El-Rachidi 1

Ahmad El-Rachidi
Miss Jean Coco
ENG 1001
30 April 2016
Audience: Parents, Teachers, Adults in the workforce.
Preface
What works very well is the large amount of academic research conducted in this field.
Even companies are sponsoring research and the matter of this subject to being taken
optimistically and seriously. The biggest thing that will need work is proper formatting and
finding a way to weave information and assertions so that the paper flows well. Scheduling my
time appropriately will require a lot of effort on my part to ensure I don't do assignments last
minute. It actually wasn't the fact that I had to do it last minute so much as it was other obligation
that flat out prevented me from working on the paper. This is more of a personal problem I have
that I wanted to flesh out and see on paper to see the consequences of my actions. The biggest
roadblock I am facing is looking through all the academic research and material. It is A LOT of
professional work that I have to concentrate and ensure that I interpret accurately and
professionally without accidently plagiarizing. Where I plan to go from here is the delving into
the research of leadership primarily. I've decided that the focus on this essay is will be of
leadership and teamwork with more emphasis on leadership where all other secondary skills will
just be filler for supplementing the notion of teamwork. For example, minor skills such as
organization, micro/macro management may be expressed, but solely with the intent of boosting
the main point centered on leadership. Three areas I need help with. 1. Successfully integrating
citations and works from other articles into my paper without plagiarizing. 2. Writing a good
conclusion. 3. Keeping the writing concise and consistent with a smooth flow throughout the
paper. If I had more time I would weave more factual information into condense and easy to
understand language. What I have learned from writing this inquiry research paper was how to
properly find credible sources. I have also learned how to go into those credible, often academic,
sources and decipher the information.
Positive Effects of Online Gaming
The world of online gaming has a tremendous impact on the lives of many teens and
young adult growing up in this day and age of technology. We have grown accustom to a culture
of social media and other forms of online interaction. The rise of new games called massive

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multiplayer online game have boomed in the last decade and now many teenagers have at one
point or another grown up playing these games. Massive multiplayer online games, or MMOs,
are games that multiple people play online working with each other to accomplish goals set by
the games developer. We have heard the negative consequences that have stigmatized MMO's
such as addiction, procrastination, lack of physical communication, anti-social tendencies, and
the list goes on. This antagonization of online games has led many parents, teachers, and other
adults to distrust said games and see no value or potential of online games on a teen's life.
Research, however, shows another side to online games that is overlooked. I will be presenting
skills attained or effects on an individual that are beneficial and actually prepares teens and
young adults for the real world. Imagine the possibility of an online video game preparing you to
be the next fortune 500 CEO. In essence, I will try to answer the question. "What are positive
effects of online gaming"?
At Georgia State University, Ms. Lakshmi Jagad developed a communication thesis
delving into the relationship "between playing multi-player online games and developing
teamwork qualities." In nearly all aspects of life teamwork is critical and this could not be any
truer than in the business world. Venturing outside the realm of constant education and schooling
is difficult for any person. Regardless of any job that one wants to achieve, every employer will
look for the applicant that exemplifies the trait of teamwork. Lakshmi's researched found that the
more involvement in online gaming one had the greater the correlation was between team
communication skills and democratic leadership skills. What I found to be critical in the in
research is that democratic leadership skills were higher than autocratic. In the work place, many
companies and organizations often divide into teams or groups in order to accomplish a set of
goals. Democratic cohesion among a group is essential to the successful of the overall team.

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Such cohesion ensures that all input and opinions are accounted for and that actions taken as a
group are done with consent and confidence from a majority of the group. That sense of
democratic leadership amongst groups within companies can only be accomplished through team
communication. To relate back to online gaming, in order to accomplish goals within the game
players must form groups with one person leading. Communication through voice
communication or text chat ensures that all members stay informed throughout raids or group
quests and that they are able to effectively rely on each other. Translating this method in the
world is relatively similar and can be mimicked. Groups projects within companies require all
members of a group or team to stay informed and that any member of the group can rely on one
another for input or aid to ensure the best possible outcome. The single biggest factor that had
been proven from Ms. Jagad's research is that the degree of involvement in one's community had
a direct impact on an individual's democratic leadership and teamwork communication skills.
What this shows is that teens and young adults that find comfort in online games can excel in
involvement in said games first, and then translate the experience of being involved in a steady
community involvement into the real world. To coincide with Ms. Jagads research, a thesis
conducted by Julia Fredrickson of Loyola University Chicago delves into the benefit of Team
Building from Online Computer Games. In terms of teamwork its crucial to build a team that
can cohesively work together. Fredricksons research stated that Team building promote[s] an
increased sense of unity and cohesiveness and enable[s] the team to function together more
smoothly and effectively (Sencal, Loughhead, & Bloom, 2008). (Fredrickson, 2011).
Regardless of the line of work or job obtained by an individual, team cohesion is essential. The
process of team building offered in online videos games encourages working together to
accomplish goals in an environment, such as a game, where people are motivated to work

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together. To further add onto the importance of team building Team building interventions are
used to build competent, collaborative, and creative work teams. (Fredrickson, 2011). This
notion of Team building is inherently found within online video games were the entire game is
built from players joining together and working together. Competence, collaboration, and
creativity are all traits that are sought after within an employee. Fredricksons thesis notes on the
four models of team building: goal setting, interpersonal relations, problem solving, and role
clarification (Fredrickson, 2011). Its stated that goal setting involves the setting of objectives
and the development of individual and team goals. In the work place environment, leaders must
be able to efficiently analyze what the goal of the team they lead is and their personal goal to
achieve from their position as leader. Problem solving allows an individual to identify problems,
weakness, or faults within the team and fix those faults. Interpersonal relations increases a teams
actual working skill, provides support to one another, communication, and above all trust. Role
clarification not only identifies what each individuals role is in a team, but focuses on the
communication needed to allow every individual to be aware of their role. All of these personal
set of skills lead to the overarching theme of teamwork. The most essential skill, regardless what
any person does in life will be teamwork.
Harvard Business Review proposes the interesting notion that online video games prepare
people for the real business world. The article quickly points out the similarities of working in
collaboration with a community, having to take risks, accomplishing goals as a team. All those
notions are exactly what is expected from business leaders around the world. The article states
clearly
The organizational and strategic challenges facing players who serve as game leaders
are familiar ones: recruiting, assessing, motivating, rewarding, and retaining talented and

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culturally diverse team members; identifying and capitalizing on the organizations
competitive advantage; analyzing multiple streams of constantly changing and often
incomplete data in order to make quick decisions that have wide-ranging and sometimes
long-lasting effects.
All of these aspects help prepare an individual to manage a team in any business they may find
themselves employed within. In fact, the challenges a player may find in an online game
prepares an individual more than any internship could hope to accomplish. Internships set
individuals with minimal amount of work and responsibility, they serve no other purpose than
networking and resume building which defeats the whole purpose of gaining experience. What is
necessary to actually succeed within a business is more than just meeting the people at the top.
One needs to also be equipped with the skills to be a competent and excellent business leader. A
main drawback however, is that challenges within online games dont need to evaluated or
sought after, because the games developers have already set the challenges up for players.
Within businesses, often leaders will have to identify problems or failures within the company
they work for before being able to deal with it. Further analysis has found that the formation of
leaders is still possible within these online games. As noted by the article A game hour is unlike
60 minutes at your desk or in a meeting. Actions that might take weeks or months to unfold in
real life are often compressed into hours or even minutes online. The article points out that
speedy leadership can lead to fast paced decisions that may not have a team consensus or may be
acted on with incomplete data. However, that is due to the nature of the game not the players.
Games often set time limits in which leaders or other players are forced to make quick decisions
on the go. The benefit of this fast paced decision making is that leaders often adapt to the
situation they are handed as more data comes in. This is an essential trait to have honed when

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working in a company where risk and unintended consequences will occur. The ability of a
leader to assess a situation and adapt to is beneficial. Online video games encourage risk taking.
Whereas in the real world this may lead to the end of ones career if ending in failure is
encouraged in online games. Regardless of the business one is employed in, risks will always be
a necessity. Online videos games offer an environment where one can actually train in the art of
risk taking, coping with failure, recovering, and adapting. Online videos games offer any
individual a somewhat consequence free environment that cannot be attained anywhere else. The
article points out Leadership within online videogames are temporary and further expresses the
pros and cons of such the nature of that. Temporary leadership or the swapping the roles prevents
burnouts within teams, guilds, or communities. This enables leaders to be excellent followers,
because they understand the goals of what the current leader is trying to accomplish and will
work to aid in that goal. A surprisingly negative consequence may be that the mantle of
leadership is thrown onto an individual without actually wanting it. However, in most cases they
have ended up adapting to the role. As it stands now the concept of a temporary leader is foreign
to the business world introducing can inspire workers to volunteer to take up the mantle of
leadership. Within online games transparency is extremely positive and healthy. Information of
statistics or reports on operations are not only known to the leaders of a guild, but all players.
This positive transparent environment enables trust, communication, and efficiency throughout
the whole group. Imposing this type of expectation on an individual can translate to having this
kind of transparency exist in the business world. In just one survey conducted stated
IBM surveyed 135 of its employees who had led business teams and had also been a
leader or member of a guild in a multiplayer online game. For the most part, they found
games to be surprisingly relevant to their day-to-day work. Three-quarters of the

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respondents said that environmental factors within multiplayer games could be applied to
enhance leadership effectiveness in a global enterprise.
SAGE Journal published Academic research conducted by a graduate of Claremont Graduate
University, School of Behavioral and Organizational Science, Timothy C. Lisk along with
coauthors from similar Universities. Their research looked in a test conducted by Kravis
Leadership Institute and found that those in leadership positions within the game of EVE Online
reported high scores for leadership. This was not the only case study they looked into. A similar
case study done by the same Institution looked at INFINTIEAM which is a program designated
to improve an individual leadership skills. What was found between these two cases studies was
that in MMOs more players benefited and did well in leadership roles and scores. The impact of
playing an MMO improved their leadership over artificial leadership games such as
INFINTIEAMS. What MMOs had offered were real challenges by other human players and an
unpredictable world that a player had to adapt to and lead within, whereas that same real play
aspect was non-existent in INFINTIEAMS.
The potential for online games to improve an individual exists. The stigma of
unproductivity within online video games only affects those who allow it. Online video games
offer people around the world an opportunity to grow as a leader in a safe area, where risks are
encouraged. Communication and teamwork are essentially pushed on a gamer that plays in
online video games where working alone is not an option. When online games promote
communication, transparency, and plethora of other positive effects it will grow onto those that
indulge in it. As online videos games become more popular and more adults who have played
these games enter the workforce, it may become a recognized achievement within future leaders
that would not be dismissed as simply a game. Whats perhaps the most positive effect is the

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confidence that video game leadership has put within a person. For myself, knowing what the
stress, expectations, and skills needed to lead a group are, I have appreciated and been able to
impress leaders in my school and internships to be trusted with responsibilities that I would not
have without that confidence within me. Above all else, its important that more people
understand that online video games offer an untapped potential that may promote a stronger and
healthier business world that has never been experienced before and that a simple online gamer
may have the skills needed to become a fortune 500 CEO in the future.

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Works Cited
DeMarco, Michael, Eric Lesser, and Tony ODriscoll. "Leadership in a Distributed World."
Leadership in a Distributed World (n.d.): n. pag.Https://www-935.ibm.com. IBM
Corporation. Web. 4 Apr. 2016. <https://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/g5106611-00-leadership.pdf>.
Fredrickson, Julia Elizabeth, "Prosocial Behavior and Teamwork in Online Computer Games"
(2011). Master's Theses. Paper 542. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/542
Jagad, Lakshmi, Ms. "Online Gaming and Teamwork."Http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/. Department
of Communication at ScholarWorks, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
<http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1079&context=communication_theses>.
Lisk, Timothy C., Ugur T. Kaplancali, and Ronald E. Riggio. "Leadership in Multiplayer Online
Gaming Environments." Sign In. SAGE Publications, 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
<http://sag.sagepub.com/content/43/1/133.full.pdf+html>.
Reeves, Byron, Thomas W. Malone, and Tony ODriscoll. "Leadership's Online Labs." Harvard
Business Review. Harvard Business Review, 01 May 2008. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
<https://hbr.org/2008/05/leaderships-online-labs>.
Wolfenstein, Moses. "Leadership at Play: How Leadership in Digital Games Can Inform the
Future of Instructional Leadership." Http://eric.ed.gov/. University of Wisconsin, 26 July
2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2016. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/861241864>.