My research interests lie at the intersection of issues relating to organizational behavior and theory, human resource management, and public administration reform. These interests are guided by an interest in external environment of public organizations, public employee attitudes and motivation, and how they influence each other.
Thus my research has examined how internal and external organizational images influence public employee motivation and engagement, how large-scale management reforms—such as employee engagement—have taken root in government, and how such reforms influence governmental performance. Part of this work has been published in Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration, and Public Management Review. Apart from research on the external organizational environment that includes examining organizational reputation and citizen assessments of performance, I'm also broadly interested in public employee attitudes and workplace issues, such as leadership, public service motivation, and sexual harassment.
My journey to the University of Kentucky Martin School is a varied one. I grew up the youngest of six, the son of Indian immigrants/expatriates living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At the age of fourteen I moved to my native of Hyderabad, India to attend high school. Moving from a monarchy to the world’s largest democracy was a shock to the way I saw the world. There were colors, sights, and sounds I had never seen or heard before, and a dozen English language dailies that engaged the issues of the day. Impassioned by the dominant narrative surrounding India’s economic growth story in the early 90’s to the mid-2000’s, and the seminal role played by then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh (an economist by training), I decided to follow in his footsteps and pursued undergraduate degrees in Economics and Statistics (both at the University of Missouri).
However, a few years in, I realized that general equilibrium models, Lagrange multipliers, and convexity assumptions, as useful as they are for public policy, were not my true calling. In fact, I had much more intellectual stimulation while discussing Virgil, Homer, and Aristophanes, which I did in the process of obtaining a Classical Humanities minor. Luckily, I had also spent many years engaged in community organizing and student leadership, and found an interest in bringing people together for the common good or to solve community issues. Thus grew a dual interest in public policy on one hand, and management on the other.
These dual interests led me to obtain a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the University of Georgia (UGA). While initially interested in becoming a practitioner in the non-governmental organization (NGO) sphere, being immersed in intellectual exchanges at UGA’s Public Administration and Policy Department led me to my current interests in public management research, and my eventual doctoral studies.
I earned my PhD. in Public Affairs from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, with majors in Public Management, and Public Policy Analysis, and a doctoral minor in Organizational Behavior/Human Resource Management from the Kelley School of Business (also at Indiana University). While at Indiana University, I taught (as lead instructor) a core undergraduate organizational behavior and management course for three years, with enrollments ranging from 25-60 students.
When I'm not writing, analyzing data, or teaching, I can be found swimming, running, cooking, or listening to community radio. In fact, I co-hosted my own radio show (“Don’t Curry About It”) while at Indiana University, where my co-host and I delved into South Asian music, film, culture, food, and other issues of diaspora.
I hope that intellectual stimulation and exchange at the Martin School will enable me to become a better scholar, teacher, and colleague in academe. After spending 3 years in Singapore, and having expanded my research and interests to more Asia-specific public management research, I'm looking forward to re-connecting with my U.S.-based professional network.
Other fun facts:
Thus my research has examined how internal and external organizational images influence public employee motivation and engagement, how large-scale management reforms—such as employee engagement—have taken root in government, and how such reforms influence governmental performance. Part of this work has been published in Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration, and Public Management Review. Apart from research on the external organizational environment that includes examining organizational reputation and citizen assessments of performance, I'm also broadly interested in public employee attitudes and workplace issues, such as leadership, public service motivation, and sexual harassment.
My journey to the University of Kentucky Martin School is a varied one. I grew up the youngest of six, the son of Indian immigrants/expatriates living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At the age of fourteen I moved to my native of Hyderabad, India to attend high school. Moving from a monarchy to the world’s largest democracy was a shock to the way I saw the world. There were colors, sights, and sounds I had never seen or heard before, and a dozen English language dailies that engaged the issues of the day. Impassioned by the dominant narrative surrounding India’s economic growth story in the early 90’s to the mid-2000’s, and the seminal role played by then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh (an economist by training), I decided to follow in his footsteps and pursued undergraduate degrees in Economics and Statistics (both at the University of Missouri).
However, a few years in, I realized that general equilibrium models, Lagrange multipliers, and convexity assumptions, as useful as they are for public policy, were not my true calling. In fact, I had much more intellectual stimulation while discussing Virgil, Homer, and Aristophanes, which I did in the process of obtaining a Classical Humanities minor. Luckily, I had also spent many years engaged in community organizing and student leadership, and found an interest in bringing people together for the common good or to solve community issues. Thus grew a dual interest in public policy on one hand, and management on the other.
These dual interests led me to obtain a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the University of Georgia (UGA). While initially interested in becoming a practitioner in the non-governmental organization (NGO) sphere, being immersed in intellectual exchanges at UGA’s Public Administration and Policy Department led me to my current interests in public management research, and my eventual doctoral studies.
I earned my PhD. in Public Affairs from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, with majors in Public Management, and Public Policy Analysis, and a doctoral minor in Organizational Behavior/Human Resource Management from the Kelley School of Business (also at Indiana University). While at Indiana University, I taught (as lead instructor) a core undergraduate organizational behavior and management course for three years, with enrollments ranging from 25-60 students.
When I'm not writing, analyzing data, or teaching, I can be found swimming, running, cooking, or listening to community radio. In fact, I co-hosted my own radio show (“Don’t Curry About It”) while at Indiana University, where my co-host and I delved into South Asian music, film, culture, food, and other issues of diaspora.
I hope that intellectual stimulation and exchange at the Martin School will enable me to become a better scholar, teacher, and colleague in academe. After spending 3 years in Singapore, and having expanded my research and interests to more Asia-specific public management research, I'm looking forward to re-connecting with my U.S.-based professional network.
Other fun facts:
- I speak English, Urdu, Hindi, bits of French and Arabic, and smaller bits of Telugu. My mission is to learn either Mandarin or Tamil, two of the four official languages of Singapore.
- I am—to the best of my knowledge—seemingly the only Indian (from 1.3 Billion) to not watch or enjoy cricket.
- In the spring of 2019, my wife and I adopted an adorable kitten named Obi-Wan Kanobi.
- In the fall of 2022, we adopted a 1 year old Aussie named Zephyr. He's a good boy.