Neuromanagement

Business schools throughout history quickly evolved from an archaic empirical administration, based on preconceived ideas and learning by trial and error, for a scientific management, which needs to be based on the scientific method, seeking to enhance organizational behavior, shifting the focus from education traditionally considered for a student-centered pedagogy and critical reflection of actual cases. The study of law school cases from Harvard University (USA) and problem-based learning in medical school at McMaster University (Canada) boldly broke with the classical teaching and learning models, becoming icons of a successful education and cutting edge.

In the information age, speed does not always equate to the capacity for critical analysis and effective management of unstructured problems or taking decisions. In the past, the student was assessed mainly by the accumulation and learning watertight and independent content, this systemic view demand, transdisciplinary and multi-skilled, reminding us of reference as Leonardo Da Vinci or Steve Jobs.

When in the years between 1990-1999 was declared the "Decade of the Brain" by the US government, investment and the promotion of research on brain gave an important impetus to the development of neuroscience. The results were applied to the fields of medicine, pharmacology, bioethics and humanities. We come to find ramifications of these findings, which included the brain in their fields of study, such as neuromanagement called.

Despite the considerable growth studies on the brain and behavior in Brazilian business schools, the brain is still an illustrious stranger. The main textbook of organizational behavior and psychology applied to administration, has not tried to include the brain as a source of study of future managers. Decision making, motivation, emotion, perception, personality, interpersonal communication, teamwork are still studied without basis in the brain. For example, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still for many students the best theory for the understanding of human motivation or even ignoring the Nobel discoveries of Economics, Daniel Kahneman, which call into question the supremacy of rational thinking in decision processes decisions.

The Neuromanagement apply cognitive neuroscience to organizational behavior, rather than emphasizing a traditional education based on storing information in long-term memory. Will focus increasingly on a student centered learning, able to develop the "executive functions" such as cognitive flexibility, critical thinking and planning.

The current challenge is to make the brain's executive the protagonist of their own development. Teachers increasingly exercise the role of "coach" and the classes will be based on effective problem solving. Administer brains will become the search for balance between reason and emotion.

Written by: Prof. Armando Ribeiro das Neves Neto

Professor of Psychology Applied to Management of the Institute of Education and Research Insper

Source: Harvard Business Review Brazil

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