Threats to Professional Roles in Part-Time Leadership

Abstract. Leaders working part time struggle with a lack of respect and acceptance from their subordinates and their management colleagues. Leadership as a part-time role does not match the traditional expectation of leaders being omnipresent and always responsive (Jochmann-Döhl, 2017). Although leaders working part time (LPT) are supported by subordinates and colleagues, their supportive behavior is often coupled with accusations that work-related problems occur only because the leader is working part time. According to the stress-as-offense-to-self theory (SOS, Semmer et al., 2007 ; Semmer et al., 2019 ), such dysfunctional supportive behavior triggers threats by offending the need for belonging. This study serves to strengthen SOS theory and extend its application beyond stress research by investigating the effects of LPT threat experiences on rumination, LPT job satisfaction, and role identification. Further, it empirically confirms the need-based threat mechanism. Results based on an online questionnaire ( N = 101 LPT) show that dysfunctional support by subordinates and management colleagues relates to a feeling of exclusion by significant others as an indicator of an offended need for belonging. Furthermore, the results indicate that the feeling of exclusion mediates the relationship between dysfunctional support and role identification and between dysfunctional support and LPT job satisfaction. No mediation effect was found for rumination. In addition to providing a theoretically differentiated understanding and prediction of threats, the study includes important practical starting points for the risk management of LPT.