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Copyright © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company
New Horizons in Adult Education
& Human Resource Development
27 (2), 3-12
Outing the Imposter: A Study
Exploring Imposter Phenome-
non among Higher Education
Faculty
Holly M. Hutchins1
1University of Houston
Corresponding Author:
Holly M Hutchins, University of Houston, HDCS Department,
110 Cameron Building, Houston, Texas 77498
Email: hmhutchins@uh.edu
In the recent release of the critically acclaimed book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg (2013) makes a startling confession to having felt
like an imposter as both a student at Harvard and an emerging corporate professional. She notes that (as a student) “every time I
was called on in class, I was sure that I was about to embarrass myself…And, every time I didn’t embarrass myself—or even ex-
celled—I believed that I had fooled everyone yet again (and) that one day the jig would be up”(p.28). Sandberg is not alone. Both
women and men who have achieved high levels of professional success report experiencing the burgeoning doubt that somehow
they lucked out to have experienced the success they did, and that they are waiting — and fearing—that someone will soon find out
that they really are not as good as other’s believe.
Clance and Imes (1978) were the first to describe the experience of fraudulent thoughts and the inability to internally attribute per-
sonal achievement as imposter phenomenon (IP) by studying a sample of highly successful professional women, many of who had
obtained advanced degrees and were in leadership positions. While a certain amount of self-doubt is normal, the researchers found
that individuals experiencing IP tended to have heightened emotional and cognitive anxiety concerning their ability to take credit
for their successes. That is, individuals reporting high IP often attributed failure to internal traits but associated success to external
Abstract
Attention to faculty development, especially factors influencing faculty satisfaction and performance, has increased in
the last decade. While a significant focus has been on contextual factors (i.e., tenure policies, mentoring, work-life inte-
gration), fewer studies have examined individual psychological factors especially in the field of human resource devel-
opment. This descriptive study addresses a particular focus in faculty development by examining the prevalence of fac-
ulty experiences of imposter phenomenon, IP, (the experience of fraudulent thoughts and feelings and the inability to
attribute and internalize personal achievement), how it affects their perceived emotional exhaustion (a dimension of job
burnout) and their reported coping skills. Results of the study suggest that faculty (n=61) do experience moderate lev-
els of IP with the highest reported by untenured faculty. Results also indicate that faculty emotional exhaustion is posi-
tively related to IP, and faculty reporting moderate-high levels of IP also reported greater use of adaptive coping skills
to address imposter thoughts. Faculty also identified the important role of mentoring at tempering imposter tendencies.
Keywords
Imposter phenomenon, HRD, faculty development
New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27 (2)
4
circumstances (e.g. getting lucky, knowing someone, favorable circumstances). These individuals also tended to en-
gage in high levels of impression management and behavioral handicapping in their attempts to prevent others from
perceiving them as a fraud; however, such attempts did not typically reduce the fraudulent feelings even when success
was achieved (Cowman & Ferrari, 2002). Common effects of sustained IP thoughts are increased bouts of depression
and anxiety (Chrisman & Pieper, 1995; McGregor, Gee & Poset, 2008; Oriel, Plane & Mundt, 2004; Ross & Krukow-
ski, 2002), psychological distress (Henning, Ey & Shaw, 1998) and low self-confidence (Kumar & Jagacinski, 2006),
thus making the experience and persistence of IP adversely related to job well-being, satisfaction and performance.
Although IP has been mostly studied among students, especially those completing advanced degrees (i.e., medical resi-
dents, doctoral students), there have been fewer studies examining the prevalence of IP among higher education facul-
ty. Clance and Imes (1978) suggest that IP is common among individuals with particular personality traits (e.g. neurot-
icism, conscientiousness, achievement-orientation), have perfectionist expectations over work (Want & Kleitman,
2005), and who work in highly competitive, stressful occupations similar to that of the academic environment (Kets de
Vries, 2005). These traits may be further heightened within the “publish or perish” academic culture, where perfor-
mance targets are often vague, support can be inconsistent, and a highly competitive research and funding climate may
inadvertently create a setting conducive to feelings of self-doubt and fraudulence (McCormick & Barnes, 2008; Park-
man & Beard, 2008), especially in the areas of research and publication (Jöstl, Bergsmann, Lüftenegger, o & Spiel,
2012). That is, IP can serve as a psychological barrier that has the potential to negatively influence faculty work out-
comes as a new career academic (Bronstein & Farnsworth, 1998).
Human resource development (HRD) research has been rather lean in exploring the experiences of higher education
faculty, publishing but a few articles in the last decade across the four Academy of Human Resource Development
(AHRD) journals. The majority of these articles focused on graduate program development (Kuchinke, 2001, 2007),
and two special issues journals that explored organizational development in higher education (Torraco, 2005) and on
developing women academic leaders (Madsen, 2012). As a considerable part of the HRD discipline consists of faculty,
the paucity of scholarly attention to factors influencing faculty development is surprising. One reason may be that fac-
ulty development efforts typically reside in a university’s academic affairs department, which has varying levels of
learning and development initiatives to foster faculty development, but whose main focus is on faculty recruitment and
teaching. Unlike other organizations, only staff learning and development emerge from a university’s human resource
department, thus making targeted faculty learning and development interventions more episodic and perhaps less
aligned with overall strategic goals. As noted by Torraco (2005), organizational development efforts that can support
and direct faculty development initiatives are mostly lacking at institutions of higher education, thus stifling an aca-
demic culture supportive of individual development (Gibson, 2006).
Guiding Theory and Related Hypotheses
Given that individuals experiencing imposter thoughts have distinct attributions concerning how they explain positive
and negative events, the guiding theory grounding this study is Weiner’s (1985) attributional theory of motivation and
emotion. Extending the seminal work on causal attribution theory by Heider (1944) and Kelley (1973), Weiner focused
on linking attributional thinking with certain feelings (i.e., depression, anger, anxiety). His theory is based on Kelley’s
(1973) recognition that understanding how individuals attribute causes of their behavior greatly influences their deci-
sions to cope with the behavior (i.e., by continuing or stopping the behavior). In furthering Heider’s (1944) internal-
external dimension of the causal attribution theory, Weiner (1985) added two additional dimensions that explain attrib-
utions: controllability (controlled by self or other) and stability (constant or variable over time). For example, Weiner
and colleagues (1985) found that shame and guilt were experienced when the negative event was attributed to an inter-
nal cause, hopelessness when the cause was perceived as stable, but that anger was a common emotion felt when the
cause of a negative event was external and controllable by others (Brown & Weiner, 1984). As relevant to this study,
faculty who experience imposter thoughts are more likely to experience negative emotions (measured as emotional
exhaustion, later discussed) as a result of consistently attributing success to external sources (luck, colleagues) but
blaming themselves (internal attribution) for failures, and the experiencing the persistent and uncontrollable belief that
the imposter thoughts will occur again.
Using Weiner’s (1985) attribution theory is helpful in explaining the way in which faculty may experience imposter thoughts, its
potential effect on burnout, and the resulting coping skills that may be used to alleviate such thoughts. Although there is growing
mention of imposter phenomenon in faculty development conceptual and empirical articles, few have examined the extent to
which faculty actually experience IP. There is evidence that faculty experience greater levels of uncertainty about their expertise
New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27 (2)
5
as they are developing their professional identity (cf. Reybold & Alamia, 2008), and with the majority of IP work literature focused
on early career academics, it is likely that imposter thoughts might be more pronounced for faculty during their formative years
(i.e., on the tenure-track) then in their mid or later career experiences.
H1: There will be differences in reported imposter tendencies based on faculty tenure, with tenure-track faculty
reporting higher levels of imposter tendencies than tenured faculty.
The second related hypotheses focuses more on a potential outcome of imposter thoughts, increased psychological dis-
tress (as measured by emotional exhaustion for the current study that has been documented in the imposter literature
(cf. Chrisman et al., 1995; Henning et al., 1998). As the most widely reported dimension of job burnout, emotional ex-
haustion is a function of work-related stress and refers to feeling overextended and depleted of one’s physical, mental
and emotional resources (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Emotional exhaustion represents the stress dimension of burnout
and often manifests itself by increased fatigue, depression, emotional and cognitive distancing from work resulting in
adverse work outcomes such as satisfaction and performance (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). In keeping with
Weiner’s (1984) theory of motivation and emotion, imposters will experience greater emotional exhaustion given their
internal attributions for setbacks or failures especially given their tendency to invest in even greater emotional re-
sources from fear of being “exposed” (Whitman & Shanine, 2012), than non-imposters. This effect is particularly sali-
ent for faculty given the challenges of work-life integration, an increasingly competitive market to publish research,
increased expectations for tenure and promotion, and budgetary shrinkages affecting research development (Trower,
2012). Such challenges may have an even greater adverse effect on faculty who experience imposter thoughts, making
them more susceptible to feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt that accentuate exhaustion.
H2: Faculty who experience moderate-high imposter tendencies will also report higher levels of emotional ex-
haustion than those that report lower levels of imposter tendencies.
Finally, the third research hypothesis focuses on faculty use of adaptive and maladaptive coping skills to address im-
poster tendencies. Examples of adaptive coping skills include seeking out emotional or instrumental support, relying on
positive reinforcement, or using humor, whereas more harmful or maladaptive approaches include coping with alcohol
and other substances, disengagement (or giving up), and self-blame (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989). There is lit-
tle research on actual coping methods reported by individuals who struggle with imposter thoughts, with much of the
literature on imposter coping limited to clinical interventions and suggested techniques. However, there is evidence for
social support as an adaptive coping strategy in helping faculty address uncertainty in their identity development, espe-
cially in forming realistic attributions concerning doubts about their professional legitimacy. These include seeking out
social support resources to normalize imposter tendencies by having discussions with other colleagues either informally
(Coryell, Wagner, Clark, & Stuessy, 2011; Mark & Smith, 2012) or through formal mentoring relationships
(Huffstutler & Varnel, 2006; Watson & Betts, 2010), intentionally seeking consistent feedback on performance to rec-
ognize successes (Stocker, 1986), and by challenging imposter cognitive distortions through reflective journaling or in
discussions with counselors or peers (Clance & Imes, 1978; Henning, Ey & Shaw, 1998). In a study exploring coping
and individual outcome factors among university employees (of which university faculty made up 30% of the sample),
Mark and Smith (2012) found that negative coping skills were significantly and positively correlated with depression
and anxiety, and negatively correlated with work satisfaction. Understanding the use and type of coping techniques
used can illuminate opportunities for informal and formal faculty development interventions, as well as increasing
awareness of imposter phenomenon among faculty groups.
H3: Faculty reporting moderate-high levels of imposter tendencies will engage in some form of coping skills
(adaptive or maladaptive).
Research Design and Method
I used survey research to examine the research questions, and recruited the sample (n=61) from the Academy of Hu-
man Resource Development membership, the largest human resource development (HRD) professional association in
the United States. A recruitment message was posted on the AHRD listserv, and participants were also recruited
through snowball sampling where HRD and adult learning faculty at other institutions were asked to share the survey
with their colleagues via email. The majority of participants were women (61 percent) faculty at four-year institutions
who affiliated with a social sciences discipline (88 percent) with 22 percent reporting an affiliation with a STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) discipline. Most participants (46 percent) identified as associate
New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27 (2)
7
ing that their mentors actually intensified their imposter thoughts. Specifically, the few participants noting an adverse
influence of their mentors described their mentor’s “exceptional” competence and assuredness as actually adding to
their feelings of inadequacy. Major themes that emerged around how mentors helped assuage imposter tendencies in-
cluded: encouraged them to own their accomplishments and successes, reassured them about the normalcy of imposter
feelings (and that they had similar experiences), and offered them emotional (seeking comfort and support) and instru-
mental (advice, suggestions, and ideas) support on their work. One participant shared the pivotal role a mentor played in
challenging her imposter thoughts and offering support:in challenging her imposter thoughts and offering support:
My mentor was a great source of honest feedback, especially when I was having little success publishing and debat-
ed whether I was suited for academe. My mentor reassured me of my abilities and expressed confidence in me. If
my mentor had not shared that feedback, I most likely would have left academe.
Another participant noted the importance of her mentor making her aware of imposter thoughts early in her career and
how this influenced her coping skills throughout her career:
When I was completing my Master's Degree and preparing to enter my doctoral program, my then-mentor
New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27 (2)
8
warned me about Imposter Phenomenon because I was already dealing with it. It helped, because I knew
it existed, but that didn't stop it from affecting me throughout my doctoral education (during which I was
fairly sure I wasn't smart enough to be in the then-#1-ranked program and during which I was afraid
"they" would find out I wasn't smart enough and kick me out) despite the fact that I received both teach-
ing and research awards from the institution and from our regional and national associations. Fortunate-
ly, because I had been informed about IP, I persevered rather than giving up.
For faculty that did not discuss their imposter thoughts with their mentor (67 percent), several discussed how their mentor(s) indi-
rectly influenced their fraudulent thoughts by offering support, acknowledging their successes, and modeling positive behavior
(i.e., owning successes, avoiding unrealistic comparisons with others). Interestingly, all of the participants described
mentors in their doctoral program (student-teacher) rather than colleagues in their role as faculty. Taken together, the
direct and indirect influence of mentors on curbing imposter thoughts emerged as an important factor at influencing
emerging academic identity.
Discussion, Limitations and Future Research
Despite the modest sample, the results provide preliminary evidence that academic faculty do experience imposter
thoughts and that such experiences are more prevalent for untenured faculty. Research exploring tenure-track faculty
stressors and challenges has increased over the last decade highlighting the importance of clarifying tenure and promo-
tion guidelines, developing and supporting work-life integration policies, offering various mentoring options, and en-
couraging interdisciplinary research (Trower, 2012). Much of this attention has been the result of the comprehensive
survey research conducted by the Harvard’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) that
includes over 800 consortium members who regularly survey their faculty on satisfaction around areas noted in the
research to influence faculty satisfaction. However, research exploring factors influencing non-tenure track faculty
(clinical, adjunct, instructional faculty) is less known, yet this faculty group represents a growing body within higher
education institutions that may not have access to the same recognition or resources as tenured (or tenure-track) faculty
(Wilson, 2013). Future research exploring the prevalence of imposter tendencies, as related to faculty tenure status and
related developmental experiences, would expand our understanding of the distinct experiences and needs across facul-
ty groups.
For the second hypothesis, faculty imposter tendencies were positively and significantly related to emotional exhaus-
tion (the more common dimension of job burnout). As previously discussed, this finding is not surprising, given that
imposters—given their internal and stable attribution of negative events—will expend greater cognitive and emotional
resources toward performance, resulting in a higher likelihood of emotional exhaustion. The results do establish that
faculty who struggle with imposter tendencies experience a cumulative emotional toll that places them at a much high-
er risk of emotional exhaustion, and thus job burnout. Future researchers could also explore the effect of faculty im-
poster tendencies on the other two dimensions of job burnout (cynicism, and detachment), and to established work out-
comes such as faculty intent to leave (Barnes, Agago & Coombs, 1998).
Finally, faculty do address imposter thoughts with more adaptive (than maladaptive) coping skills (H3) that included
using both self-directed (humor, positive reinforcement, distracting thoughts or activities) and social support (seeking
emotional support from others) approaches. This is encouraging, as it suggests that faculty in this sample did pursue
healthy measures to alleviate the frustration associated with imposter tendencies, and are consistent with those noted in
the literature. While helpful, the effect of such approaches may be limited, given that these may temporarily relieve
imposter thoughts rather than directly address the distorted attributions imposters make concerning success. In addi-
tion, the questions of why certain coping skills are used and the degree to which these are successful are left unan-
swered but will serve as fertile ground for future inquiry for identifying targeted interventions.
Cognitive-behavioral approaches that challenge distorted attributions, sometimes called attributional framing (Lyden,
Chaney, Danehower & Houston, 2002) may provide a more impactful coping intervention than those tested in the cur-
rent study. Although numerous approaches that focus on attributional change are mentioned in the imposter litera-
ture—such as individual counseling interventions (Gibson-Beverly & Schwartz, 2008), engaging in peer groups that
openly share concerns and help reframe their perspectives on success, recording performance and linking these to ac-
complishments (Stocker, 1986), and using positive metaphors to counter the imposter archetype (Heinrich, 1997; Park-
man & Beard, 2008)—none have been empirically tested in response to imposter tendencies. Although Weiner’s
(1985) attributional model of motivation and emotion was not empirically tested in the present study, the results sug-
New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27 (2)
9
gest that attributions play an important role in explaining the effect of imposter tendencies on specific individual
outcomes. That is, prior researchers have suggested imposters have distinct attributional processes than non-
imposters. For example, Lyden and her colleagues (2002) found that using a carefully structured feedback tech-
nique influenced the attributions individuals made concerning their performance, in so far as participants attributed
successful performance to ability (internal), and unsuccessful performance to lack of effort or other external attrib-
utes. The structured feedback served to anchor attributions of performance, resulting in significantly higher self-
efficacy for participants who linked success with ability, and explained failure or errors with a lack of effort or task
difficulty. Given that imposters reverse the attributional process (i.e., attributing success to external reasons and
failure to internal reasons), targeted interventions that focus on attributional reframing may have a deeper and pro-
longed effect on minimizing imposter tendencies than coping strategies that merely relieve the symptoms. posters
reverse the attributional process (i.e., attributing success to external reasons and failure to internal reasons), target-
ed interventions that focus on attributional reframing may have a deeper and prolonged effect on minimizing im-
poster tendencies than coping strategies that merely relieve the symptoms.
Finally, the main themes emerging from the mentoring qualitative data highlighted the importance of mentors in-
fluence on how faculty attribute their performance. The role of mentors is multi-dimensional, as they can serve
both as a supportposters reverse the attributional process (i.e., attributing success to external reasons and failure to
internal reasons), targeted interventions that focus on attributional reframing may have a deeper and prolonged ef-
fect on minimizing imposter tendencies than coping strategies that merely relieve the symptoms.er, but also as a
challenger who helps shape the faculty member’s identity development through influencing their attributional pro-
cess. Future research could delve further into the specific role of mentoring and other forms of social support to
moderate the effect of faculty imposter tendencies, and help imposters to take a more balanced approach to criti-
cism and setbacks.
Taken together, the coping findings extend Kelley (1973) and others formative work on attribution theory by focus-
ing on how to assist faculty in developing realistic and appropriate attributions of work performance. Mark and
Smith’s (2012) study on the relationship between attributions, coping and outcomes illustrates this well. In their
study, participants’ reporting stable attributions for negative performance and use of negative coping (self-blame
and avoidance) also reported higher levels of anxiety and depression whereas engaging in more positive coping and
having more global attributions for positive events was negatively related to these same outcomes. In sum, an im-
portant future research question is whether individuals can learn how to change performance attributions and which
coping skills are most effective in doing so.
Practical Implications for HRD
Although studies on imposter tendencies have focused mostly on graduate students, an important scholarly contri-
bution of this work is elucidating faculty differences in reporting imposter tendencies, the relationship between im-
poster tendencies and job burnout, faculty use of coping attempts, and the specific role of mentoring. Results of this
study are particularly relevant for advancing the discussion of HRD’s role and interventions in faculty develop-
ment, both at the university level and among academic professional organizations.
Given the importance of others recognizing imposter tendencies and the subsequent effect of burnout, faculty can
be alerted to the concept of imposter phenomenon and adaptive coping approaches, as a part of new faculty orienta-
tion and continued faculty development programs. Making departmental and program administrators and faculty
mentors aware of imposter tendencies is also important, as studies have shown that social support from faculty col-
leagues can buffer the effects of work strain on psychological well-being (Moeller & Chung-Yan, 2013). Interest-
ingly, the majority of mentoring experience described in this study occurred during the faculty’s graduate educa-
tion (e.g. advisor, major professor, faculty mentor) with no mention of mentors once they assumed a faculty role.
Researchers have noted the uneven use of mentoring in the academy for many years, calling for not only more, but
different (e.g. peer, internal and external, virtual) mentoring formats to address the faculty needs at different career
stages (Parkman & Beard, 2008; Sorcinelli & Yun, 2007). For example, Syracuse University (through their Nation-
al Science Foundation ADVANCE grant) developed a mentoring model consisting of four distinct roles: navigator,
sponsor, coach, and confidant (Garland & Alestalo, 2014). Each mentoring role is part of a larger dvelopmental
network to faciliate the faculty member’s overall career success with the goal of developing a “mentoring constel-
lation” (Van Emmerik, 2004), rather than having one mentor serve in all capacities. Using attributional framing
New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27 (2)
10
would also be a helpful approach that faculty mentors can use with mentees who they suspect struggle with imposter
tendencies.
Similar approaches could be also used in faculty development programs offered by HRD-related professional organiza-
tions such as the Academy of Human Resource Development, University Council for Workforce and Human Resource
Education, and the University Forum for Human Resources Development. To date, faculty development programs
across these professional bodies have included noteworthy experiences to refine faculty technical expertise (i.e., re-
search approaches, exchanging research and teaching ideas), exchanging data and ideas on faculty composition and pro-
gram development, and engaging in advocacy and research initiatives (for a full review of each professional organiza-
tion, see New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 25:4, Perspectives in HRD, 2013). Giv-
en HRD’s focus on developing human capital through learning and development, a greater focus on developing faculty
identity development, and how this relates to overall satisfaction and performance is a missing area of discussion and
inquiry in the HRD field. Targeted conference seminars, experiential learning, and leveraging developmental networks
that extend outside of the conference experience are additional ways that discourse around faculty identity issues may
occur. For academic leaders, a discussion of how to recognize imposter signs, and to cultivate a supportive departmental
climate would also be helpful in addressing contextual issues that influence faculty satisfaction and performance.
Summary
Imposter tendencies are alive and well among higher education faculty and associate with reports of work stress, their
use of coping skills, and the perceived impact of mentors. While this study used a modest sample of HRD faculty, the
initial findings can be used to explore imposter tendencies among faculty to identify individual, group and organization-
al approaches that may temper distorted faculty attributes to success and failure implicit in feeling like an imposter. Fur-
ther inquiry into this area has specific implications to onboarding and acclimating early career faculty, organizational
developmental efforts focused on improving departmental climate, faculty performance issues, and addressing issues of
non-tenure track faculty in university settings.
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