Haven't specifically examined the imposter phenomenon but my co-author and I looked at the prevalence of socio-paths in management in our organisations. May be useful for your study. 

Article Organisational sociopaths: Rarely challenged, often promoted. Why?

Thank you so much! I love studying the "dark side" of employee behavior. Is the full article available on this site? I am very new on here. I would love to cite you and your co-author in my study as I do plan on discussing this "dark side" of behavior in the workplace and your study would definitely fit within that discussion. Thank you again.

Best,

Sherri

That is very interesting. The question then: "Are impostors necessarily sociopaths?"

There was an excellent impostor case in Australia in the 1990's: 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/sara-grasso-fooled-family-and-friends-with-her-tales-of-her-fantastic-legal-career/story-fni0fee2-1226429305676

It would be useful to define "impostor", particularly in reference to toxic behaviours and their effects within the organisation. I would suggest it is equally important to ensure that this is not confused with the well intended individual, who may be ineffective, but is attempting to achieve a positive outcome for which he or she is not equipped.

I would start with the construction of social reality according to Giddens.

Wow! This woman takes imposterism to a whole new level. Thank you for sharing. I agree, I must differentiate being an impostor and suffering from impostor phenomenon. Impostor phenomenon (IP) was coined by two psychologists (Clance & Imes, 1978) in the late 1970’s. This phenomenon is typically seen in high achieving individuals who internalize their failures and externalize their successes. It has to do with their locus of control orientation. In other words, even though they have received advanced degrees and accolades, they have a sense that they are frauds or fakes and have reached their level of success due to luck or chance. They fear being unmasked as the frauds they believe they are. i.e. I’m not smart enough to be here, everyone else is smarter, it’s just a matter of time before I am discovered, etc. It can lead to a lot of maladaptive behavior, stress, anxiety, etc. It is very prevalent among grad students and individuals entering new careers. IP does have a negative impact in the workplace because of the self-handicapping nature of the phenomenon. I appreciate your suggestion of looking at the construction of social reality and look forward to reviewing Gidden's work.

Thanks again for sharing,

Sherri

Clance, P.R. & Imes, S.A. (1978). The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241-247. doi: 10.1037/h0086006

It is clear that your impostors have self-positioning psychoses. They are not impostors, but perceive themselves to be, and the damage begins from this point. I would suggest this is the lesser of two evils.

Pech and Slade would come at this discussion from the angle that impostors are those who defraud the organisation by representing themselves as something they are not, and do so with the intent to exploit  and self-advance. 

I look forward to reading more about your phenomenon.

Self-positioning psychoses? This is a new term that I will be happily exploring in the very near future as well as the work of Pech and Slade. I am exploring IP through the lens of core self-evaluation theory. Thank you so much for reaching out. I look forward to finishing up reading your work on sociopaths in the workplace.

Sherri Elidrissi How did your research go? Sounds fascinating!