{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108107"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108107","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Gamifying RPI: The benefits of avatars and knowledge-induced coworker familiarity","abstract":"The growth of the gamification industry has increased the use of avatar-enhanced leaderboards as a method of providing public relative performance information (RPI). This study examines the effect of representing employees as humanlike avatars in public leaderboards on employees’ effort to improve their leaderboard performance (i.e., self-focused effort). Additionally, since practitioners have expressed concern that competition induced by leaderboards may reduce helping behavior, I also examine the effect of humanlike avatars on subsequent helping behavior toward coworkers on unrelated tasks (i.e., others-focused effort). Using an experiment, I find that representing employees with humanlike avatars increases both self-focused and subsequent others-focused effort when coworkers know little about each other, but that humanlike avatars do not increase either form of effort when coworkers know relatively more about each other. A supplemental experiment demonstrates that these effects are robust to using both humanlike silhouettes and headshot photographs as alternative forms of avatars. My study suggests that when deciding whether to provide public RPI via avatar-enhanced leaderboards, managers ought to consider the existing social environment in which employees operate.","abstract_html":"The growth of the gamification industry has increased the use of avatar-enhanced leaderboards as a method of providing public relative performance information (RPI). This study examines the effect of representing employees as humanlike avatars in public leaderboards on employees’ effort to improve their leaderboard performance (i.e., self-focused effort). Additionally, since practitioners have expressed concern that competition induced by leaderboards may reduce helping behavior, I also examine the effect of humanlike avatars on subsequent helping behavior toward coworkers on unrelated tasks (i.e., others-focused effort). Using an experiment, I find that representing employees with humanlike avatars increases both self-focused and subsequent others-focused effort when coworkers know little about each other, but that humanlike avatars do not increase either form of effort when coworkers know relatively more about each other. A supplemental experiment demonstrates that these effects are robust to using both humanlike silhouettes and headshot photographs as alternative forms of avatars. My study suggests that when deciding whether to provide public RPI via avatar-enhanced leaderboards, managers ought to consider the existing social environment in which employees operate.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Williams Jr., Jeffrey O"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Accountancy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hobson, Jessen","Hecht, Gary","Mehta, Ravi","Williamson, Michael"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-08-26T23:54:31Z","date_published":"2020-08-26T23:54:31Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:47Z","subjects":["relative performance information","RPI","avatars","familiarity","helping behavior"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Jeffrey Williams Jr."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108107","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hobson, Jessen","Hecht, Gary","Mehta, Ravi","Williamson, Michael"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Williams Jr., Jeffrey O"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-08-26T23:54:31Z","2022-08-26T23:58:55Z","2020-04-13","2020-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Accountancy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["relative performance information","RPI","avatars","familiarity","helping behavior"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Jeffrey Williams Jr."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108107"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The growth of the gamification industry has increased the use of avatar-enhanced leaderboards as a method of providing public relative performance information (RPI). This study examines the effect of representing employees as humanlike avatars in public leaderboards on employees’ effort to improve their leaderboard performance (i.e., self-focused effort). Additionally, since practitioners have expressed concern that competition induced by leaderboards may reduce helping behavior, I also examine the effect of humanlike avatars on subsequent helping behavior toward coworkers on unrelated tasks (i.e., others-focused effort). Using an experiment, I find that representing employees with humanlike avatars increases both self-focused and subsequent others-focused effort when coworkers know little about each other, but that humanlike avatars do not increase either form of effort when coworkers know relatively more about each other. A supplemental experiment demonstrates that these effects are robust to using both humanlike silhouettes and headshot photographs as alternative forms of avatars. My study suggests that when deciding whether to provide public RPI via avatar-enhanced leaderboards, managers ought to consider the existing social environment in which employees operate.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2022-05-01","The student, Jeffrey Williams Jr., accepted the attached license on 2020-04-13 at 09:16.","The student, Jeffrey Williams Jr., submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-04-13 at 09:24.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-04-13 at 16:35.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #14965 on 2020-08-25 at 17:27:26","Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T23:54:31Z (GMT). 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This study examines the effect of representing employees as humanlike avatars in public leaderboards on employees’ effort to improve their leaderboard performance (i.e., self-focused effort). Additionally, since practitioners have expressed concern that competition induced by leaderboards may reduce helping behavior, I also examine the effect of humanlike avatars on subsequent helping behavior toward coworkers on unrelated tasks (i.e., others-focused effort). Using an experiment, I find that representing employees with humanlike avatars increases both self-focused and subsequent others-focused effort when coworkers know little about each other, but that humanlike avatars do not increase either form of effort when coworkers know relatively more about each other. A supplemental experiment demonstrates that these effects are robust to using both humanlike silhouettes and headshot photographs as alternative forms of avatars. My study suggests that when deciding whether to provide public RPI via avatar-enhanced leaderboards, managers ought to consider the existing social environment in which employees operate.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2022-05-01","The student, Jeffrey Williams Jr., accepted the attached license on 2020-04-13 at 09:16.","The student, Jeffrey Williams Jr., submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-04-13 at 09:24.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-04-13 at 16:35.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #14965 on 2020-08-25 at 17:27:26","Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T23:54:31Z (GMT). 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