THE IMPOSTOR PHENOMENON AND INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOR: A CRITICAL SYNTHESIS OF A CONTESTED RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

The impostor phenomenon (IP), a persistent internal experience of intellectual or professional fraudulence despite objective evidence of competence, has traditionally been treated in organizational research as a straightforward liability for innovative work behavior (IWB), the intentional generation, promotion, and implementation of new ideas at work. This paper critically synthesizes recent literature on the IP-IWB relationship and argues that this deficit-only framing is incomplete. Drawing on a narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed studies, doctoral dissertations, and integrative reviews published largely from 2020 onward, the paper shows that IP is a multidimensional construct whose self-doubt and external-attribution components suppress innovation through diminished self-efficacy, eroded psychological safety, and emotional exhaustion, while its achievement-pressure component can, under specific conditions, positively predict idea generation through a compensatory, problem-solving-oriented pathway. The paper further maps the leadership, organizational climate, and cultural boundary conditions, including power distance and supportive leadership styles, that determine which of these two pathways dominates in a given context, and highlights gender and cross-cultural gaps in the current evidence base. The synthesis culminates in an integrated framework that reframes IP not as a uniform obstacle to be eliminated but as an ambivalent psychological state whose innovation-related consequences depend on individual construal and organizational design. The paper concludes with a targeted research agenda emphasizing longitudinal designs, cross-cultural samples, and gender-sensitive moderation models, alongside practical recommendations for leadership development, feedback design, and innovation climate-building that organizations can use to channel impostor-driven anxiety toward productive rather than self-defeating outcomes.