Deepti Bhatnagar (born 8th August, 1949) completed her Master's in English Literature in first division from Lucknow University in 1969. She joined IIT Kanpur as an instructor in the Humanities Department. Later she worked as a lecturer in Lucknow University for one year. She moved to Ahmedabad after her marriage and joined the Doctoral Program in Management at IIMA in 1972.
She graduated in 1977 with specialisation in Organizational Behaviour and joined the Organizational Development unit of Calico Mills, Ahmedabad reporting directly to the Chairman. After one year she joined the Apex Staff College of Bank of Baroda as Senior Core Faculty, conducting programs for senior managers of the Bank. In 1984 she joined the faculty of IIMA as Associate Professor in the Organizational Behavior Area and was promoted as a Professor in 1987.
Besides teaching compulsory courses in Organizational Behaviour at IIMA's MBA Program, she designed and taught elective courses at post graduate and doctoral levels on Organisational Development and Applied Behavioral Sciences, Internal Change Agentry, Management Theory and Practice, and Business Ethics.
Her research and teaching interests include emotions at workplace, leadership and influence, power and politics, managing innovations, dual career couples and work-life interface. Her work has been published in reputed international and Indian journals including Human Relations, Human Resource Management Journal, Sex Roles, Journal of World Business, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Asian Journal of Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, and Indian Journal of Industrial Relations.
Some of the large research projects coordinated by her are; India Coordinator for the Management Innovation Programme sponsored by the International Management Development Network, Geneva. The research culminated in the presentation of a paper in the workshop on Innovative Organisations at Durham and the publication of 'Management Innovations in the Developing World' (Geneva, 1995). She completed a research project on Development Entrepreneurs for Commonwealth Secretariat, London. She coordinated a research study on "Organisational Factors and Innovations: A study of innovative organisation in the IT Industry" sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI). The study explored the distinctive human resource management practices, leadership styles and organizational culture dimensions in four innovative and leading IT companies in India. A project undertaken by her for the World bank involved the development of case studies on empowerment in the developing world which have been published on the Bank website. She led a three-member IIMA faculty team which examined the congruence of mission, objectives, structure, design and culture of a leading multi-location national educational institute in India.
Ten candidates completed their doctoral dissertation under her guidance in IIMA. In addition, she served as Member, Thesis Advisory Committee for twelve successful Ph.D. candidates with wide-ranging academic interests such as alienation among knowledge workers, the process of negotiation in sick industrial units, stress and executive health, innovations in banks, human resource management systems in the software industry, occupational withdrawal in shipping, etc.
She has written more than a dozen cases involving different managerial challenges in handling teams and other aspects of people management. She developed case studies on successful Indian women-oriented organisations like the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) Ahmedabad, and Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, Bombay.
She served as a member, editorial board, Women and Technology: Studies in Technological Innovation and Human Resources (Vol. 4), ed. Urs E. Gattiker, New York:Walter de Gruyter; Member, editorial board, End user Training, 1990, New York: Walter de Gruyter; Member, editorial board, Managing Technological Development: Strategic and Human Resources Issues edited by Urs E. Gattiker and Lawrie Larwood, 1988, New York.
Prominent among the numerous executive education programmes coordinated by her are the IIMA-Fuqua School (Duke University) Global Leaders Programme (conducted on IIMA campus and the Duke University campus), IIMA's Top Tier programme for top and senior executives, and programmes on leadership and change management for top executives of public sector banks, the Taj Group of Hotels, distinguished scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, etc. She also coordinated two programs for ISRO which were attended by their top scientists. She has coordinated and taught in executive development programs in Egypt, Kenya, Oman, Qatar and Sri Lanka. She co-ordinated the four and a half month Management Education Programme (MEP).
She was a member of the PGPX Executive Committee which conceived, designed, and started offering the One Year Post-Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (2005-2009). She chaired many committees including the Management Development Programmes Committee, Research and Publication Committee and the Faculty Development Programme. She was also a member of the Faculty Development and Evaluation Committee.
She has taught as Visiting Professor of Management at RH Smith School of Management, University of Maryland at College Park, USA and Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, USA. For four years she co-taught a course in Organisational Behaviour in the International Executive MBA programme at Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou (China) in collaboration with the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota (USA).
Amongst the awards won by her are for the Best Teacher in Human Resource Management (2009) awarded by Dewang Mehta Business School; the Best Research Paper award (2009) at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago (2009) for a paper presented with Sushanta Kumar Mishra on "Linking Emotional Dissonance and Organizational Identification to Turnover Intention and Well Being"; Dr. Hari Singh Gaur award for Excellence in Management; and the IFCI Award for the best doctoral research proposal (1975).
She served as Chairperson, Programmes Committee, Ahmedabad Management Association, (1993-1995). She was an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of State Bank of Saurashtra (1999-2005). She is a Director on the board of RUDI Multi Trading Agency (promoted by SEWA), Ahmedabad since 2008. She is also a member of the VIKSAT Council of Management, Nehru Foundation for Development, Ahmedabad.
(Bio provided by Deepti Bhatnagar in 2019)
Date of Birth: August 08, 1949
