Self‐leadership: a cross‐cultural perspective

Purpose This paper seeks to address the question: what is the relationship of culture to self‐leadership? Design/methodology/approach In an exploratory study, 74 US and 44 Chinese undergraduates rated their cultural beliefs and self‐leadership strategies. After four‐weeks in which a self‐leadership intervention was utilized, respondents contrasted positive aspects of their professional objectives with obstacles that impeded the realization of their goals. Findings The intervention did not influence participants' self‐leadership strategies, as measured two weeks after the intervention ( p > 0.11). Repeated MANOVA measures revealed that the US group expressed higher levels of self‐leadership than the Chinese group during the three phases of the study ( p < 0.001). Surprisingly, Chinese students held higher individualistic characteristics than the US group ( p =0.009). Research limitations/implications This research provides some insight into the similarities and differences between people from different cultures as to their use of self‐leadership strategies. Further research using more robust validation methodology is warranted to confirm the measurements of the study at issue here. Practical implications Managers will benefit from becoming aware that individuals' cultural characteristics influence their use and development of self‐leadership strategies. Originality/value This study makes a significant contribution to the body of research on self‐leadership. The study provides what may be the first glimpse of the volitional and self‐awareness components of self‐leadership strategies within the native Chinese population, and provides a backdrop with a US population for contrast.