William Youngdahl

William (“Bill”) Youngdahl is an associate professor of project and operations leadership and William D. Hacker Faculty Fellow at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He also serves as the academic director for Thunderbird’s Leading Global Projects executive education program. Youngdahl teaches in Thunderbird’s MBA, Executive MBA, and Executive Education Programs. His is a sought-after speaker, executive coach and educator.

His primary area of expertise is global project leadership. In 2008, he co-authored with fellow Thunderbird professor Robert T. Moran an acclaimed trade book, "Leading Global Projects: For Professional and Accidental Project Leaders." The book serves the industry as a guideline for global project leadership and is built upon the foundational values of the Thunderbird executive education program of the same name. Youngdahl and Moran have delivered the Leading Global Projects program in countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Singapore, UAE, and China. They have also developed an instrument for conducting 360-degree assessments of global project leadership capabilities and use the feedback to coach individuals to improve abilities across a set of specific competencies.

Youngdahl has a strong reputation for helping others. For example, he collaborated on a volunteer project in conjunction with the Thunderbird for Good initiative and the Novartis Foundation.

Youngdahl has authored numerous articles for the world’s leading management publications and journals, including such prestigious outlets as Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Service Industry Management, and Journal of Management Inquiry. He also served as an associate editor of Journal of Operations Management, broadly recognized as the leading journal in the field of operations management.

In addition to receiving the award of the Hacker Faculty Fellowship, Youngdahl has received awards for Outstanding Thunderbird Professor, Faculty Senate Award for Publications, and Faculty Senate Award for Service.

Prior to joining the faculty at Thunderbird, Youngdahl worked in manufacturing engineering and project management positions with Xerox and Hughes Aircraft, and he served in the U.S. Navy. Since joining Thunderbird, Youngdahl emerged as an expert executive educator. His expertise in delivering executive education has been sought by such global enterprises as Novartis, ExxonMobil, and American Express, to name a few.

Education

• Ph.D. Business Administration (Operations Management), University of Southern California 1992
• M.S. Systems Management (Information Systems), University of Southern California 1985
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering Technology, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 1983

Research Interests

Global Project Leadership and Supply Chain Management

Areas of Expertise:

Project leadership, Project management, Global project management, Service management, Global operations management

Publications

• Youngdahl, W. (2017). “JetBlue and Gladly: Onmichannel Customer Service,” Thunderbird Case Series.
• Youngdahl, W. (2017). “James McAllister: Learning from BP and NASA,” Thunderbird Case
• Moffett, M. and Youngdahl, W. (2017). “The Failure of Westinghouse,” Thunderbird Case Series.
• Youngdahl, W. (2016). “Project Last Mile in Tanzania: Learning from Coca-Cola’s Supply Chain,” Thunderbird Case Series.
• Youngdahl, W. (2016). “Meta Abo Brewery: Creating a Sustainable Barley Value Chain in Ethiopia,” Thunderbird Case Series.
• Krause, D., Youngdahl, W., & Ramaswamy, K. (2014). “Manufacturing - Still a missing link?” Journal of Operations Management, 32(7-8), 399-402.
• Ramasamy, K. and Youngdahl, W. (2013) “Are you your employees’ worst enemy?” Strategy+Business Issue 73.
• Youngdahl, W. (2011) “Anja Bremmer’s Influencing Challenge,” Thunderbird Case Study Series.
• Youngdahl, W. (2011) “The Race to the South Pole,” Thunderbird Case Study Series.
• Youngdahl, W.E(2011) “The Challenger Space Shuttle Teleconference,” Thunderbird Case Study Series.
• Youngdahl, W., Ramaswamy, K., and Dash, K. (2010) “Service Offshoring: The Evolution of Offshore Operations,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 30, No. 8, pp. 798 - 820.
• Moran, R.T., Youngdahl, W.E. and Moran, S. ( 2009) “Leading Global Projects: Bridging the Cultural and Functional Divide,” in The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Competence, Deardorff, D.K. ed., Sage.
• Moran, Robert T. and Youngdahl, William E. (2008) Leading Global Projects: for Professional and Accidental Project Leaders, First Edition, Elsevier (Butterworth-Heinemann), Oxford.
• Youngdahl, W. and Ramaswamy, K. (2008) "Offshoring Knowledge and Service Work: A Conceptual Model and Research Agenda," Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp.212-221.
• Youngdahl, W., Verma, R. and Ramaswamy, K. (2008) "Exploring new research frontiers in offshoring knowledge and service processes," Introduction to Special Issue, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 135-140.
• Verma, R, Youngdahl, W. McLaughlin, C. and Johnston, R. (2006) "Innovative operations management applications in not-for-profit, public and government services," Introduction to Special Issue, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp 301-303.
• Wisner, P., Stringfellow, A., Youngdahl, W., and Parker, L. (2005) "The Service Volunteer-Loyalty Chain: An Exploratory Study of Charitable, Not-for-Profit Service Organizations," Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 143-161.
• Verma, R,. McLaughlin, C. Johnston, R., and Youngdahl, W (2005) "Operations management in not-for- profit, public and government services: Charting a new research frontier," Introduction to Special Issue, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 117-123.
• Youngdahl, W.E., Kellogg, D.L, Nie, W. And Bowen, D.E. (2003) "Revisiting Customer Participation in Service Encounters: Does Culture Matter?" Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 109-120.
• Youngdahl, W.E. (2002) "Service Operations Management," in Value-Driven Operations Management: An Integrated Modular Approach, Melnyk, S. and Swink, M. eds., Mc-Graw-Hill.
• Youngdahl, W.E. (2000) "Global Supply Chain Management," in Thunderbird on Global Strategy, Wiley, Robert Grosse, ed.
• Youngdahl, W.E. and Loomba, A.P.S. (2000) “Service-Driven Global Supply Chain Management.” International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 329-347.
• Moffet, M.H., and Youngdahl, W.E. (1999) “Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriotua,” Thunderbird International Business Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 179-194.
• Bowen, D.E. and Youngdahl, W.E. (1998) “Lean Service: In Defense of the Production-Line Approach to Service,” International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 207-225.
• Youngdahl, W.E., Waldman, D.A., and Anders, G. (1998) “Leading the Total Quality Culture Transformation at Goodyear-Oxo, Mexico: An Interview with Hugh Pace,” Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 59-65.
• Youngdahl, W.E. (1998) "ISO 9000," in The Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management, C.L. Cooper and C. Argyris, eds., p. 334.
• Moffet, M. and Youngdahl, W. (1998) “Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriotua,” Thunderbird Case Study Series.
• Youngdahl, W.E. (1997) “ISO 9000,” in The Enyclopedic Dictionary of Human Resource Management, L.H. Peters, C.R. Greer and S.A. Youngblood, eds., p. 177.
• Youngdahl, W.E. and Kellogg, D.L., “The Service Customer’s Value Chain: A Critical Incident Study of Customers’ Satisfaction-Seeking Behaviors,” (1997) Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 19-32.
• Siegel, D.S., Waldman, D.A., and Youngdahl, W.E. (1997) “The Adoption of Manufacturing Technologies: Implications for Human Resource Strategies,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 44, No. 3, pp. 288-298.
• Kellogg, D.L., Youngdahl, W.E., and Bowen, D.E. (1997) "On the Relationship between Customer Participation & Satisfaction: Two Frameworks," International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 206-219.
• Youngdahl, W. E. (1996) “An Investigation of Service-Based Manufacturing Performance Relationships,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 31-45.
• Youngdahl, W.E. and Kellogg, D.L. (1994) “Customer Costs of Service Quality: A Critical Incident Study,” in Advances in Services Marketing and Management Research and Practice, Vol. 3, Swartz, T. A., D. E. Bowen, and S. W. Brown, eds, JAI Press: 149-173.
• Chase, R. B., Kumar, K.R. and Youngdahl, W.E. (1992) “Service-Based Manufacturing: The Service Factory,” Production and Operations Management, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 175-184.
• Chase, R.B. and Youngdahl, W.E. (1992) “Service by Design,” Design Management Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 9-15.