The UAEU Center for Public Policy and Leadership organized a scientific symposium entitled "Is having different patterns of leadership in the brains of managers make them work differently when making rational decisions", on Monday, April 25^th, 2016. It was held at the College of Information Technology and is part of the University’s mission in the transfer of science and knowledge to serve the community through leadership and excellence in scientific research.

The symposium was presented by Dr. Ahmed Abdel-Maksoud, Associate Professor in the College of Business and Economics, as well as a member of the international research team from the University of Toledo for business and innovation.   In attendance were a number of faculty members from the College.

Dr. Ateeq Jakka AI-Mansoori, Director of the UAEU Center for Public Policy and Leadership, said that this research project is the latest findings of science regarding adopting neuroscience techniques in management research.  Experimental evidence in neuroscience suggests that making rational management decisions is governed by the cognitive capabilities of the decision maker, and that the human brain is capable of stimulating the emotion that helps in decision-making and that emotional reaction can influence decision-making.

Dr. Ahmed Abdel-Maksoud, an associate professor in the international team led by researchers from the United Arab Emirates University, presented a summary of the scientific findings of the research team. The scientific vision and technical analysis for the use of the scientific method was used in order to verify whether the brains of managers and decision makers with different leadership styles and scientific mechanism can understand these transformations through the adoption of neuroscience technology. The application of functional neuroimaging technology to study the rationality in managerial decision-making stresses that this international research is in the process of development to include studying the impact of the emotional reaction on the financial decision-making process.

Abdel- Maksoud also explained that 65 functional neuroimaging experiments have been conducted at the University Hospital of the University of Toledo in the US, in addition to practical tests on senior managers in prestigious institutions and authorities in the US.

It is worth mentioning that the UAEU Center for Public Policy and Leadership is one of the research centers of the Research and Graduate Studies Sector, and it is the first academic center specializing in public policy and leadership, based on national and international experiences.