Rate My Professor Darja Kragt

Dr Darja Kragt is a lecturer in work psychology at the School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia (UWA). She also holds the position of Lecturer (Leadership Development) in UWA's Office of the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Dr Kragt earned her PhD from the UWA Business School, supervised by Professor David Day, with a dissertation on the role of identity in leadership development. She possesses two Master's degrees—in International Business and Business Research—from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Prior to her current roles, she worked as a Research Fellow, leading a Bushfire Natural Hazards CRC-funded project focused on volunteering sustainability. Throughout her career, Dr Kragt has demonstrated a strong track record of successful industry research collaborations and possesses extensive experience in conducting data-driven evaluations of programs and interventions.

Dr Kragt's research primarily centers on leadership and leadership development, with additional expertise in volunteering and retirement transitions, all underpinned by the unifying theme of identity. For instance, she investigates how volunteering identity evolves over time, especially among volunteer leaders, and how occupational identity affects retirement transitions. Her influential publications include "Predicting Leadership Competency Development and Promotion Among High-Potential Executives: The Role of Leader Identity" (Frontiers in Psychology, 2020, co-authored with David V. Day), "Why and when leadership training predicts effectiveness: The role of leader identity and leadership experience" (Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 2018), "Volunteering research in Australia: A narrative review" (Australian Journal of Psychology, 2019), "Predictors of turnover amongst volunteers: A systematic review and meta-analysis" (Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2024), "Setting expectations during volunteer recruitment and the first day experience" (European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2022), and "The challenges of volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic" (Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2021). She has served as an investigator on key projects, such as the evaluation of the High Potential Senior Leader Initiative for the Public Sector Commission (Western Australia, 2021-2024), analysis of NSW Rural Fire Service volunteer data (2019-2020), and studies on firefighters' retirement transitions for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (2017-2018). Dr Kragt's work supports evidence-based strategies in organizational psychology and contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education.