The Relationship between Social Anxiety and Leadership Emergence: A Resource Perspective by Katherine Naomi Rau A thesis submitted to the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts at Florida Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master’s of Science in Industrial-Organizational Psychology Melbourne, Florida September, 2018 We the undersigned committee hereby approve the attached thesis, “The Relationship between Social Anxiety and Leadership Emergence: A Resource Perspective,” by Katherine Naomi Rau. _________________________________________________ Dr. Jessica Wildman Associate Professor Industrial Organizational Psychology _________________________________________________ Dr. Lisa Steelman Interim Dean COPLA Professor and Program Chair Industrial Organizational Psychology _________________________________________________ Dr. Kimberly Demoret Assistant Professor Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences _________________________________________________ Dr. Lisa Steelman Interim Dean COPLA Professor and Program Chair Industrial Organizational Psychology Abstract The Relationship between Social Anxiety and Leadership Emergence: A Resource Perspective Author: Katherine Rau Advisor: Jessica Wildman, Ph.D. Despite its certain prevalence, mental illness has remained largely unstudied in the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. The research at hand addresses a widening gap in the literature: what does mental illness mean for leadership, particularly leadership emergence? In attempting to answer this question, I examined the experience of social anxiety as it is the most commonly diagnosed anxiety disorder and has particular relevance to the workplace. By utilizing a resource perspective, I found that controlling for personality, social anxiety did significantly predict emotional exhaustion in terms of both frequency and intensity. Emotional exhaustion and professional self-efficacy significantly predicted leadership emergence but were not found to act as parallel mediators in the relationship between social anxiety and leadership emergence when controlling for personality. Additionally, psychological safety was not found to significantly moderate the relationship between social anxiety and leadership emergence after iii controlling for personality. Familiarity was found to mitigate the negative effects of social anxiety on professional self-efficacy but only mitigated the negative effects of social anxiety on emotional exhaustion for those with low levels of social anxiety. Future research is needed to further explore the sequential ordering of the burnout facets and investigate what other interventions may reduce the emotional exhaustion experienced by socially anxious individuals. iv Table of Contents Table of Contents................................................................................................. v! List of Figures .................................................................................................... vii! List of Tables ..................................................................................................... vii! Acknowledgement............................................................................................. viii! Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1! Literature Review ................................................................................................ 5! Leadership .................................................................................................................. 5! Leadership emergence .............................................................................................. 6! Social Anxiety ........................................................................................................... 10! Prevalent frameworks of social anxiety ................................................................... 13! Social anxiety and personality ................................................................................ 16! Known associated outcomes ................................................................................... 18! Psychological Safety ................................................................................................. 20! Perceptions of psychological safety ........................................................................ 21! Conservation of Resources Theory .......................................................................... 22! Burnout .................................................................................................................. 22! Social support......................................................................................................... 24! Hypothesis Development ................................................................................... 26! Study 1 ............................................................................................................... 37! Methods .................................................................................................................... 37! Participants ............................................................................................................ 37! Procedure and materials.......................................................................................... 37! Social Anxiety ................................................................................................................ 38! Personality...................................................................................................................... 38! Leadership Emergence .................................................................................................... 39! Results ....................................................................................................................... 39! Study 2 ............................................................................................................... 42! Methods .................................................................................................................... 42! Participants ............................................................................................................ 42! Procedure and materials.......................................................................................... 43! Emotional Exhaustion ..................................................................................................... 43! Professional Self-Efficacy ............................................................................................... 43! Familiarity with Team Members ..................................................................................... 44! Psychological Safety ....................................................................................................... 44! Results ....................................................................................................................... 44! v Exploratory Analyses ........................................................................................ 50! Overall Discussion ............................................................................................. 52! Limitations and Future Directions ........................................................................... 56! Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 59! References .......................................................................................................... 61! Appendix A Survey Measures ........................................................................... 72! Appendix B Figures ........................................................................................... 77! Appendix C Tables ............................................................................................ 82! vi List of Figures Figure 1. Theoretical Model of Proposed Relationships ....................................... 77! Figure 2. Distribution of Social Anxiety Scores in Study 1 .................................. 78! Figure 3. Distribution of Social Anxiety Scores in Study 2 .................................. 79! Figure 4. Parallel Mediation Results for Hypothesis 5 .......................................... 80! Figure 5. The Interaction Effect of Familiarity and Social Anxiety on General Emotional Exhaustion .................................................................................. 80! Figure 6. The Interaction Effect of Familiarity and Social Anxiety on Professional Self-Efficacy ................................................................................................ 81! vii List of Tables Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for Unstandardized Predictor and Criterion Measures in Study 1 .................................................................................................... 82! Table 2. Uncorrected Correlations for Study 1 Variables ..................................... 82! Table 3. Summary of Regression Analysis for Predictor Variables on Other-rated Leadership Emergence in Study 1 ................................................................ 83! Table 4. Summary of Regression Analysis for Predictor Variables on Self-rated Leadership Emergence in Study 1 ................................................................ 84! Table 5. Summary of Regression Analysis for Extraversion and Social Anxiety on Self-rated Leadership