Bahareh Javadizadeh

When the pandemic hit last spring, Bahareh Javadizadeh made a smooth transition to teaching online courses in the Scott College of Business, thanks to her previous experience teaching online courses as a PhD student.

An assistant professor of management specializing in human resource management and organizational behavior, Javadizadeh, who officially joined Indiana State University’s faculty in August 2019, was still able to conduct her classes with the high level of engagement her students always expect in her classes.

“I facilitate my classes instead of teaching them in a traditional way,” she said. “I love facilitating conversations with my students and get them out of their shell, which is not always an easy task. My goal is to help them think on their own, instead of just memorizing textbook materials. I believe that this method allows them to develop their own informed opinion on the things we discuss in the class.”

Business wasn’t always where Javadizadeh thought she would end up. She earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in her native Iran in 2010, before deciding to pursue a Master of Business Administration from Payame Noor University in 2014. While earning her doctorate in Business, Management, Javadizadeh was recognized by the New Mexico State University, College of Business’ department of management for outstanding teaching during 2017-2018.

Before starting her Ph.D. at NMSU, she discovered her research interest in creating a better workplace environment for all employees while working at a company in Iran specializing in importation of truck parts.

“During my MBA, I did field studies that included interviews with employees from different organizations. One of these field studies was conducted in a company that produced mushrooms. I interviewed the management team and the employees separately, to get a sense of the organization’s culture and their problems,” she said. “That’s when I started to realize how different employee’s perceptions were compared to the management’s perceptions. The managers believed that they have the best culture in the organization and that all employees are happy, while employees were in fact very dissatisfied and were thinking about leaving the company as soon as they get a chance.”

Javadizadeh’s past work experience has helped her tremendously with teaching courses like human resource management, human capital management, organizational behavior and teamwork.

“The organizational behavior course that I teach is essential for all students in business, no matter what their minor or focus on business is,” she said. “It is one of the foundational studies on how to make meaningful contributions to organizations through their attitudes, personality, and emotion. This course helps students to learn how to create a healthy relationship with people in the organization, be a good team player who is able to work with people with different attitudes and emotions.”

Her human resource management course is more specific to the human resource field, touching on how to create a healthy and efficient workplace through HR functions such as training, performance management and compensation.

A true understanding of the function of human resources, Javadizadeh hopes, will lead her students to finding a job that is a good fit for them and meets their career goals and the mission of the organizations they work for.

“Talent is scarce and the organizations that can capture the most talented employees will be the most successful,” she said. “So, students in my human resource management class not only learn the basics of HR manager responsibilities, but also dive into case studies and newsletters to see what’s really happening in the real world.”