IBM: Online Games Help Hone Management Skills

If the findings that IBM is promising to release today are correct, then all the time you've spent bossing internet people around may not have been totally squandered. According to a post on Guardian Unlimited's Games Blog:

...new IBM research which looked at technology, business and societal trends and issues, online videogames help people become better corporate leaders by fostering skills related to collaboration, self-organisation, risk-taking, openness, influence, and communications... Nearly half of gamers polled believe that game-playing has improved their real-world leadership capabilities.

As story points out, though, IBM has a vested interest in the propagation of feel good vibes around online gaming: the manufacturer supplies the chips for every major console.

So there you have it: MMORPGs can you make you a better manager. As if we needed further proof that the internets are, in fact, serious business.

IBM gets game [Guardian Unlimited]