The Harvard Business Review named communication professor Douglas Thomas' article about online gamers' positive work traits one of 2008's Breakthrough Ideas and also featured it on its Conversation Starter blog.
The article, “The Gamer Disposition,” says each generation of games begets a new generation of participants who develop what Thomas and co-author John Seely Brown call the gamer disposition.
"It’s exactly the disposition you should want in your workforce."
The article says gamers are bottom-line oriented, understand the power of adversity, thrive on change, see learning as fun, and marinate on the "edge."
"Together, these five attributes make for employees who are flexible, resourceful, improvisational, eager for a quest, believers in meritocracy, and foes of bureaucracy," it said. "If your organization is receptive to these traits (and it should be), look for gamers and the disposition they will bring you."
