Self-Leadership

Dear Colleagues,

Self-leadership is a process through which individuals control their own behavior, influencing and leading themselves through the use of specific sets of behavioral and cognitive strategies. The concept of self-leadership first emerged in the mid-1980s as an expansion of self-management which was rooted in clinical self-control theory and inspired by the notion of “substitutes for leadership”. Over the past three decades, the self-leadership concept has enjoyed considerable popularity, as evidenced by the large number of practitioner-oriented self-leadership books and articles on the subject. Moreover, self-leadership has earned the respect of many academics, as reflected by a plethora of theoretical and empirical self-leadership journal publications and by coverage in a growing number of management and leadership textbooks. Business executives have also embraced self-leadership concepts through training programs designed to increase self-leadership skills and behaviors in the workplace

While the body of knowledge surrounding self-leadership is substantial, there is still much work to be done to gain a full understanding of self-leadership theory and how individuals can lead themselves within an organization. Hence, the aim of the proposed Special Issue is to deeply investigate existing and/or new topics related to self-leadership in either a conceptual or empirical manner. Research directions to be followed include but are not limited to:

• What is the relationship between self-leadership and entrepreneurial success?
• Does the ability to self-lead one’s self impact her ability to communicate to others within an organization and vice versa?
• What is the state of the art in terms of self-leadership measurement?
• What has been researched in terms of self-leadership theory in the past and what are future directions for the study of self-leadership?
• What are the international aspects of the study of self-leadership? Do different cultures self-lead themselves differently?
• Do emotions impact one’s ability to self-lead themselves?
• What are the organizational/environmental conditions that enhance/impede successful self-leadership within organizations?
• Does one’s fitness/health level relate to one’s ability to effectively self-lead themselves?

Please feel free to contact the corresponding guest editor for questions about the suitability of the research paper with the aim of the Special Issue.

Selective References

1. Anderson, S. and Prussia, G.E. 1997. The self-leadership questionnaire: Preliminary assessment of construct validity. Journal of Leadership Studies 4: 119–143.
2. Goldsby, G., Neck, C.P., and Gerde, V. W. 1999. Inner leadership: A social cognitive-based approach toward enhanced ethical decision making. Teaching Business Ethics 2: 228–247.
3. Houghton, D., Wu, J., Godwin, J.L., Neck, C.P., and Manz, C.C. 2012. Effective Stress Management: A Proposed Model of Emotional Intelligence, Self-Leadership, and Student Stress Coping. Journal of Management Education 36: 220–238.
4. Neck, P., Manz, C.C. and Houghton, J.D. 2020. Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence. Thousand Oaks, CA, United States: Sage.
5. Neck, P. and Houghton, J.D. 2006. Two decades of self-leadership theory and research: Past developments, present trends, and future possibilities. Journal of Managerial Psychology 21: 270–295.
6. Neck, P., Houghton, J.D., Sardeshmukh, S.R., Goldsby, M. and Godwin, J.L. 2013. Self-leadership: a cognitive resource for entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship 26: 463–480.
7. Neck, P. and Manz, C.C. 1992. Thought self-leadership: The impact of self-talk and mental imagery on performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior 12: 681–699.
8. Neck, P. and Manz, C.C. 1996a. Total leadership quality: Integrating employee self-leadership and total quality management. In Advances in the Management of Organizational Quality. Edited by S. Goush and D. Fedor. Greenwich, CT, UK: JAI Press.
9. Neck, P. and Manz, C.C. 1996b. Thought self-leadership: The impact of mental strategies training on employee behavior, cognition, and emotion. Journal of Organizational Behavior 17: 445

Prof. Dr. Christopher Neck
Prof. Dr. Mike Goldsby
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Self-leadership
• entrepreneurship
• communication
• leadership