Marketable Job Skills Learned in Online Gaming Activities A Human Resource Perspective

In a previous paper titled, ‘The Hybrid Traditional / Virtual Workforce: Spatial Dimensions and Tacit Knowledge Sharing’, relatively newer organizations, the Open Source Software Community and social online games, were researched.  Primarily, in the virtual world of Open Source Software Community and in online games, the users manage to circumvent spatial dimensions to identify and share an overwhelming amount of complex, tacit knowledge.  That is, the individual, regardless of their physical location, has learned how to take advantage of multiple resources to acquire knowledge.  Those skills, particularly the ability to adapt in a changing venue, are important in today’s organizations.  For this paper, the research is on identifying marketable job skills that might be acquired through the experiences in online gaming.  The issue is whether the gamers’ skills are being overlooked in human resource job descriptions and hiring practices.  The research questions are: Which skills, if any, gained from online activities; i.e. gaming, are applicable to jobs in the business sector?  Which skills, if any, gained from online activities; i.e. gaming, are included or should be included in existing human resource job descriptions? 

Keywords: online games; economics game theory; marketable job skills; human resource policies; job descriptions

Related Research Topics: The Virtual Workforce: Adapting Human Resource Policies

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