International Journal of Organizational Leadership

Abstract

The world has changed as we entered the new situation full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. To be able to cope with this situation, an organization has to translate the challenges into a clear vision and action. A leadership style that is agile to adapt with the magnitude and the characteristic of the occurring problem is needed. Transformational leadership is a participative leadership style that is not only able to motivate and drive the organization vertically and horizontally but also always be agile in every circumstance. Thus, the organizational capacity to achieve the shared vision and mission will be encouraged. Applied neuroscience gives an understanding about the activities and mechanism of the brain which improves the required competences of a leader. Therefore, applied neuroscience will help a leader transform the organization. This study shows that applied neuroscience can help a transformational leadership achieve a “physically, emotionally, and mentally safe” state and encourage an organization to transform itself effectively.This study does not only explore a new perspective of transformational leadership issues, but it also provides an important contribution related to applied neuroscience, in particular, mapping transmission mechanism of the brain activities affecting body’s reaction, internally (emotions and hormone) and externally (body reaction), which further affect the transformational leadership behaviors.