Play MINT - Still playing or already leading? design of a digital learning game to promote female STEM students' innovative work behavior and digital leadership

Although the proportion of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professions has increased significantly in recent years, they are still striking underrepresented in study programs and companies of the STEM area. Moreover, women only occupy 21% of STEM leadership positions in Germany. These numbers underline a serious gender gap in the STEM field. To address this gender gap and benefit from the work and innovation potential of STEM women for companies in times of the digital disruption, we develop the competency-based learning game PlayMINT. PlayMINT intends to stimulate interest in and prepare female students for STEM beyond study programs to encourage women to start STEM careers and to promote them into STEM leadership positions. Based on existing research in leadership and management, we design PlayMINT with the goal of teaching concepts and competencies, which are relevant to leadership, innovation, and digital transformation. Our assumptions underlying PlayMINT are that creative self-efficacy, effective interpersonal communication, and general business knowledge are predictors for higher innovative work behavior in the STEM area and that empowering, envisioning, and general business knowledge promote digital leadership. PlayMINT aims to realize these suggestions for female STEM students, in particular from computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, because these fields show the most pervasive gender gap within the STEM fields. PlayMINT leads participants through the innovation process in a robot company by playing the role of a female engineer. Her mission is to implement a medical robot for spinal surgeries as a new business idea. PlayMINT will provide valuable contributions to STEM study programs, to STEM companies, and society in general.