What makes a good leader? Which attributes guarantee a chief executive’s ability to be sensitive, compassionate and still lead through tough or stressful times? And if these skills could be honed in the minds of MBA students, corporate managers or military officers, is this something that should be pursued? Such questions have long been pondered by Pierre Balthazard, an associate professor at the Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Now, after a decade of work, not only has his research taken off but he has found a captive audience.

Scans of students put ethics into EMBA

At the Goizueta school at Emory University, in Atlanta, Roderick Gilkey has also been probing the use of brain scans for business leaders, specifically looking at issues of ethical behaviour, writes Della Bradshaw.

Prof Gilkey, a psychiatrist who holds a joint appointment with Goizueta and Emory’s medical school, began work in 2001. Since then he has been scanning the brains of many of Goizueta’s Executive MBA students. The information has been used to help develop pedagogical frameworks for teaching students about ethical behaviour in the workplace.

Prof Gilkey has also been looking at rule-orientated reasoning and empathy. He says that when tough decisions have to be made – firing someone, for example – the caring part of the brain can be deactivated and rule-orientated reasoning skills become predominant.