Learning the principles of team management and dragon slaying.
IBM claims that online video games are helping to groom future business leaders, teaching them the core skills needed to successfully lead a team.
Closely-knit teams working on long-term strategy in close quarters will be replaced by virtual teams that constantly reinvent the business in multiple time zones the world over, according to the report.
The research suggests that online games, specifically massively multiplayer online role playing games, train leaders to deal with the motivational, emotional and social needs of their fellows.
IBM partnered with Seriosity, a software company that develops enterprise products and services based on online games, together with researchers from Stanford University and MIT.
"If you want to see what business leadership may look like in three to five years, look at what is happening in online games," said Byron Reeves, professor of communication at Stanford, and co-founder of Seriosity.
The team analysed over 50 hours of online gameplay, surveying hundreds of gamers and conducting interviews with gaming industry insiders.
The objectives were to better understand how successful leaders behave in online games, and to determine the aspects of game environments that leaders use to be more effective.
The research showed that the transparent environments created in online games made leadership easier to assume, and that leadership in online games is more temporary and flexible than it is in the business world.
Online games also 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, according to IBM.
Online gamers self-organise, develop skills and settle easily into various roles. Leaders emerge who are capable of recruiting, organising, motivating and directing large groups of players towards a common goal.
"These games mirror the business context more than you would assume," explained Professor Reeves.
"They presage one possible future for business, one that is open, virtual, knowledge-driven and comprised of a largely volunteer or at least transient workforce."
Gaming leaders are more comfortable with risk, accepting failure, and the resulting iterative improvement, as part of their reality.
Many of these leaders are able to make sense of disparate and constantly changing data, translating it all into a compelling vision, according to the study.
"You can never stop earning the right to be a leader," said Tom Cadwell, an MBA student at Kellogg School of Management and former employee at Blizzard Entertainment, the maker of World of Warcraft.
"You always have to be sensitive to the concerns of members, and you always have to sell the decisions you make. Goodwill from past successes does not last forever."
The report concludes that online gaming environments facilitate leadership through:
- Project-oriented organisation
- Multiple real-time sources of information on which to make decisions
- Transparent skills and competencies among co-players
- Transparent incentive systems
- Multiple and purpose-specific communications mediums
Full details of IBM's research can be found in two PDF reports: