Basima Tewfik

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.

Interested in using the Workplace Impostor Thoughts Scale (WITS) in your research on the impostor phenomenon / impostor syndrome? Here it is; simply cite the source (Tewfik, 2022).

Response scale is a six-point frequency scale (1 = never; 2 = very rarely; 3 = rarely; 4 = occasionally; 5 = frequently; 6 = very frequently).

Over the past ___ months/weeks, how frequently have you had the following thoughts at work?

     -At work, people important to me think I am more capable than I think I am

     -At work, others think I have more knowledge or ability than I think I do

     -At work, other people see me more positively than my capabilities warrant

     -At work, I have received greater recognition from others than I merit

     -At work, I am not as qualified as others think I am

Why might you consider using the Workplace Impostor Thoughts Scale (WITS) when studying the impostor phenomenon / impostor syndrome?

The Workplace Impostor Thoughts Scale (WITS) measures the defining feature of the impostor phenomenon, which is the belief that others see you as more competent than you see yourself (Tewfik, 2022).

I use the term “workplace impostor thoughts” to address construct drift in the literature. Over time, impostor phenomenon has come to refer to a much broader collection of experiences than the phenomenon originally described, including self-doubt, fear of failure or discovery, and difficulty internalizing success. The term workplace impostor thoughts distinguishes the defining cognition from these related experiences and makes clear what is—and is not—being measured (Tewfik, 2022; Tewfik, Yip, & Martin, 2025).

This distinction matters because some of these related experiences may be consequences of believing that others overestimate you, rather than part of the impostor phenomenon itself. Many commonly used measures incorporate these experiences into the measure. WITS keeps them out of the measure so researchers can examine what impostor thoughts actually do—whether they lead to anxiety or confidence, avoidance or effort, poorer or better performance, and how their effects depend on the situation. Their consequences can therefore be discovered rather than assumed.

For a broader discussion of this conceptual and measurement approach, see Tewfik, Yip, and Martin (2025). For examples of research using WITS, see Tewfik (2022) and Tewfik (2026).

In short, if you want to capture the impostor phenomenon itself, consider using a measure designed to isolate its defining feature, such as WITS. If you are interested in self-doubt, lack of belonging, fear, or other related experiences, consider measures designed to capture those constructs directly rather than assuming they are measures of the impostor phenomenon.