Objective Emergency medicine is a discipline with complex leadership demands, which are experienced by junior and senior emergency physicians alike. In this environment, emergency physicians can struggle to work out what it means to be a leader and develop professional identities as leaders, necessitating a leader identity workspace. The aim of the present study is to explore whether emergency physicians view their work environment as leader identity workspaces.

Methods An online qualitative survey was used that included open-ended questions about emergency physicians' experience of their workplace as a ‘space’ to craft their leadership identity. Participants' responses were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results Three themes, comprising several subthemes, were identified that related to emergency physicians' ideal leader selves (leader dreams and desired leader selves), their experience of the community of clinicians in hospitals (confrontational sentient communities) and the types of rituals emergency physicians yearn for to support and legitimate their leadership (seeking vital leadership rites of passage).

Conclusion Our results suggest that neither EDs nor hospitals more generally exhibit the properties of, or are experienced by emergency physicians, as leader identity workspaces.