Claim denied: An examination of rejection in building a leader identity

This study integrates the literature on internal mobility perspectives and leader identity construction theory to examine how rejection of leadership opportunities relates to key employee outcomes. Leader identity construction theory suggests that leadership advancement depends not only on individuals’ aspirations but also on the granting of the claim to leadership itself, whereas rejection from advancement may signal constrained organizational growth opportunities and diminished future leadership prospects. Drawing on these perspectives, this study examines whether rejection from different sources is associated with employee turnover, performance, and misconduct. Four source-based rejection variables serve as the focal predictors: current manager rejection, human resources (HR) rejection, hiring manager rejection, and self-rejection. These variables capture distinct pathways through which employees’ leadership aspirations may be denied by organizational actors or voluntarily withdrawn by applicants themselves. Claim consideration, defined as the average time applicants spend in the selection process, is examined as a moderator expected to shape the strength of these relationships. Control variables, including age, gender, and organizational tenure, are included to account for alternative explanations. Using archival organizational data, the analyses provide limited support for predicted relationships. Most hypothesized associations between rejection sources and employee outcomes were not statistically significant. However, hiring manager rejection was significantly associated with subsequent employee performance, suggesting that rejection delivered by the ultimate decision-maker most directly tied to the role may carry distinct behavioral implications. The largely null findings, coupled with the unique effect of hiring manager rejection on performance, point to more constrained and context-specific consequences of leadership claim rejection than existing theory would predict.