“Peeling Back the Onion”: An Exploration of Leader Self-disclosure and Its Effects on Employees

PhD Candidate So Young Choi of the management department will be defending her dissertation proposal, “‘Peeling Back the Onion’: An Exploration of Leader Self-Disclosure and its Effects on Employees,” on May 1, 2023.

The time and location of her proposal defense is 3–4:30 p.m., GHall 722.

Many thanks to Choi’s dissertation committee:

• Committee Chair: Mary Mawritz – Associate Professor – Drexel University
• Committee Member: Jonathan Ziegert - Professor – Drexel University
• Committee Member: Christian Resick – Associate Professor – Drexel University
• Committee Member: Lauren D’Innocenzo – Associate Professor – Drexel University
• Committee Member: Daniel Van Knippenberg – Professor of Management – Rice University

Abstract:
Self-disclosure is voluntary behavior whereby people reveal information about themselves to others during an interpersonal interaction. Even though individuals are not required or obligated to share their personal information with others at work, they can engage in self-disclosure to build workplace relationships. However, there has been very little research on self-disclosure at work, and scholars have yet to fully examine the theoretical mechanisms by which self-disclosure can help individuals build and develop beneficial workplace relationships. This dissertation builds on prior theoretical and empirical work on self-disclosure to develop a typology of four types of self-disclosure in the workplace, namely positive work self-disclosure, negative work self-disclosure, positive nonwork self-disclosure, and negative nonwork self-disclosure. Furthermore, drawing from social exchange theory, this study applies the four types of self-disclosure to leader-follower relationships to determine how a leader’s self-disclosure can influence social exchange relationships with their followers as reflected by the followers’ cognition- and affect-based trust in the leader and subsequent felt obligation to the leader, which in turn, can motivate the followers to engage in their own self-disclosure, improve their task performance, and conduct organizational citizenship behavior toward their leader. Further, I suggest the amount of leader self-disclosure serves as a first-stage moderator by considering how high amounts of leader self-disclosure can weaken the positive effects of leader self-disclosure on follower cognition- and affect-based trust in the leader. To test the preliminary effects of self-disclosure, I conducted a pilot study utilizing a team simulation in an undergraduate business course. The results of this study provided empirical evidence that leader self-disclosure influences follower behavioral reactions. To examine the hypothesized relationships, I will conduct a time-lagged, field study of full-time working adults. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.