The Effects of Impostor Syndrome on Swedish Women in Leadership Positions

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this qualitative research was to acknowledge the gap in literature concerning the relationship between female leadership in a Swedish context with impostor syndrome. The focus was on analyzing whether impostor syndrome has an impact on the career progression of female leaders and how organizations can either exacerbate or mitigate the effects of suffering from impostor syndrome in the workplace.  In order to reach a conclusion aligned with the purpose and to respond to the conducted research questions, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with women in different leadership positions, operating within different companies and industries in Sweden. The interviews along with the theoretical framework allowed the authors to perform a thematic analysis in order to structure and analyze the gathered information.  The empirical data that was collected provided sufficient evidence for the authors to draw conclusions with regards to the posed research questions. It was concluded that impostor syndrome is a phenomenon that was frequently experienced among the female leaders, which could be confirmed in the literature. It could also be concluded that this was not a factor that had hindered them in their career progression. Moreover, the organizational support systems could be concluded to have a great impact in how the effects of impostor syndrome could be mitigated or further exacerbated.