According to the reports, the qualities needed to effectively lead in the ever more distributed and global nature of work are the same qualities that millions of kids, teenagers and adults are developing in the world of immersive, multi-player online-role playing games like World of Warcraft and Everquest.
The research team captured hours of online game play, surveyed hundreds of gamers, and conducted several interviews of gaming leaders. The objective of the study was twofold: to better understand how successful leaders behave in online games and to learn what aspects of game environments leaders leverage to be more effective.
Researchers found transparent environments created in online games made leadership easier to assume. Online games give leaders the freedom to fail, and experiment with different approaches and techniques, something that any Fortune 500 company that hopes to innovate needs to understand, the research team observed.
Also, leadership in online games is more temporary and flexible than it is in the business world. "Increasingly open and collaborative nature of innovation is the key driver for delving deeper into increasingly popular virtual worlds and to research whether real business lessons can be learned from observing leadership in online games," said Dr. Daniel Dias, Director, IBM India Research Laboratory.
"True innovation requires flexible, tolerant, and iterative approaches to solving big problems." The new IBM studies suggest that companies seeking competitive advantage in the global marketplace might be well-served by tapping into the skills and experience these gamers are acquiring in their "virtual" lives.
For example, nearly half of gamers studied believe that game-playing has improved their real-world leadership capabilities. Three-quarters believe that the tools used in games to collaborate and connect can be applied to enhance leadership effectiveness for the globally integrated enterprise.
"If you want to see what business leadership will look like in 3-5 years, look at what's happening in online games," said Dr. Byron Reeves, the Paul C. Edwards Professor of Communication at Stanford University.
That's because massively multiplayer online games enable thousands of players to interact, compete and collaborate with one another in real time. Players must make rapid-fire decisions based on multiple and constantly shifting inputs.
Invariably, certain individuals emerge to set direction and shape the success of others. What's more, leadership is often temporal, quickly shifting from one person to another as the course of action dictates.
The implications are huge for business, as these skills widely sought - yet rarely taught in MBA classes or as part of corporate leadership development programs. By tapping into the lessons of immersive, role playing games, companies can gain a better understanding of the ways in which the next generation of leaders will need to operate.
The studies are significant as the days of closely knit teams working on long-term strategy in close quarters are gone, replaced by virtual teams that constantly reinvent the business in multiple time zones the world over; besides, the business world is in desperate need of a new model for leadership befitting the Internet Age.
According to the researchers, in the realm of online games, specifically Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, leaders emerge that deftly navigate the motivational, emotional and social needs of their direct reports in a highly competitive, distributed, virtual environment.
And there are many lessons to be learned. The analysis reflects that collaborative behaviors are vital to leadership success within MMORPGs and will be increasingly so within corporate environments. As corporate leaders find themselves operating in more virtual environments, many of the tools and capabilities used by game leaders become more applicable.
Initially, seasoned executives might scoff at the notion of learning leadership lessons from the world of computer games. Yet, MMORPGs, which bring together thousands of simultaneous players in a fast-paced online environment, can provide important insights into the development of new leadership capabilities for global enterprises.
MMORPGs represent a growing business that, according to the TowerGroup, will reach 40 million people and generate over US$9 billion in revenue by 2010.
