Richard L. Daft (born 1941) is an American organizational theorist and the Brownlee O. Currey, Jr. Professor of Management at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.^[1]

Daft holds a B.S. from the University of Nebraska, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

He has made fundamental contributions to the study of organization behavior and organization design, and authored several books in these areas.^[2] He co-developed media richness theory, with Robert H. Lengel, and is one of the most widely cited scholars in the field of management.^[3]

He developed and managed the Center for Change Leadership at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, where he also served as Associate Dean for Academic Programs. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management.

• Leadership (2011)
• Leadership and Management (2010)
• The Executive and the Elephant (2010)
• Management: The New Workplace (2009)
• Principles of Management (2009)
• Understanding the Theory and Design of Organizations (2007)
• The Leadership Experience (2006)
• Organizational Behaviors (2001)
• Talking about Organization (2000)
• Fusion Leadership (1998)
• Where Are the Theories for the "New" Organizational Forms? An Editorial Essay (1993) with Arie Lewin
• Management (1988), The Dryden Press