Zak Connor — Ph.D. Student, Clemson University

Zak Connor brings over a decade of hands-on leadership and operations experience across healthcare, financial services, and technology, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Business Administration at Clemson University. His research examines the leader as subject rather than source — exploring the emotional and psychological experience of occupying a leadership role, including the toll of role-based stressors such as upward incivility, perfectionism, rumination, and emotional labor, and the individual and organizational conditions that support long-term leader well-being and sustainability.

Research interests

self_improvement

Leader well-being

Sustainability and resilience in leadership roles over time

person_off

Upward incivility

Subordinate-to-leader mistreatment and its psychological toll

psychology

Rumination & perfectionism

Cognitive and self-regulatory stressors unique to leaders

theater_comedy

Emotional labor

The cost of managing emotions as a function of the role

Keywords

Organizational behavior Leadership Occupational stress Workplace well-being Managerial psychology

Education

school

Ph.D., Business Administration — in progress

Clemson University

school

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

West Virginia University

school

B.S., Business Administration

Peirce College

Curriculum vitae

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