Nathanael J. Fast Assistant Professor of Management and Organization   Marshall School of Business - BRI 306 University of Southern California 3670 Trousdale Parkway Los Angeles, CA 90089-0808 Email: nathanael.fast@marshall.usc.edu Phone: (213) 740-1047 CV

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Background

I am an assistant professor of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. I received my PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business in 2009. My research examines the psychology of power and influence, focusing on two main areas: (1) How are people transformed by power, and how do these transformations help and hinder leadership effectiveness? (2) What are the mechanisms that cause certain people, ideas, and practices to have disproportionate influence on the cultures of groups and organizations?

 

Research Interests

• Power and influence
• Leadership
• Decision making
• Self-image maintenance
• Cultural emergence and transmission

 

Recent Publications

• Fast, N. J., & Tiedens, L. Z. (2010). Blame contagion: The automatic transmission of self-serving attributions

. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 97-106.

• Fast, N. J., & Chen, S. (2009). When the boss feels inadequate: Power, incompetence, and aggression

. Psychological Science, 20, 1406-1413.

• Fast, N. J., Heath, C., & Wu,G. (2009). Common ground and cultural prominence: How conversation reinforces culture

. Psychological Science, 20, 904-911.

• Fast, N. J., Gruenfeld, D. H., Sivanathan, N., & Galinsky, A. D. (2009). Illusory control: A generative force behind power's far-reaching effects

. Psychological Science, 20, 502-508.

• Morrison, K. R., Fast, N. J., & Ybarra, O. (2009). Group status, perceptions of threat, and support for social inequality

. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 204-210.

 

Selected Media Coverage

• Newsweek, The making of a toxic boss




• Discover, Power + incompetence = a bullying boss




• Reuters, Inadequate bosses more likely to bully




• ABC News, Why is your boss a bully?




• The Daily Telegaph (UK), The Basil Fawlty effect -- bosses bully you because THEY feel incompetent




• New Scientist, It's official: Your bullying boss really is an idiot




• San Francisco Chronicle, Insecure bosses likelier to bully, study says




• Associated Press, Bosses who bully may feel incompetent




• Newsweek, Forget talent, it's the human need to connect that drives the selection of our cultural icons




• ABC News, Psychology study suggests human desire to find common ground drives fame




• New Scientist, How celebrities stay famous regardless of talent




• Canada.com, Celebrity status has little to do with talent




• Reuters, Conversing about what’s popular can stifle innovation and reward the wrong people

• KTVU Bay Area News, New study looks at public fascination with celebrity




• Yahoo! News, How celebs stay in the limelight regardless of talent

• Times of India, How celebs stay popular sans talent

• Washington Post, Between hubris and vision

• Time Magazine, Why powerful people overestimate themselves

• CNN, Do chief executives have delusions of grandeur?

• Reuters, Acquiring power inspires people to take risks, act

• The Financial, Power and the illusion of control