Abstract
Self-leadership has gained popularity in organizational research and practice. It is comprised of three main components: behavior-focused strategies, constructive thought patterns, and focusing on natural rewards. Past work has distinguished self-leadership from some personality traits, but more work is needed beyond the five-factor model. This study examined construct validity in relation to HEXACO and self-regulatory traits, as well as incremental validity in predicting self-reported job performance using hierarchical multiple regression. In Study 1, two HEXACO traits (conscientiousness and extraversion) and all self-regulatory traits (public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness, ego-resiliency, and self-control) were related to at least one self-leadership component. Consistent with the theory behind self-leadership, self-regulatory traits predicted additional variance in self-leadership beyond the HEXACO traits. This finding demonstrates that self-leadership is related to, but distinct from, self-regulation. Study 2 replicated findings in relation to self-regulatory traits contributing additional explanatory variance in self-leadership. Study 2 also showed that self-leadership predicted unique variance for various self-reported job performance dimensions (proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity) and role contexts (individual, team, organizational). Thus, self-leadership is useful predictor of self-reported job performance beyond personality and self-regulatory traits. These findings support the validity and uniqueness of the self-leadership construct in self-regulation theory.
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Notes
We did not include demographic covariates in our model based on recommendations from Spector and Brannick (2010) due to issues with including demographics in prediction models. Additionally, only age and gender would qualify as potential covariates for one model (i.e., focusing on natural rewards) in Study 1. Exploratory analyses using these covariates did not change the results.
Openness was associated with behavior-focused strategies (β = 0.19), constructive thought (β = 0.23) patterns and focusing on natural rewards (β = 0.18) in the first step before including self-regulatory traits. These findings also held for Study 2 for all three factors (β = 0.12, β = 0.23, and β = 0.15, respectively).
Demographic covarates were also not included in Study 2. None of the demographic variables were associated with self-reported performance outcomes, which would potentially warrant inclusion.
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Bailey, S.F., Barber, L.K. & Justice, L.M. Is Self-Leadership Just Self-Regulation? Exploring Construct Validity with HEXACO and Self-Regulatory Traits. Curr Psychol 37, 149–161 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9498-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9498-z