Kayla S. Stajkovic

Ph.D., Organizational Behavior, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2018

Research Expertise: gender, race, leadership effectiveness, goals, self-efficacy, confidence, work motivation

Kayla S. Stajkovic is a lecturer at the University of California, Davis, which she joined in 2022. She was formerly a visiting professor at UC Davis and an assistant professor at Edgewood College, where she significantly contributed to business, communication, and accounting programs. She is a contributing board member at the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Stajkovic studies diversity and leadership effectiveness, as well as the psychological underpinnings of effective work motivation, including self-efficacy, core confidence, and goals. She employs a variety of research designs, including experimental studies, field studies, and analyses of real-world data. By understanding the psychological factors that lead to success, leaders and organizations can better harness the potential of their workforce. Her research has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Personality and Individual Differences, Journal of Business Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, and Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Within this program of work, she has collaborated with esteemed scholars, including the late Albert Bandura from Stanford, as well as Gary Latham and Edwin Locke, co-founders of goal setting theory.

Stajkovic has co-authored two books with Taylor and Francis Group, 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). She has received several awards, such as the Responsible Research Award Finalist from the Academy of Management Fellows, recognizing the societal benefits of her research. She has also received multiple teaching awards, underscoring her commitment to educational excellence.

In addition to her academic contributions, Stajkovic co-founded a management consulting firm, Research Paradigms Applied, LLC, where she serves as executive director. In this role, she works with individuals and organizations to provide evidence-based solutions that foster more effective management and leadership practices.

Before her academic career, Stajkovic earned her Certified Public Accounting (CPA) license and worked as an external auditor for KPMG and a senior internal auditor for Travelers Insurance Companies, Inc. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in accounting and graduated with a Ph.D. in management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018.