Kayla Stajković, PhD, CPA
Lecturer, Organizational Behavior
Graduate School of Management
University of California, Davis | Email: kstajkovic@ucdavis.edu
Co-Founder
Research Paradigms Applied, LLC
Madison, WI
Visit Company Website
I am a lecturer at the University of California, Davis, and contributing board member at the Journal of Applied Psychology. Previously, I was a visiting professor at UC Davis and an Assistant Professor at Edgewood college. My research focuses on gender and leadership effectiveness, and the psychological drivers of work motivation, including self-efficacy, core confidence, and goal-setting. I use various research methods—experimental studies, field research, and real-world data analysis—to uncover psychological factors that drive success. My work has been published in leading journals, such as the Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Organizational Behavior, among others. I have had the privilege of collaborating with esteemed scholars, including the late Al Bandura (Stanford), and Gary Latham and Edwin Locke, the founders of goal-setting theory. Additionally, I have co-authored two books with Taylor & Francis, Routledge: Human Sustainability and Cognitive Overload: The Psychological Cost of Working (2025), and Cognitive Automation and Organizational Psychology: Goal Priming as a New Source of Competitive Advantage (2019). My research received the Responsible Research Award Finalist (2021) award from the Academy of Management Fellows, recognizing its societal impact.
Highlights
Available For FREE Through Routledge! “Human Sustainability And Cognitive Overload At Work”
This 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. Drawing from multiple disciplines and data sources, the book offers a theory-driven, evidence-based, and meaningful way to better understanding employee cognitive overload and psychological distress in organizations across the globe, and improve work lives going forward. Human Sustainability and Cognitive Overload at Work is a useful resource for students and scholars of business, management, leadership, organizational and work psychology, and organizational studies. The practical insights will also help managers, policy makers, policy analysists, consultants, and all those with an interest in the psychological cost of working. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The Conversation: Cities with Black women police chiefs had less street violence during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests
In this research brief, we summarize our research study, published in Journal of Management, in which we analyzed over 11,000 BLM protests and found that those in cities with Black women police chiefs were associated with less violence. “The study highlights the significance of having diverse leadership voices and the importance of recognizing and elevating individual identities. Despite a rise in the appointment of Black police chiefs over the past decade, Black women continue to be underrepresented in law enforcement leadership positions. This research highlights the value to society of including diverse perspectives and leadership approaches informed by the intersections of people’s identities.”
Ms. Magazine: The Reality of Running for Governor as a Woman
More women are running for governors in the 2022 election cycle than ever before. This article discusses the critical role that governors play in creating long lasting change at the state level. In doing so, it references our 2020 JAP article: “The recent crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic is a great illustration of the necessity of women governors. A study conducted by the Wisconsin School of Business found states with women governors had fewer COVID-19 deaths than states with men governors, due to early stay-at-home orders coupled with women governors expressing greater empathy and confidence in the future.”
#16 on 100 Best Occupational Psychology Books of All Time
Character & Context Blog: Society for Personality and Social Psychology
SPSP invited Prof. Stajkvoic and I to write a blog describing our latest paper in Journal of Applied Psychology on Women’s Leadership in a Crisis. “Rapid escalation of COVID-19 created unprecedented levels of uncertainty. As the crisis unfolded, governors across the United States were forced to make drastic decisions that carried rare personal costs to their residents. This included social distancing measures, mandated use of face masks, business shutdowns, and school closures. In research conducted between April and May 2020, we found that the gender of governors in the United States was associated with the most important consequence of COVID-19—death rates: States with female governors had fewer COVID-19 deaths than states with male governors.”
Research Featured by WebMD News Briefs
My study on women’s leadership was featured by WebMD New Briefs. “The researchers analyzed public data on U.S. governors and COVID-19 deaths. . . . The researchers took into account factors such as the governor’s age, state population, face mask mandates, travel bans and ventilator numbers. Even among states with early stay-at-home orders, those with a female governor still had fewer deaths. This could suggest that “residents perhaps responded differently depending on whether a man or woman governor issued this order,” they wrote.”
Follow Me
LinkedIn | Amazon | Research Gate | Google Scholar