Business school professors at Arizona State University (ASU) and Emory University are working with neuroscientists to use electroencephalograph (EEG) machines and fMRIs to study the brain waves or images of executives.
At Emory, researchers asked 16 executives to respond to PowerPoint slides about moral quandaries, such as acting on privileged information, while inside an MRI machine. They found that managers weighing ethical dilemmas use the part of their brain associated with early memories, which could mean moral thinking is formed early in life.
In what they have dubbed "The Leadership Neuroscience Project," Pierre A. Balthazard and David A. Waldman, both at ASU's School of Global Management & Leadership, have used EEGs to monitor the brains of 44 business leaders while they discussed scenarios such as layoffs. Working with neuroscientists, they hope to eventually find patterns in effective leaders' EEGs and use the readings to supplement training.
"It's full of possibilities," says University of Southern California leadership sage Warren Bennis, who has long been interested in neuroscience's lessons for leaders. "What worries me is people being taken in by the language of it and ending up with stuff we've known all along."
People linking the two fields believe the "hard" science of the brain will someday offer fresh insights for the "soft" art of leadership.
Source: BusinessWeek, July 23, 2007