Organizational Neuroscience: Taking Organizational Theory Inside the Neural Black Box

Abstract

This article introduces the reader to organizational neuroscience, an emerging area of scholarly dialogue that explores the implications of brain science for workplace behavior. The authors begin by discussing how going inside the brain adds new levels of analysis that can advance and connect theories of organizational behavior. They then present three concrete examples of what an organizational neuroscience perspective can achieve by extending current theory, providing new research directions, and resolving ongoing theoretical debates. Last, the authors address a number of deeper metatheoretical questions raised by neuroscience, concluding that it brings new insights that will force scholars to rethink their concept of human nature.