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Dr. Anika Cloutier is examining human behaviour in an organizational context. Her research focuses on leadership, and the interrelated topics of the work-family interface and occupational health. Anika is focused on understanding antecedents to leadership, including identifying factors that predict who emerges as a leader, and uncovering why some leaders behave well, while others behave badly.

First, Anika asks who becomes a leader, who does not, and why? Leadership roles offer attractive work characteristics such as higher salary and greater autonomy, but not everyone becomes a leader. Her research delves into the factors that derail leadership emergence, such as social adversity, minority status and childhood experiences. For example, Anika has shown that experiencing or witnessing domestic violence during adolescence limits individuals’ opportunity to occupy a leadership role later in life by hindering their ability to develop positive interpersonal relationships with others. Currently, Anika is expanding upon this work by considering other antecedents that limit leader emergence, such as mental illness.ÌýÌýÌý

Second, Anika’s research asks why some leaders engage in positive and effective leadership behaviours, while others engage in negative and destructive behaviours. To answer this question, she examines how leaders’ home life spills over into work, affecting leadership behaviours. For example, in one experiment drawing on couples, Anika has shown that partners who experience positive relational behaviours have the psychological resources to engage in more effective leadership behaviours, whereas partners who experience conflict have fewer psychological resources, resulting in abusive leadership behaviours.

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