Profile
Roles:
Biography:
Katarina is currently the module organiser for BUS349 Gender at Work; BUSM069 Organisational Behaviour; and BUS 305 Managing Diversity in the School of Business and Management. In the past she led and taught a variety of subjects related to Organisational Behaviour, Leadership and Management, Organisational Change, Social Research Methods, Migration. She worked on a variety of research projects related to presentation of migrants and asylum seekers in the media (London School of Economics); migrant labour and migrant trajectories of EU migrants in the UK (University of Surrey and Roehampton University).
She has been an organisational consultant to public and private sector organisations, focusing on the application of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) related policies, behavioural response to organisational change and leadership and management training.
Her area of research focuses of precarious work, primarily amongst migrant and ethnic minority workers, gendered migrant labour, DEI organisational practices, intersectionality and gender at work more broadly.
She has also been a dissertation supervisor for MSc International Human Resource Management students and welcomes PhD supervision in areas of organisational gender inequalities, migrant work, and social class inequities at work.
Research
Research Interests:
My primary areas of research exploration gravitate towards various facets of migrant labor, including but not limited to precarious migrant work, skilled migration, gendered migrant labor, and the globally significant phenomenon of brain drain. Tracing the trajectories of these numerous categories of migrant labor, my scholarly pursuits seek to map their dynamics, effects, and intersecting dimensions. In addition to the focal point of migrant labor, my research interests expand into the application of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices within organizational structures. The objective here is not just in discerning the effective implementation of DEI in diverse workplaces but also in analyzing the interplay of gender and social class in professional environments. Lastly, in the broader understanding of organizational behavior, a keen interest lies in evaluating the impact of organizational change on DEI. The intent is to observe and understand the multifaceted repercussions such changes may impose on the organizational behavioral landscape, with a specific emphasis on DEI frameworks.
Centre and Group Membership:
Publications
Zajacova, K. (2017): Book Review: Managing Difference in Eastern-European Transnational Families, by Viorela Ducu & Aron Telegdi-Csetri (eds.), Peter Lang Academic Research, Frankfurt am Main, 2016
Zajacova, K. (2017): Book Review for Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies: Gender and migration, by Caroline B. Brettell, Polity Press, 2016
Supervision
I welcome PhD supervision proposals in the areas of:
- DEI organisational practices
- Migrant work
- Gender and Social class inequalities at work
Public Engagement
Collaborating with the British Psychological Society, my consultancy roles have spanned public and private sectors. Clients included the NHS, Civil Service, KPMG, Jisc, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, as well as various academic institutions like the University of Huddersfield and University of East London, extending to companies like Scottish Power. These experiences have broadened my professional spectrum, providing a wide-ranging perspective of organisational paradigms.
Scholarly Contributions
- Have devised an assessment tool for a Professional Placement Year, aiming to refine students' experiential learning.
- Developed 'Professional Skills and Applied Psychology' module, uniting practical skills and theoretical knowledge.
- Established 'Leadership and Management Skills' module to hone leadership abilities and management skills.
- Created 'Organisational Development Essentials' and 'Research Skills for OD Practitioners,' focusing on organisational dynamics and essential research methodologies.
- Introduced 'Organisational Change' module to provide an in-depth exploration of change management processes within organisations.
Zajacova, K., Hepper, E., & Grandison, A. (July 2019): Reconciling diverse student and employer voices in embedding employability skills and work based learning. Book chapter in Voices and Actions in Student Experiences, 2016
