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Self-leadership
Christopher P. Neck
Self-leadership ([69] Manz, 1986; [77] Manz and Neck, 2004) 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 (e.g. [68] Manz, 1983, [79] 1986), as an expansion of self-management (e.g. [78] Manz and Sims, 1980), which was rooted in clinical self-control theory (e.g. [23] Cautela, 1969) and inspired by [55] Kerr and Jermier's (1978) notion of "substitutes for leadership". Over the past two 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 (e.g. [12] Blanchard, 1995; [22] Cashman, 1995; [72] Manz, 1991; [84] Manz and Sims, 2001; [115] Sims and Manz, 1996; [123] Waitley, 1995). Moreover, self-leadership has earned the respect of many academics, as reflected by a plethora of theoretical and empirical self-leadership journal publications (e.g. [2] Anderson and Prussia, 1997; [52] Houghton et al. , 2003a; [80] Manz and Sims, 1987; [85] Markham and Markham, 1995, [86] 1998; [94] Neck and Manz, 1992, [95] 1996a; [104] Neck et al. , 1996; [110] Prussia et al. , 1998; [111] Roberts and Foti, 1998; [116] Stewart et al. , 1996; [127] Williams, 1997), and by coverage in a growing number of management and leadership textbooks (e.g. [58] Kreitner and Kinicki, 2003; [64] McShane and Von Glinow, 2005; [89] Nahavandi, 2006). Business executives have also embraced self-leadership concepts through training programs designed to increase self-leadership skills and behaviors in the workplace (e.g. [95] Neck and Manz, 1996a; [116] Stewart et al. , 1996).
The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough review of self-leadership literature past and present, including a historical overview of how the concept was created and expanded as well as a detailed look at more recent self-leadership research trends and directions. We will also provide a theoretical and conceptual explanation and differentiation of the self-leadership concept relative to other related motivational, personality and self-influence constructs such as self-regulation, self-management, conscientiousness and emotional intelligence. Finally, we will also suggest some directions for future self-leadership research, including discussions of which aspects of self-leadership have been under-investigated in the past and...