Richard L. Daft

Richard L. Daft (born 1941) is an American organizational theorist and the Brownlee O. Currey, Jr. Professor of Management at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.

Daft holds a B.S. from the University of Nebraska, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

He has made fundamental contributions to the study of organization behavior and organization design, and authored several books in these areas. He co-developed media richness theory, with Robert H. Lengel, and is one of the most widely cited scholars in the field of management.

He developed and managed the Center for Change Leadership at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, where he also served as Associate Dean for Academic Programs. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management.