Finding your Totem: unveiling the effects of a positive technology intervention on employees’ well-being and perceived team effectiveness with self-determination theory
研究了一项名为Totem的数字游戏化团队活动，通过满足员工心理需求和激发自主动机，提升了虚拟工作环境下的员工幸福感和团队效能，对管理者有参考价值。
Virtual work presents numerous benefits in contemporary workplaces yet concurrently might pose substantial challenges, notably impacting employees’ well-being and team dynamics. This study investigated the Totem activity, a digital gamified team exercise designed to promote employees’ strengths. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), it is proposed that the intervention positively influences employees’ well-being and perceived team effectiveness by enhancing need satisfaction and autonomous motivation. Using an experimental design, our study examined the impact of the activity on 58 teams (n = 395) and compared it with a wait-list control group of seven teams (n = 67). The data were gathered pre- and post-intervention for both groups, with the experimental group answering a third questionnaire 3 weeks post-intervention (n = 202). Multilevel analyses revealed that the experimental group displayed notable increases in all the studied variables post-intervention compared to the control group. Longitudinal analyses using a latent change score model showed that variations in need satisfaction during the Totem activity predicted changes in work motivation, psychological well-being, and team effectiveness across 3 weeks. This study shows that a digital strengths-based team intervention like Totem is an affordable, scalable, and self-directed way to support employees’ psychological needs and, thus, overcome challenges associated with virtual work.