Making your own silver linings: How actors manage role reluctance to enact leadership

23.04.2026 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR

ABSTRACT

Leadership research typically assumes that individuals voluntarily choose their roles, yet many leaders are nudged, pressured, or even forced into such positions. We examine this phenomenon of reluctant leadership through the lens of identity theory, conceptualizing reluctance as an experienced state of tension between role and self. Drawing on a longitudinal study 48 candidates within the Swiss Armed Forces, who were compelled into leadership roles, we investigate reluctance during role enactment. Our analysis reveals how reluctant leaders manage experienced role reluctance through identity management strategies that balance self and role narratives, enabling leadership role enactments. We show that through opening and closing meaning-gates, reluctant enactments become stabilized and allow individuals to turn reluctance into a resource for leadership enactments. By unpacking how reluctant leaders navigate imposed roles, our study contributes to general management and leadership research by highlighting non-conventional pathways into leadership and their implications for role enactment.

Lieu

Bâtiment: Uni Mail

Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40
1205 Geneva

Room M 3383, 3rd floor

entrée libre