1st Edition

Human Sustainability and Cognitive Overload at Work The Psychological Cost of Working

181 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

181 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This innovative book considers the cost of cognitive overload and psychological distress on human sustainability, and suggests ways to prevent employees from becoming a psychologically depleted workforce. Employee attentional processing capacity is maxed out, and psychological distress is at an all-time high. Alexander D. Stajkovic and Kayla S. Stajkovic explain how human cognitive ‘broadband’... Read more

1. Introduction to Cognitive Load, Attentional Processing, and Human Sustainability at Work

Part I: How We Arrived at Cognitive Overload

2. Increase in Cognitive Load Through Epochal Stages of Human Development

3. The Failure of Leadership “Cottage Industry” and Organizational Leaders
as More Proximal Factors Contributing to Employee Cognitive Overload

Part II: How Bad is It and How Should We Work Then?

4. Evidence of Psychological Cost of Working in Contemporary Organizations: Anxiety, Depression, Work-Home Conflict, and Suicides Attributed to Work

5. Theory Guidance Toward Human Sustainability: Moral Matrices, Business
Concerns, Science, or all of the Above?

Part III: Toward Reducing Cognitive Overload and Fostering: Human Sustainability at Different Levels of Analysis

6. Modify the System: Pros and Cons of Liberal, Coordinated, and Directed
Capitalism

7. Modify Organizational Leadership: Ethics of Care and Female Leadership
Advantage

8. Modify Humans: Are There Limits to Transcending our Limitations, is Homo Sapiens Outdated, and How to Contemplate AI Upgrades?

9. Cognitive Automation: Reducing Cognitive Overload and Boosting Performance Without Attention

Part IV: Epilogue

10. Alternative Explanations, Future Research, and Conclusion

Biography

Alexander D. Stajkovic is the Dean’s Professor in Business at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA.

Kayla S. Stajkovic is a Lecturer at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis, USA.