Leadership Development
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Business Leadership and Online Games
A recent study by IBM and Seriosity has in-depth research into how multiplayer online game environments in the virtual world can apply to the business world to enhance productivity, innovation and leadership. According to the study, businesses of the future will be increasingly global, while enterprises will be increasingly distributed, faster paced, and fiercely competitive. In addition, more work will be conducted virtually, using technology to bridge previously impassable communications gaps. Online games, and specifically massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), offer a glimpse at how leaders develop and operate in environments that are highly distributed, global, hyper-competitive, and virtual.
This is because in online games, hundreds of thousands of players -- sometimes millions -- interact daily in highly complex virtual environments. These players self-organize, develop skills, and settle into various roles. Leaders emerge that are capable of recruiting, organizing, motivating, and directing large groups of players towards a common goal. The process mirrors much of what managers do in real life, although the stakes in the real world are obviously much higher. However even in the MMORPGS, such leaders can never stop earning the right to be their members leader. They would always have to be sensitive to the concerns of members, and often have to sell decisions they make, as goodwill from past successes doesn't last forever.
Leadership Opportunities in Online Games
Leadership opportunities are plentiful in online games. It happens quickly and easily, and would often be undertaken by otherwise reserved players.
Perhaps one of the most obvious example of leadership in online games is in guild leadership. In the context of e-gaming, a guild is a popular term player made groups for a group of characters working together towards a common goal. It is also widely known as "clans" or "corporations" in some games. In reality, guilds are basically temporary arrangements of diverse people for certain purposes; they grow, change, and dissolve even as the people in them grow and adapt to new situations.Guild leaders would find themselves involved in planning, organising, leading and controlling - activites associated with the four major functions of management [1]. There are plenty of issues for would-be guild leaders to consider and manage in the formation of their guild, such as
- Guild and Leadership Structure
- Vision and aims of the Guild
- Guild Culture, rules, expectations of members - guild charters
- Delegation and sharing of responsibility
- Motivational issues - keeping members motivated, recognising contributions, encouraging and shaping behaviour
- Dealing with and resolving conflicts
- Enforcement of rules, melting out punishments
It is therefore no surprise that much resources and literature can be found online to on guild management in online games (such as http://www.guildhelper.com/management.html), including entire columns devoted specifically to guild leadership issues (such as this see http://www.wowinsider.com/category/officers-quarters/).
In addition, leadership also take place on a very widespread but smaller scale basis in the form of group or raid leaderships. Practically all online games feature party-oriented goals and objectives that requires players to band together to accomplish them, and in such instances opportunities for leadership arises. For example, World of Warcraft features dungeons designed to be completed by players working together in groups, and allows players to "join a guild of like-minded players to adventure and conquer the game's many challenges together". In Lords of the Rings Online, players may "form a fellowship with other players for epic battles against creatures like Orcs, Wights, and even Balrogs". Guild Wars features tournament action and Player-versus-Player action designed for "two or more teams of four to twelve players apiece all battling for supremacy".
Characteristics of online games that facilitates leadership
Nature and pace of game
Steps to success
- While there is often an overarching goal for player guilds to accomplish, such goals can only be accomplished through a series of raids (a guild effort in war-oriented games that involves strategising, planning and attacking to eventually clear a certain game encounter) or missions that make up the journey, which requires player groups of varying sizes. This allows many opportunities to spread around the leadership wealth, allowing many players to try on leadership roles, decide if leadership agrees with them, and pursue it further if so inclined.
Inpermanent power
- Leadership roles in online games are seen to be ephemeral, lasting 10 minutes, 10 days, or even months at a time. Leadership is seen as a job that needs to be assumed in order to get a specific task done, not an identity that follows a player around forever. This ˇ°temporary leadershipˇ± emerges as a result of the pace of play, and the project-oriented nature of online games. Because decisions need to be made quickly, and the cast of characters present during any given session is constantly changing, leaders are chosen quickly, on the basis of experience and skills suited to the task at hand. Because a "incumbent" leader will never always be available or suitable for the game scenario at hand, this also facilitates other players to take on leadership roles. In addition, the lack of expectation of permanence encourages experimentation and leadership flexibility.
Player interaction
- While in real life people may not follow your plans due to certain mental and physical prejudices, everyone gets an equal chance of leadership through games due to the interactions between players not being restricted by things that bothers people in reality like appearance, accent and habitual behaviours. In this aspect, potential leaders with low real life charisma get their chance to develop and hone their leadership skills, which eventually this may lead to them gaining more confidence as a person.
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Information transparency
The "Seriosity and IBM" report finds that in online games, skills and competency levels of each member of a guild are readily apparent to a potential leader, making delegation a relatively straightforward task. The incentive systems that are used to motivate players are also openly available, which facilitates trust and credibility among players. This breeds confidence in potential leaders, and reduces the guesswork in decision-making, something the report believes real world business should adopt.
Communication Media
The multiple levels of communication within the online gaming world give leaders many options to deal with various situations, including keeping time spent mediating (oftentimes petty) conflicts to a minimum. Instant messaging, online chats, web site forums, and voice over IP (VoIP) are just a few of the different communications media that are utilized over the course of a game, with each medium serving specific purpose. For example, when communicating changes in the incentive system that affects the entire organization, a post to the online forum would be appropriate. When discussing a personality conlict with a player, perhaps a dedicated online chat would be preferred. When conducting a raid, real-time VoIP may be needed. In very complex or involved raids or missions, a leader may in fact use broadcast (VoIP), narrowcast (group IM), and microcast (IM) simultaneously to move the group toward their objective. The more methods of communication a leader has, the more opportunity exists to lead effectively.