Using serious games to manage knowledge and competencies: The seven-step development process

This article explores how serious games improve knowledge and competencies management in the context of human resources management. The exploratory research, based on the conceptual framework of the SECI model from Nonaka, analyzes the performances of three serious games developed in 3 different financial companies, from France, USA and India. These three case studies will help to define a 7-step development process of a knowledge and competencies management serious game. The banking sector has interesting characteristics for this study, some of the associated knowledge being both very standardized and also highly heterogeneous. It will be shown that serious games contribute significantly to improve “socialization”, “externalization”, “combination”, and “internalization” of knowledge and that they promote benchmarking throughout the company.