With the line between “work cell” and “personal cell” being more blurred than ever what can small businesses do about all the different devices that are sprouting up throughout the firm? Well, it can be a “every man for himself” mentality or the powers-that-be can put someone in charge of them all. The latter seems to make more sense.

That’s the advice the research company Forrester offers in a new report out today. Forrester says the new device-manager position is necessary because of the insurgence of laptops, and because of an increasing reliance by workers on smartphones and PDAs (of course the Blackberry, the iPhone and the Treo being the preferred devices). These new managers shouldn’t just babysit the devices and the hardware and software necessary to support them, but rather set policies so that businesses can make sure they’re helping workers get the most out of their devices.

Devices that workers keep on them blur the line between the professional and personal. A recent survey by Visage, which makes technology that helps businesses manage mobile equipment, found that 80% of workers with an employer-issued mobile device use it for personal purposes and 89% of people use their personal devices for work purposes. (which means no one is using their phone for the reason they thought they were purchasing it for, methinks)

Corporate policies haven’t kept up with such  boundaries: Most employers who issue devices pick up the tab despite the usage and there are few rules and regs in place about accessing corporate systems though their own devices. (”Forrester surveyed over 500 tech leaders and found a fairly even split between businesses that support employee-owned devices, business that put employees in charge, businesses that provide partial support, and businesses that don’t have a policy”, adds Ben Worthen of WSJ.)

Forrester recommends that businesses resist the urge to gain control by issuing just one kind of device or limiting what information employees can access. Instead, businesses should invest in technology and develop policies that make it easier to manage different types of devices.

Please Note: Much of this article including some paraphrases are credited to Ben Worthen of the WSJ Business Technology blog