Kumaran Rajaram

Dr Rajaram is a Senior Lecturer with the Leadership, Management and Organization Division at the Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University. He specializes in Global Leadership and International Management, where he lectures, leads a team of senior instructors and is responsible for the curriculum & learning design of management and leadership courses. Dr. Rajaram is a REP Fellow and teaches in the Renaissance Engineering Programme, which is one of NTU’s Premier Scholars Programme. He is also a Fellow with Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE), where he performs cutting-edge research in organizational & management science, people & culture, learning analytics, culture of learning & learning culture and internationalization of business higher education.

He has a Ph.D. with Distinction in Business and Management (majoring in Leadership in Organizational Science, Learning Intelligence and Culture). He was nominated for the 2012, 2013, 2014 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards. He has received multiple competitive school, university and national level research grants and awards on topics related to learning, pedagogical innovation and leadership competencies. He has published and served as an editor-reviewer for various established journals and top conferences. He has authored books and book chapters with well-established global publishers like Springer, McGraw Hill and Routledge. His current research focus is on learning for the future work, leadership and change management for transforming organizations. He was instrumental in transforming and implementing the flipped-classroom pedagogy, adopting active-collaborative, problem-based and team-based learning in the course that he leads. Dr Rajaram is also the inventor of various innovative learning interventions (https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/learning-innovations/). Dr. Rajaram is the Founder of Research Lab for Learning Innovation and Culture of Learning. He was nominated for the Outstanding USQ Professional Alumnus 2012, 2013 and Outstanding USQ Academic & Research Alumnus 2014, 2015 and 2016. He was awarded the John Cheung Social Media Award 2016, NTU EdeX Grants 2016 & 2017 and MOE TRF Grant 2017.

Dr. Rajaram is a scholar-practitioner who has many years of leadership and senior management experience in organizational change, business development, strategic management and learning & training development. He started his career with RSN in Engineering with his last appointment as Section Head. During his stint, he has received numerous accolades such as Certificate of Commendations and Outstanding Innovation awards from the Past President of Singapore, Dr. Tony Tan and then Chief of Navy and Transport Minister of Singapore, Mr. Liu Tuck Yew. For his outstanding instructional performance, he was acknowledged as ‘Master Instructor’ which is the highest and most prestigious recognition given to the top 1% of the performers and featured as an excellent role model for exemplifying RSN core values in Navy News in 2007. Thereafter, he transited to the corporate world where during his stints served as Director of Academic Affairs and Head, Strategy & Business Development for Asia Pacific where he championed evolving issues of corporate governance, internationalization and had implemented change strategies and then as CEO and principal consultant for a global leadership and change management consulting firm, where during this stint he has travelled widely to execute business consultations which has diversified his experiential horizons, especially in the cross-cultural context, before he made a transition as a researcher and educator. During his entrepreneurial stint, he was interviewed and featured in SPANs magazine in 2008 for being an exemplary and outstanding young entrepreneur, USQ Alumni Newsletter in 2009 – ‘Alumnus achieves professional training success’, Inspire magazine in 2010 for being an exemplary role model as a business practitioner.

He is a practicing c-suite executive coach and management consultant, where his expert advice focuses on leadership, people & culture, organizational & institutional learning and change management. Some of the organizations that he has offered his consulting and coaching services includes Microsoft, General Electric, Energizer, Siemens, NCS, SIM Global Education, Ferrero Rocher, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, SINDA and many more.

Research Interests

• Global Leadership
• Change Management
• People & Culture
• Organizational Science and Behaviour
• Organizational Learning Science
• Institutional and Organizational Culture
• Learning Culture and Culture of Learning in Higher Education Institutions and Organizations
• Cross-Cultural Management
• Internationalization of Higher Education
• Learning Analytics
• Machine Learning
• Cognitive and Educational Neuroscience
• Character Education and Leadership Development in Business Education

Research Interest in the Neuroscience of Learning and Education

• Social-Psychological interventions in Business Education
• Applying Neuroscience to comprehend:
• Empathy, Compassion, Character Education and Leadership traits
• Engagement and Learning Effectiveness amongst learners
• Students’ Performance and Outcomes

Awards

• John Cheung Social Media Award 2016 [University Level]
• NTU EdeX Grant 2016 [University Level]
• NTU EdeX 2017 [University Level]
• Ministry of Education, Singapore, TRF Grant 2017 [National Level]

Fellowships & Other Recognition

• REP Fellow, Renaissance Engineering Programme
• CRADLE Fellow

Courses Taught

• Management Principles, Skills & Competencies
• Management Consulting
• Managing Growing Enterprises
• Entrepreneurial Business Development
• Leadership & Management (Strategic Management)