processes and pave <strong>the</strong>
way to enhance KM practices in organizations. And at <strong>the</strong> same time focus on KM can also improve <strong>the</strong>
processes <strong>of</strong> developing and implementing SG in companies. The paper first presents a <strong>the</strong>oretical overview <strong>of</strong>
issues related to KM and SG. Followed by this presentation, <strong>the</strong> paper describes <strong>the</strong> connection between KM and
SG. This description will incorporate both <strong>the</strong> individual dimension <strong>of</strong> KM and <strong>the</strong> organizational dimension <strong>of</strong> KM
with respect to SG. The following discussion provides recommendations for developing or adopting SG for KM
purposes. Finally, conclusion winds up <strong>the</strong> whole discussion.
Keywords: Serious games, knowledge flows, organizational knowledge management
1. Introduction
During <strong>the</strong> last few years, serious games (SG) and virtual worlds (VW) become a part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> modern
organizational world and gained influence in education and business. Serious games are used to
facilitate and improve learning, competence and skills building, but <strong>the</strong>ir impact is constantly
increasing in various contexts. Serious games represent an emerging field with wide application in, for
example, education, business, simulation and research (Antonova & Martinov, 2010).
In contrast to development <strong>of</strong> SG, knowledge management still remains isolated from o<strong>the</strong>r practices
in companies. Some reports highlight that KM have never succeeded to integrate with o<strong>the</strong>r
organizational systems and practices such as e-learning, HRM and innovations systems
(Learnovation, 2008). Main obstacles for KM include cultural obstacles, political obstacles (lack <strong>of</strong>
management support), evaluation obstacles (lack <strong>of</strong> appropriate metrics for KM) and technological
obstacles (lack <strong>of</strong> appropriate infrastructure) (Learnovation, 2008). Ano<strong>the</strong>r report (KPMG, 2004)
points out <strong>the</strong> following KM barriers: lack <strong>of</strong> time to share knowledge, information overload,
reinventing <strong>the</strong> wheel, not using technology to share knowledge, not using ideas to improve <strong>the</strong>
functioning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization and lost market opportunities. According to CWA (2004), some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
main obstacles for KM are: time for sharing knowledge, lack <strong>of</strong> management support for KM,
“knowledge is power”, apathy about sharing knowledge, “not-invented here” syndrome, no appropriate
reward systems, different cultures and sub-cultures, organizational amnesia and over-emphasis on
technologies.
Based on <strong>the</strong>se descriptions, it can be concluded that though KM is a useful and important strategic
management approach, it is not widely and systematically implemented in companies. This lack <strong>of</strong>
implementation can be observed especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, it is
evident that success <strong>of</strong> KM depends largely on social and organizational factors, and is influenced by
organizational culture and people’s attitudes and willingness to share knowledge. This condition
requires companies to explore different approaches in order to ensure an effective use <strong>of</strong> KM.
The objective <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> present research is to describe how SG can improve KM processes in practice.
As SG represent an emerging and popular medium, <strong>the</strong> study will identify how SG can directly
28