The contribution of neuroscience to management: neural and behavioral correlate of moral decision-making in a company context

Aims: Moral decision-making in the company is an essential topic, as organizational decisions can have significant personal and social consequences. This study aims to investigate behavioral and neurophysiological correlates underlying moral decision-making in company contexts. Methods: The present study has recorded the electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioral responses of 18 managers during the execution of a decision-making task that has proposed three choice contexts: professional fit proposing a monetary sum division for a work with a colleague; company fit providing a monetary sum for some company benefits and social fit providing a monetary sum for the financial care of a sick relative of a colleague. For each context, three offers were proposed: neutral, who proposed an equal money division between the two parties; fair, which proposed an advantageous subdivision for participants; unfair, which proposed a disadvantageous money subdivision for participants. Results: Results have shown a difference in brain and behavioral responses during moral decision-making. Behavioral data showed an increase of accepted responses for fair and neutral offers in professional and social fit conditions and longer reaction times (RTs) for unfair offers in company fit condition. Concerning EEG, an increase of frontal delta, theta, and beta activity was observed for fair offers in professional fit condition highlighting a positive emotional engagement; while an increase of right frontal activity emerged for unfair offers in company fit condition, showing negative emotional responses. Conclusion: This research provides evidence about cognitive and emotional processes that influence moraldecision making in a company context, highlighting decision-making complexity.