Dr H.W. (Ho Wa (Hodar)) Lam MPhil
Hodar Lam is a PhD candidate in Organisational Behaviour at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He received his MPhil in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and MPhil in Organisation Research from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
With a background in HRM and counselling, Hodar's research focuses on emotions and well-being issues at work. Specifically in his PhD, he is examining the phenomenon of loneliness among leaders. Other research topics he investigates include job insecurity, work stress, and overtime work.
PhD Track Lonely-ship: The Emergence and Experience of Leader Loneliness
Over the past few decades, interest in loneliness – broadly defined as the subjective, unpleasant experience of social disconnectedness – has grown significantly. Scholars from disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and philosophy have been studying the phenomenon and its largely undesirable consequences to individual health, general functioning, and relational outcomes. Despite rising academic interest in these adjacent academic domains, loneliness has only recently started to attract attention in the management field. This is surprising, given the potential negative organisational and managerial implications of loneliness.
Leaders, particularly, seem to be vulnerable to experiences of loneliness. Yet, scholars tend to conflate leader loneliness with general loneliness. Considering leadership often involves directing teams, influencing strategic directions, and making high-pressure decisions in organisations, a generalised approach ignores these leadership-specific factors that may trigger loneliness experiences.
To better understand this overlooked phenomenon, I adopted multiple perspectives and methods in this PhD thesis, including (a) a review-based critique of the dispersed literature of leader loneliness; (b) a qualitative interview study on the leadership narratives of loneliness; and (c) a quantitative project on the loneliness of mid-level managers, using an experiment and a three-wave panel survey study. Together, my work is a timely response to the loneliness “epidemic” and calls for more attention to leader well-being issues in both research and practice.
- Keywords
- Emotion at work, employee well-being, isolation, leader-follower relationship, leadership, loneliness, mental health, narratives, power, self-disclosure, social connectedness
- Time frame
- 2016 - 2023
Publications
Article (9)
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Academic (5)
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Lam, H., Giessner, S. R., Shemla, M., & Werner, M. D. (2024). Leader and leadership loneliness: A review-based critique and path to future research. Leadership Quarterly, 35(3), Article 101780. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101780
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Monzani, L., Bibic, K., Haslam, S. A., Kerschreiter, R., Wilson Lemoine, J. E., Steffens, N. K., Akfirat, S. A., Ballada, C. J. A., Bazarov, T., Aruta, J. J. B. R., Avanzi, L., Bunjak, A., Černe, M., Edelmann, C. M., Epitropaki, O., Fransen, K., García-Ael, C., Giessner, S., Gleibs, I., ... van Dick, R. (2024). Political leaders' identity leadership and civic citizenship behavior: The mediating role of trust in fellow citizens and the moderating role of economic inequality. Political Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12952
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van Dierendonck, D., & Lam, H. (2023). Interventions to enhance eudaemonic psychological well-being: A meta-analytic review with Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-being. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 15(2), 594-610. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12398
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van Dick, R., Cordes, B. L., Lemoine, J. E., Steffens, N. K., Haslam, S. A., Akfirat, S. A., Ballada, C. J. A., Bazarov, T., Aruta, J. J. B. R., Avanzi, L., Bodla, A. A., Bunjak, A., Černe, M., Dumont, K. B., Edelmann, C. M., Epitropaki, O., Fransen, K., García-Ael, C., Giessner, S., ... Kerschreiter, R. (2021). Identity leadership, employee burnout and the mediating role of team identification: Evidence from the global identity leadership development project. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(22), Article 12081. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182212081
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Affum-Osei, E., Goto, S. G., Yeung, J. C., Wang, R., Lam, H., Abdul-Nasiru, I., & Chan, D. K.-S. (2020). Examining the factorial validity of the entrepreneurial career motives scale: A five-nation comparison. Journal of Career Development, 48(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845319898870
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Professional (4)
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Lam, H. (2020). Lonely at the top? Try being in the middle. Unknown, 19-21.
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Lam, H., Giessner, S., & Shemla, M. (2020). Four Simple Ways To Combat The Loneliness Caused By COVID-19. Forbes. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/126805
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Lam, H., Giessner, S., & Shemla, M. (2020). Tips: Loneliness and working from home during the COVID-19 crisis. RSM Discovery - Management Knowledge. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/125754
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Lam, H. (2014). The Connection Between Exhaustion and Psychological Detachment From Work. Unknown. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/127005
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Doctoral Thesis (1)
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Internal (1)
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Lam, H. (2023). Lonely-ship: The Emergence and Experience of Leader Loneliness. [Doctoral Thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam]. Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).
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Event (1)
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Hong Kong
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