Neuroscience and leadership : awareness, relevance and applications of neuroscience principles within leadership development in Germany
Dürrbeck, Klaus (2016)
Dürrbeck, Klaus
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2016082413788
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2016082413788
Tiivistelmä
This bachelor’s thesis aimed to elaborate the current importance-level of neuroscience within leadership development as well as its future potential. Thereby awareness of leaders and human resource executives, general relevance for organisational success, and current applications of neuroscience principles within development programmes were identified. Additionally, existent and emergent triggers and forces that impede leadership or organisational success were investigated, in order to examine their potential for the valuable application of neuroscience principles.
The research relied on the analysis of secondary data and the generation of primary data through semi-structured expert interviews. Literature, institutional papers, and trend studies were analysed to sharpen the scope of research and inform primary data generation. Subsequently, experts were interviewed to create new insights and answer the research questions.
It was found that human resource executives are well aware about the matter of neuroscience with business applicability, while leaders’ awareness was identified as rather low. However, relevance for corporate success and hence application within leadership development programmes were shown to be low or non-existent. With a perspective towards future applications the VUCA world constitutes the main trigger for adaptive measures of organisations. Here neuroscience principles were shown to bear valuable potential in order to tackle future challenges of leaders and organisations. Therefore, the prospects for increasing application of neuroscience contents within leadership development are promising.
The findings should provide a reference point for organisations which are prepared to incorporate contemporary, scientifically grounded, and promising concepts of neuroscience into their leadership development programmes. Furthermore, they may serve external training and development providers as a review of the status quo for neuroscience contents within development formats, as well as offering a future prediction for suitable fields of application.
The research relied on the analysis of secondary data and the generation of primary data through semi-structured expert interviews. Literature, institutional papers, and trend studies were analysed to sharpen the scope of research and inform primary data generation. Subsequently, experts were interviewed to create new insights and answer the research questions.
It was found that human resource executives are well aware about the matter of neuroscience with business applicability, while leaders’ awareness was identified as rather low. However, relevance for corporate success and hence application within leadership development programmes were shown to be low or non-existent. With a perspective towards future applications the VUCA world constitutes the main trigger for adaptive measures of organisations. Here neuroscience principles were shown to bear valuable potential in order to tackle future challenges of leaders and organisations. Therefore, the prospects for increasing application of neuroscience contents within leadership development are promising.
The findings should provide a reference point for organisations which are prepared to incorporate contemporary, scientifically grounded, and promising concepts of neuroscience into their leadership development programmes. Furthermore, they may serve external training and development providers as a review of the status quo for neuroscience contents within development formats, as well as offering a future prediction for suitable fields of application.