2016 Annual Conference

This study seeks to understand how executives experience vulnerability as they transition into the position of CEO; especially as the new executive learns about his or her new role, responsibilities, relationships with the staff, community leaders and the organization’s Board of Directors.

Scholars and practitioners who design leadership development or executive development programs would be interested in this session. This study will help guide practitioners and educators as they develop programs that facilitate the development of senior level executives. Scholars benefit from this study as it provides a different, deeper and richer understanding of how adult learners experience vulnerability during times of transition, phenomena that is under-researched in the adult learning literature.

The presenter will share and solicit feedback to the research design for a proposed study of the nature of vulnerability as the CEO transitions and learns his or her new role. This session will share the problem, purpose, research questions this study explores and conceptual framework, which synthesizes literature in the biographical, social and transformative nature of vulnerability. Brene Brown’s Ted Talk (2010) on the “Power of Vulnerability” has been viewed over 22 million times, indicating an interest in the topic. Scholars, as well as practitioners have observed that workplace learning can cause anxiety, fear and expose an individual’s vulnerability, however there has not been much done to understand the phenomenon of vulnerability. Kaiser and Kaplan (2006) indicated that executives in the workplace are sensitive to being hurt by repeat experiences of a painful event from the past, and that this disposition can cause anger, fear and panic. Turner and Mavin (2007) claimed that vulnerability is an under researched aspect of leadership and they indicated that further research is necessary to understand how leaders experience isolation, vulnerability and emotional displays. Kegan and Lahey (2009) indicated that anxiety management creates blind spots, prevents new learnings and constrains action.