Playful Serious Gaming for Change Management

This study investigates how serious games for change management training can embed domain theory as a mechanical prerequisite for progression rather than as thematic decoration, a design flaw the authors argue undermines learning outcomes. Working through iterative design cycles, the researchers developed six prototypes, two of which are analysed in depth. Both draw on De Caluwe and Vermaak's colour-coded framework of managerial change styles, which is closely aligned with the power-coercive, empirical-rational, normative-reeducative, and barter strategies described by Bennis and Benne and Boonstra. The first prototype, a hexagonal tile game, enforces theoretical knowledge structurally, requiring players to apply specific change actions to accumulate resources and clear phase-transition bottlenecks. The second, a card game adapted from Exploding Kittens, emphasises deception, bartering, and crisis management, sustaining engagement while enforcing theory less rigidly.

The central finding is a design tension between instructional rigour and player engagement. Mechanical enforcement of theory produces a sequential experience that more closely resembles a facilitated workshop than a game, while mechanics that prioritise engagement allow players to succeed through social manipulation without conceptual understanding. The authors conclude that no single mechanic examined resolves both concerns simultaneously. They establish theory-as-mechanical-prerequisite as a transferable design principle and suggest that hybrid designs, which enforce knowledge at bottleneck moments while allowing freer play between them, merit exploration.

The evidence base is qualitative and design-oriented. The study reports the iterative development of prototypes rather than controlled measurement of learning outcomes, and no participant sample size or empirical evaluation data are presented. The authors acknowledge that claims about learning effectiveness and workplace transfer remain untested and call for within-subjects and longitudinal studies. Practically, the work implies that the presence of change management terminology in a game is not a reliable indicator of learning quality, and that procurement decisions should consider whether core mechanics require theoretical knowledge for progression.