Danielle Zandee

Danielle Zandee is Professor of Sustainable Organizational Development at Nyenrode. Together with professor Anke van Hal she is the academic leader of the Nyenrode Center for Sustainability. She received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University.  Danielle studies and facilitates organizational  change processes that enable the emergence of sustainable enterprise. She designs and facilitates OD processes in which action learning and action research approaches are often combined with an appreciative stance. She also teaches about the dynamics of organizational change in Executive Education programs.

Danielle explores how organizational settings can nurture the innovative and collaborative capacities that help create sustainable value for all stakeholders. Her research interests include dialogic approaches to OD, artful approaches to organizational design, dynamics of collective learning and inquiry and generative forms of action research. She has published about topics such as the philosophy and practice of Appreciative Inquiry, organizational discourse as a vehicle for institutional transformation, the theatrical rehearsal as a metaphor for organizational design and sustainable organizational development as generative process of play, poetry and provocation. In the Center for Sustainability she guides a number of PhD students in conducting their action research projects.

Based on her work experience, Danielle is hopeful about the possibilities for a beneficial role of business in society. She started her career with the Royal/Dutch Shell Group where she worked in Human Resources and in OD & Training. She has facilitated organizational change initiatives in the United States, in South Africa and in the Netherlands for companies such as IBM, Verizon and the Dutch water company Vitens. At Case Western Reserve University she collaborated with David Cooperrider and others in a number of Appreciative Inquiry initiatives and taught in the Masters in Positive OD and Change Program (MPOD).

Danielle is an associate of the Taos Institute and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. She recently served on the Executive Board of the ODC Division of the Academy of Management.