Will brain scans replace psychometric tests?
Neuroscientists, psychologists and management experts at Reading University are joining forces to develop new ways of find out what makes a great leader.
For many years, psychometric testing has been used as an effective tool to measure leadership ability but now the scientists are using MRI scanning equipment to carry out brain scans on some of the country's top business leaders.
One of the first to undergo the tests was entrepreneur Sir John Madejski who is enthusiastic about the project and has promised to encourage fellow tycoons to submit their brains for scanning.
Dr Kevin Money of Henley Business School, now part of Reading University, explained that he hoped to look at how leaders from different sectors make decisions, what actually leads people to move from making good to bad decisions, and what goes on in people's minds when they make those choices.
Over the coming months they intend to look at the brains of military leaders and the heads of voluntary organisations, as well top businessmen and women.
But using technology to examine what makes a good leader is nothing new and for many decades organisations around the world have used psychometric testing to help choose candidates for senior positions.
According to a recent report by the BBC, recruitment experts are not convinced that technology such as brain scans will ever replace psychometric testing in candidate selection.
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