Hazhir Rahmandad is the Schussel Family Professor of Management Science and a Professor of System Dynamics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Hazhir's research shows how complex organizational dynamics can lead to heterogeneity in organizational practices and outcomes. He has analyzed how organizations learn in the presence of delays between taking action and observing the results, and has shown through empirical data and simulations the resulting learning challenges. Hazhir's strategy research has explored the shape of organizational performance landscapes, pathways to align firm and worker outcomes in low-cost services, capability development tradeoffs under competition, and erosion of organizational capabilities through adaptation traps. In another stream of work he studies public health and policy problems, including dynaics of cities, COVID-19, and obesity and depression dynamics among others. Hazhir also contributes to expanding the dynamic modeling toolbox through advancing parameter estimation and validation methods for dynamic models.
Hazhir has published in diverse journals including Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategy Science, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Obesity, Lancet Planetary Health, and System Dynamics Review, among others. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and private sector firms.
Hazhir holds a BS in industrial engineering from Sharif University of Technology and a PhD in management with system dynamics concentration from MIT. Before joining MIT Sloan in 2015, Hazhir was an Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.
