Nazli Bhatia

Photo of Nazli Bhatia

Associate Professor of Practice in Behavioral and Decision Sciences; Lecturer, The Wharton School

Dr. Nazli Bhatia is an associate professor of practice in behavioral and decision sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a lecturer at the Wharton School where she teaches award-winning courses on negotiation in the MBA and executive programs.

In her research, Nazli seeks to better understand the powerful role words can play in a variety of interpersonal contexts. The main domain in which she explores this question is negotiation, where she studies rhetorical strategies—that is, the different ways in which proposals, offers, and concessions can be presented to influence the negotiation process and outcome. Though past research has mostly treated the bargaining process as an exchange of numbers. Nazli’s work finds that the way in which offers are communicated critically influences interpersonal and economic outcomes in negotiation. In addition to rhetorical strategies, Nazli studies the intersection of gender and influence within both negotiation and non-negotiation contexts. Her research has been featured in media outlets such as Fortune Magazine, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

In the MBDS program, Nazli teaches two courses: Negotiation Behavior and Organizational Behavior. She has a PhD in organizational behavior and theory from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to coming to Penn, she worked as an assistant professor in Portugal and in Qatar and taught courses on cross-cultural management, teams, and influence.