Faculty
Basima Tewfik (pronounced buh-see-ma too-fik) is an Assistant Professor of Work and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Her main stream of research examines the science of the social self at work. Specifically, she studies how interpersonally rooted psychological experiences, often perceived as vulnerabilities, can also function as sources of strength or yield unanticipated benefits. As a micro-organizational behavior scholar, she integrates insights from management, psychology, sociology, and communications to develop theoretically rich accounts of how individuals navigate the social complexities of organizational life.
At the center of Tewfik’s research is what is popularly known as the impostor phenomenon (“impostor syndrome”), which she reconceptualizes as workplace impostor thoughts. She defines workplace impostor thoughts as the belief that others overestimate one’s competence at work. Once underexplored in organizational research, impostor thoughts are now gaining momentum—momentum that her work has helped catalyze and shape.
Building on this anchor around impostor thoughts, her broader “science of the social self” research program examines other interpersonally rooted phenomena often assumed to be liabilities to uncover when and why they may paradoxically yield adaptive or constructive outcomes. These phenomena include engagement variability (the tendency to inconsistently engage across work roles); workplace microaggressions (subtle interpersonal slights that undermine social identity); request-declining (the active decision to withhold help from others); intragroup conflict (the tensions that arise during team interactions); and voice (speaking up in the workplace).
Methodologically, her research relies on multi-method, multi-source designs that enhance both internal and external validity. Each of her papers typically includes some combination of field surveys, video-based behavioral observations, immersive lab studies, multi-part online experiments, and field interventions. This breadth allows her to articulate and test dueling mechanisms, illuminate fine-grained micro-processes, incorporate boundary conditions, and rule out alternative explanations, thereby advancing theoretical precision.
Her solo-authored and co-authored work has appeared in the Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Organization Science. Her dissertation, entitled “Impostor thoughts as a double-edged sword: Theoretical conceptualization, construct measurement, and relationships with work-related outcomes” was named the winner of the 2018 INFORMS Dissertation Proposal Competition. Her work has additionally received recognition from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the International Association for Conflict Management, and the Academy of Management. She was named by Poets & Quants as a “40 Under 40” Best Business School Professor in 2021 and by Thinkers50 as one of 30 thinkers to watch in 2022.
Prior to her graduate studies, Basima worked as a management consultant at Booz & Company, engaging with national and global clients across a wide range of industries, including financial services, healthcare, education, and aerospace and defense.
She received her PhD in management (Organizational Behavior) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her AB, summa cum laude, in psychology with a secondary degree in economics from Harvard University.
Jackson, Summer R. and Basima Tewfik (equal authorship; authors listed alphabetically). Academy of Management Review. Forthcoming. ResearchGate.
Tewfik, Basima A. Journal of Applied Psychology. Forthcoming. APA. ResearchGate.
Tewfik, Basima, Jeremy A. Yip, and Sean R. Martin. Academy of Management Annals Vol. 19, No. 1 (2025): 38-73.
Tewfik, Basima, Daniel Kim, and Shefali V. Patel. Journal of Applied Psychology Vol. 109, No. 2 (2024): 257–282.
Tewfik, Basima. The Academy of Management Journal Vol. 65, No. 3 (2022): 988-1018.
Basima A. Tewfik, Timothy Kundro, and Philip Tetlock. August 2018.
In a new study, MIT Sloan assistant professor of Work and Organization Studies Basima Tewfik finds that in certain situations, there's a bright side to having workplace impostor thoughts.
Under the right conditions, the targets and perpetrators of workplace microaggressions can restore their relationship and, in some cases, grow from the incident.
Research by assistant professor Basima Tewfik and co-authors revealed that employees with more frequent workplace impostor thoughts were often seen as more interpersonally effective. The very doubt that makes someone question their competence may drive them to listen more intently, collaborate more genuinely, and seek help more readily.
Professor Basima Tewfik and co-authors wrote: "By recognizing that experiencing impostor thoughts can be related to both positive and negative outcomes, managers can work to limit the downside while accentuating the upside. In doing so, managers can shift from trying to 'fix' impostor thoughts, at the risk of overcorrection, to instead guiding employees to manage them skillfully."
"If you take bad outcomes for granted, it can make you feel really locked in at a time when workplaces are becoming more diverse."
Research by assistant professor Basima Tewfik and co-author suggested that microaggressions don't have to torpedo workplace relationships.
