Dr. D. M. Pestonjee served the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad for over two decades (1979-2001) as professor of Organizational Behavior. In November, 2000 he was conferred the title of Honorary Professor of the Albert Schweitzer International University, Geneva (Switzerland). He was Chairman, Organizational Behavior Area for three terms and also L&T Chair Professor of Organizational Behavior (1992-1999). He is a Psychologist by training having obtained his M.A. in Psychology with First Class First, and Ph. D. in Industrial Psychology from the Aligarh Muslim University. He has been conferred the D.Litt. (Honoris Causa) by the Banaras Hindu University in April 2003. He was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Medal for Science and Peace in April 2004.
He has over five decades of teaching experience and has successfully supervised thirty six Ph. D. Candidates. He is author/co-author of fifteen books and over 150 research articles. Among his better known works are: 'Organization Structure and Job Attitudes (1973)', 'Behavioral Processes in Organization (1981)', 'Second Handbook of Psychological and Social Instruments (1988)', 'Third Handbook of Psychological and Social Instruments (1997)', 'Studies in Organizational Roles and Stress and Coping (1997)', 'Studies in Stress and Its Management (1999)' and 'Stress and Work' (2013). His forthcoming book is titled "Organizational Stress around the World: Research and Practice".
Professor Pestonjee has been active as a trainer and consultant in non-business sectors like education and health. He has been Temporary Advisor to International Organizations like WHO, USAID, OXFAM. He was also an Individual Category Elected Member of the International Social Science Council of the UNESCO to represent Management Sciences for three terms, 1980-83; 1983-86; 1986-89. He was also a Member of Executive of the International Sociology Association (1986-90). He served as a Regional Representative of the International Association of Applied Psychology. He has served on several national bodies like the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
He has conducted a large number of management development programs for executives on the theme of 'executive stress and coping'; also helped organizations with 'stress audit' to analyze and understand their role stresses with a view to incorporate relevant development inputs. He has been associated with public and private sector organizations, NGOs, MNCs, and joint sector organizations. His current areas of interest are executive stress, coping and issues related to executive health, job satisfaction and morale.
He was Founder Dean, Faculty of Applied Management, CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Since 2009, he is the GSPL Chair Professor at School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar. He was conferred, in the year 2001, the Life-Time Achievement Award by his alma mater the Department of Psychology, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Recently, the Indian Academy of Management (INDAM) conferred the Life-Time Achievement Award (December 2017) for his contributions to research in the field of Management. He was also conferred the Mazda Foundation Award for Science and Education by the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India. In January 2019, the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat also conferred the Life-Time Achievement Award.
(Bio provided by D M Pestonjee in 2019)
Date of Birth: April 18, 1939
