Serious games: The importance of play in network-centric organisations

The psychology of play recognises that there are benefits of incorporating play and games at work. In this paper we report the results of an investigation into the use of gaming to develop the cooperative human aspects of team behaviour in organisations that want to increase their social network-centric capability. We show how online team gaming sessions can enhance people's awareness and mastery of collective processes underlying teamwork and cooperation in the context of the workplace. The conduct of such a session is described and the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data is presented. Lessons were learnt from use of this engaging but "serious" game for building cooperation in modern network-centric organisations through play. This contributes not only to our understanding of the use of play and gaming in the workplace but also to the methods for practice and research on this important topic.