Afsaneh Nahavandi

Dr. Afsaneh Nahavandi received a B.A. degree in 1978 in Psychology and French from the University of Denver.  She then attended University of Utah where she completed her Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 1983.  She taught at Northeastern University in Boston from 1983 to 1987.  She joined Arizona State University West as one of the founding business faculty in 1987.   She was the Director of the MBA program at the Arizona State University West School of Management from 1993 to 1996 and president of the ASU West Faculty Senate in 2001-02.  She was the recipient of the ASU Faculty Women's Association 1997 Gender Equity Award, and the ASU West Student Services 2002 Gold Star Award.  She is currently the Interim Faculty Director of Collaborative Programs at ASU West.

Nahavandi’s teaching interests include leadership, organizational behavior, organization theory, and cultural diversity.  She is the recipient of the ASU West Achievement in Teaching Award for 1992-1993 and 2000-01, and one of ASU's 2001 Professors of the Year.  Her research focuses on leadership, teams, and organizational culture.  She is the author of “Organizational culture in the management of mergers” was published in 1993; and “Organizational Behavior: The Person-Organization Fit,” published by Prentice Hall in 2000.   Her textbook “The art and science of leadership” also published by Prentice Hall, is now in its third edition and one of the best selling leadership textbooks in the United States.   In addition Dr. Nahavandi has published  numerous articles in journals such as the Academy of Management Review,  Group and Organization Studies, and the Journal of Management Studies.  Her article “Restructuring teams for the re-engineered organizations,” published in the Academy of Management Executive, was selected as the journal’s best articles of 1994. 

Nahavandi has provided consulting and training in the areas of leadership, teams, and culture for a number of organizations including AT & T, Honeywell, Phelps Dodge, and Valley National Bank.