Since the workforce is now rife with Atari, Nintendo and PlayStation babies, the time is right for applying videogame-like structure and functionality to normally staid business software like CRM and training demos.

Tapping into that gameplay sensibility has its pluses and minuses:

[Management consultant John C.] Beck says children who grow up playing video games typically have to figure the games out for themselves, because adults don’t know how to play.

That’s quite unlike, say, children who play baseball, where the adults tell them what to do. One downside to managing the gaming generation is that it associates “bosses” with level bosses, the obstacle in their way to the next level in a game. (Mr. Beck tells managers to avoid this by becoming a strategy guide to their charges, something any gamer can appreciate.)

Sage advice to new corporate recruits: When you first meet your boss, don’t start beating on him/her as a way to locating some flashing red area that indicates a weak spot. (Beside, they’ll probably reveal their foibles in due time anyway.)