Zachary A. Connor
A decade of leadership and operations practice across healthcare, finance, and technology industries—now turned toward research on the psychological experience of leading.
About
Zachary (Zak) Connor has over a decade of leadership and operations experience across healthcare, financial services, and technology. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Business Administration at Clemson University, and holds an MBA from West Virginia University and a B.S. in Business Administration from Peirce College.
His research positions the leader as subject rather than source, examining the lived experience of occupying an organizational leadership role, including the psychological and emotional costs of doing so, such as upward incivility, perfectionism, and rumination, and the personal, relational, and organizational conditions that enable leaders to sustain well-being over time. He is particularly interested in how leaders make sense of purpose, well-being, and sustainability within their roles.
Research interests
The leader as subject
Reframing leadership around the person who occupies the role rather than the outcomes they produce for others.
Role-based stressors
Upward incivility, perfectionism, rumination, and emotional labor as recurring strains of holding a leadership position.
Leader well-being
The individual and organizational conditions that sustain leaders psychologically over the long arc of a career.
Sustainable leadership
What it takes for leadership to remain viable—not just effective—across time, teams, and turbulence.
Publications & working papers
Teaching
Organizational Innovation, Creativity, and Change
Working across boundaries to plan, execute, and sustain change initiatives.
Health Care Strategic Management
Foundations of organizing, leading, and the human side of health care organizations.
Health Care Marketing
Navigating ethics, compliance, and strategy in healthcare marketing.
Global Markets, Local Stories: Positioning Brands for Impact
Balancing global brand consistency with local market relevance.