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
Zak Connor brings over a decade of hands-on leadership and operations experience across healthcare, financial services, and technology industries, 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.
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
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.