Organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN) is the cognitive neuroscientific study of organizational behavior. OCN lets us start to understand the relationship between our organizational behavior and our brains and allows us to dissect specific social processes at the neurobiological level and apply a wider range of analysis to specific organizational research questions. The current paper examines the utility of OCN to address specific organizational research questions. A brief history and definition of the approach is first provided. Next, a discussion of the rationale for OCN as a research framework is provided, and then, finally, an overview of the range of techniques that the organizational researcher should (or should not) use is described.

In this paper, we respond to the recent paper in the Journal of Management by Becker, Cropanzano, and Sanfey (2011) entitled Organizational Neuroscience: Taking Organizational Theory Inside the Neural Black Box. More specifically, we build on the ideas of Becker et al. (2011), to first clarify and extend their work, and then to explore the critical

There is growing interest in exploring the potential links between human biology and management and organization studies, which is bringing greater attention to bear on the place of mental processes in explaining human behaviour and effectiveness. The authors define this new field as organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), which is in the exploratory phase of its emergence and diffusion. It is clear that there are methodological debates and issues associated with OCN research, and the aim of this paper is to illuminate these concerns, and provide a roadmap for rigorous and relevant future work in the area. To this end, the current reach of OCN is investigated by the systematic review methodology, revealing three clusters of activity, covering the fields of economics, marketing and organizational behaviour. Among these clusters, organizational behaviour seems to be an outlier, owing to its far greater variety of empirical work, which the authors argue is largely a result of the plurality of research methods that have taken root within this field. Nevertheless, all three clusters contribute to a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms that mediate choice and decision-making. The paper concludes that OCN research has already provided important insights regarding the boundaries surrounding human freedom to act in various domains and, in turn, self-determination to influence the workplace. However, there is much to be done, and emerging research of significant interest is highlighted.

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The emerging field of neuromarketing reveals that knowledge has plasticity. In other words, different stakeholders, marketing researchers and practitioners, perceive the development and application of neuromarketing knowledge in different ways. Having different perceptions of knowledge is not a new issue, but finding new interconnections between those perceptions is beneficial to knowledge creation and diffusion. The research-practice gap in neuromarketing is briefly discussed and then resolved through the contribution of this commentary, the proposal of a novel Neuromarketing Research Model. The Model interconnects basic research reporting, applied research reporting, media reporting and power processes.