Neuromanagement and leadership: an EEG hyperscanning study

Organizational research has increasingly matched its concerns with an innovative neuroscientific hyperscanning approach and the present research studies leadership topic, with a focus on the effects of leadership style on emotional and empathic processes inside a leader-employee dyad. 11 leader-employee dyads took part to the experiment and were involved in a roleplayed interview about employee’s performance evaluation. During the interview, the leader had to use a partecipative style of leadership or a more directive one, depending on the condition to which they were assigned. Cortical activity was measured (electroencephalography, EEG) during the whole videorecorded interview. Results showed an increasing of Delta and Theta EEG bands power and coherence measure in DLPFC areas for the partecipative style dyads, suggesting a greater engagement in the interview for the partecipative dyad components compared to the directive one, with a particular emotional connotation of the interaction. These dyads better focused their attention on the interaction, based on the increased Beta power on the DLPFC. This study shows encouraging highlights about interpersonal processes for the promotion of health at work.