THE EFFECT OF SELF-LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES ON INDIVIDUAL ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of self-leadership strategies on individual absorptive capacity. Data from the 211 employees from profit corporations were analyzed using SPSS 17.0. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the relationship between self-leadership strategies and individual absorptive capacity. The results revealed that more than two strategies of the three self-leadership strategies have a positive effect on all dimensions of the individual absorptive capacity. This indicates that developing self-leadership strategies affects individual absorptive capacity improvement. Enhancing individual absorptive capacity leads to organizational absorptive capacity and will consequently contribute to performance improvement. Therefore, human resource development (HRD) and organization development (OD) professionals can use the findings to support and develop self-leadership strategies for employee performance levels by introducing the relevant practices. This study contributes to the literature on the concept of self-leadership and its empirical relationship to individual absorptive capacity and is also useful to senior managers who are assessing the efficacy of the self-leadership concept. Employees with a high level of self-leadership strategies will try to optimize their capabilities and incorporate their skills and knowledge into the workplace to achieve their objectives. These behaviors will affect other members of the organization; consequently, employee commitment and work motivation will be increased. The results of this study further support the link between intrinsic motivation and absorptive capacity. In addition, this study offers HRD and OD managers insight into the dimensions of self-leadership that are critical to knowledge creation and exploitation. In summary, self-leadership strategies can be used as a guide for developing training programs that directly affect individual absorptive capacity.