Daniel Levi is a Professor in the Psychology and Human Development Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in environmental psychology from the University of Arizona. He teaches classes in group dynamics and in social, environmental, and organizational psychology. In addition, he teaches classes in teamwork and the psychology of technological change in courses primarily for engineering students at Cal Poly. He has conducted research and worked as a consultant with factory and engineering teams for companies such as Nortel Networks, TRW, Hewlett-Packard, and Philips Electronics. In addition, he has researched international team project related to concurrent engineering. Dr. Levi's research and consulting with factory teams primarily has focused on the use of teams to support technological change and the adoption of just-in-time and quality programs. This work examined a variety of team issues including job redesign, training, compensation, supervision, and change management approaches. His work with professional teams primarily has been done with engineering design teams. These projects examined the use of concurrent engineering, self-management, and the globalization of teams. The topics of this work included the impact of information technology on teams, faciliation and training needs for professional teams, and the impacts of organizational culture and leadership. Early work on the present book was sponsored by an engineering education grant from NASA. This project focused on the development of teamwork skills in engineering students working on multidisciplinary projects.
