Bohlander and Snell (2006) point out that Human Resource (HR) management is a position requiring many functions of its employees. These functions include hiring, firing, contacting job references, administering employee benefits, boosting staff morale, working with incentives, staffing businesses and corporations, handling work-related crises, and screening potential job candidates.
The authors note that when it comes to screening, the HR Department is looking for the best match to a specific job, a match that will make employees feel comfortable and satisfied with the work. It is also noted that any variables, or factors, that make that function easier and more effective is of real value to an HR Department in any company or organization. One such factor is knowledge of whether the job candidate is left-brain or right-brain dominant as this information provides a great deal of information about the job candidate that can be used to assess whether he or she is a good fit for the job or position (Rock, 2009).
The purpose of this paper is to delineate and discuss the literature on brain dominance and its relation to staffing and selection functions for HR personnel. The review first briefly explains the brain dominance concept and then reviews the literature that is pertinent to its value for HR.
In their discussion of decision-making at work, Leonard and Biberman (2007) point out that there is an overwhelming amount of brain/brain damage research indicating that each side or hemisphere of the human brain has a different function; each side also processes information differently. The left-brain is logical, rational, sequential, verbal, and textural; this part of the brain is good at math and science because it is analytical and can follow rules. It is reality-based and grounded in the concrete. The epitome of the left-brain person is Mr. Spock, the science officer on the Starship Enterprise.
On the other hand, L...