Biography

Dr. Jessica Kirk is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis. She earned her Ph.D. in Management at the University of Colorado in 2019. Prior to her Ph.D. work, Jessica earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri and her M.B.A. at Washington University while working as an engineer in the aerospace industry. Dr. Kirk has conducted research in partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute, large international tech accelerators and Fortune 500 corporations.

Teaching 

MGMT 3110: Organization and Management

MGMT 8421: Organizational Behavior Research Seminar

Research

Dr. Kirk's research focuses on a range of issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations and entrepreneurship. Her work seeks to advance our understanding of how bias creates career barriers and leads to the harassment of diverse individuals, particularly women. She is also interested in solutions that will help remove barriers, prevent harassment and allow diverse individuals to succeed in organizations and entrepreneurship.

Recent Publications

Kirk, J. F., Hekman, D.R, Chan, E. T, Foo, M. D. (2022) Public Negative Labeling Effects on Team Interaction and Performance. Small Group Research, 53(4), 563-595.

Johnson, S. K., Kirk J. F. (2020) Dual-anonymization Yields Promising Results for Reducing Gender Bias: A Naturalistic Field Experiment of Applications for Hubble Space Telescope Time. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Keplinger, K., Johnson, S. K., Kirk, J. F., Barnes, L. Y. (2019) Women at work: Changes in sexual harassment between September 2016 and September 2018. PLOS ONE 14(7): e0218313.

Van Den Bos, K., Cropanzano, R., Kirk, J., Jasso, G., & Okimoto, T. G. (2015). Expanding the horizons of social justice research: Three essays on justice theory. Social Justice Research, 28(2), 229-246.

Johnson, S. K., Keplinger, K., Kirk, J. F., Barnes, L. Y. (2019, Jul 18) Has Sexual Harassment at Work Decreased Since #MeToo. Harvard Business Review.

Johnson, S. K., Kirk, J. F., Chan, E. (2018). The Perils of Pretty: Effects of Personal Appearance On Women's Careers. In Impact of Diversity on Career Development.

Johnson, S. K., Kirk, J. F., Keplinger, K. (2016, Oct 4). Why We Fail to Report Sexual Harassment. Harvard Business Review.