Shabnam Ozlati, MA
Shabnam Ozlati,
MA is Doctoral Candidate in Organizational Behavior, Claremont Graduate
University.
A few months before successfully completing her medical degree in
Tehran, Shabnam immigrated to the U.S. and began studying at Cal State
Northridge in Southern California. At Northridge, she was recognized as
a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar for work in her Master’s
program in Human Factors. The Casanova Scholarship brought Shabnam to
the Institute of Organizational and Program Evaluation Research at
Claremont Graduate University, where she quickly became a vital member
of the research team. By the time her first semester as a doctoral
student was underway, she was involved in the First Five L.A. evaluation
projects being conducted by Drs. Donaldson, Christie, and Azzam to
improve the quality of life for young children in the Los Angeles
area.
Shabnam’s own research interests involve the transdisciplinary field of
knowledge management, an area that combines disciplines such as
organizational sciences, information science, cognitive science,
education and training, management, and business. She is interested in
developing and evaluating knowledge management initiatives. Knowledge
management (or “KM”), she explains, can be defined as
“collaborative and
integrated processes or systems for creating, capturing, organizing and
sharing organizations’ intellectual assets”. Knowledge flows
through
multiple entities including individuals, best known methods or lessons
learned, documents, routines, systems, and methods. “More and more
organizations are realizing that knowledge embedded in their
establishment is a huge asset. Knowledge assets produce benefits such as
competitive advantages but the dynamic nature of outcomes makes it
difficult to measure the success of KM initiatives.”
Shabnam is doing her research with Dr. Donaldson in an evaluation of
knowledge management initiatives. “The knowledge management field
is
fairly new, only about 10 years old, and has been dominated by
information systems people who can now facilitate the process through
better technology. I am interested in the human and organizational
aspects of this, especially what defines a successful knowledge
management practice.” Different stakeholders expect different
outcomes
for a successful knowledge management initiative, like financial
returns, increasing creativity and innovation, and supporting decision
making, which sparks many debates. Shabnam and Dr. Donaldson are
developing different models, and checking them against empirical
research to see what works in knowledge management.
Aside from her current research, Shabnam also assisted Dr. Donaldson to
edit a book with Drs. Tina Christie and Melvin Mark entitled
What Counts
as Credible Evidence in Evaluation and Applied Research. She is
working
on a project to analyze CGU psychology faculty publications and
citations, as well as some other technology related projects. Her
efforts have been particularly instrumental in making Claremont Graduate
University’s conferences and workshops available to a global audience
through cutting-edge web technology.
As if that weren’t enough, Shabnam leads a Knowledge Management research
group, created out of a transdisciplinary consortium on the topic that
she helped organize in her first year. Her many efforts and academic
achievements have no gone unrecognized. Shabnam was recently awarded the
Larry and Jane Rosen Fellowship. “It feels so good to be
recognized. I
am happy that the faculty have noticed my interests and
enthusiasm.”
In her leisure, she studies about space and individual and social
well-being of humans in space and artificial environments. She has a
certificate degree in Space Studies from International Space University
in France.
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Facebook page.
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LinkedIn profile.
