Organizational Neuroethics

Understanding and improving how organizations work and are managed is the object of management research and practice, and this topic is of longstanding interest in the academia and in society at large. More recently, the contribution that the study of the brain could make to, notably, our understanding of decisions, emotional reactions, and behaviors has led to the emergence of the field of “organizational neuroscience”. Within the field of management, organizational neuroscience seeks to explore linkages between neuroscience research, theories, and methods and management research. Its primary goal is to incorporate findings on the cognitive processes underlying the thoughts, behaviors and attitudes of organizational actors in order to better inform management theories, and to assist in understanding, predicting and improving these behaviors in the workplace. As a result, we have seen in the last decade a flurry of research projects and publications in organizational neuroscience, as well as novel or rejuvenated innovations around neuromarketing, neuroleadership, and cognitive enhancement in the work place, to name a few. However, research and practical applications in organizational neuroscience pose profound ethical challenges about, for example, organizational responsibility in the responsible use of scientific innovation. Drawing on recent debates in the field, and in response to upcoming ethical challenges of organization neuroscience, this book introduces “organizational neuroethics” as an emerging interdisciplinary field that addresses the ethics of organizational neuroscience research and applications, as well as the neuroscience of organizational ethics. The first part focuses on the ethics of organizational neuroscience and several chapters tackle the ethics of neuromarketing or neuroleadership and discuss the ethical issues associated with neuroenhancement practice in the workplace. The second part of the book addresses cutting-edge topics in the neuroscience of organizational ethics.

Written by international experts in the fields of management, neuroscience, ethics, and social science, this book will be of prime interest to practitioners, researchers and students in the various fields concerned with improving management research and practices, as well as organizational ethics. 

Dr. Joé T. Martineau is Assistant Professor of business ethics at HEC Montréal. She is also associate member of the Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), associate member of the Institute of Applied Ethics of Laval University (IDÉA), and a regular member of the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology. She is trained in business ethics, neuroethics, management and corporate strategy, and her research interests are broadly focused on the different factors that influence ethical thinking and behavior in private, public and health sector organizations. She currently conducts research related to the phenomenon of empathy in management, on organizational neuroethics, and on organizational ethics in healthcare. She has published over 20 scientific and professional articles and delivered numerous conferences on these issues.

Dr. Eric Racine is Full Research Professor and Director of the Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit at the IRCM (Montreal Clinical Research Institute). He holds other academic appointments at the University of Montreal (Bioethics and Medicine) and McGill University (Neurology and Neurosurgery, Medicine, and Biomedical Ethics). Dr. Racine is a pioneer researcher in pragmatic ethics and neuroethics. and author of over 200 peer reviewed papers, chapters, and columns published in leading bioethics, neuroscience, social science, and medical journals. He has delivered talks and guest lectures to researchers, policy-makers, the general public, and public officials worldwide.