Effects of Role Perceptions on Effective Use of Gamification

Since the early 2000s, gamified systems have seen widespread adoption across academia and industry. While prior research has identified key constructs such as antecedents and consequences, particularly in gamified training and learning contexts (John et al., 2024; Leung et al., 2023), limited attention has been given to how job demands and resources influence learners’ effective use of such systems. Based on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory (Demerouti et al., 2001), which posits that diverse job stressors can be categorized as either job demands or job resources across various settings, this paper examines factors that influence effective use in gamified learning environments. We identify role importance and role autonomy as job resources that facilitate goal attainment, mitigate the effects of demands, and promote personal growth and engagement, whereas role ambiguity and role conflict are considered job demands that require sustained cognitive or emotional effort and, if unmanaged, may induce stress that undermines effective system use (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). By investigating these factors, this study offers insight into how balancing demands and resources can enhance learning outcomes in gamified settings. To test our research model, we will conduct a laboratory study with graduate students enrolled in an online ERP overview course at a U.S. public university, using the Maple Syrup game from the ERPsim series (Léger, 2006), which simulates role-based operations within a fictional distribution company. This study is expected to advance the gamification literature by highlighting how resource and demand-based role perceptions drive the effective use of gamified systems.