From Experience to Leadership Capability: The Role of Responsibility Attribution in Connecting Causal Explanation and Capability Judgement

Self-leadership and self-efficacy are theoretically and empirically linked, yet limited research explains how individuals interpret self-leadership experiences as evidence of personal capability. Although self-leadership practices and mastery experiences contribute to self-efficacy, the cognitive process through which performance experiences become evidence of competence remains insufficiently understood. Attribution theory explains how individuals infer the causes of performance outcomes but offers limited insight into how these interpretations inform subsequent judgements of personal capability. This paper proposes responsibility attribution as a cognitive mechanism that may explain how performance experiences are incorporated into self-efficacy beliefs. Responsibility attribution is conceptualised as an evaluative appraisal through which individuals determine whether a performance outcome should be interpreted as evidence of their own capability. Outcomes perceived as personally attributable may therefore acquire psychological significance for subsequent self-efficacy judgements. Integrating self-leadership theory, social cognitive theory, and attribution theory, the proposed framework explains how individuals may transform performance experiences into capability judgements that support self-directed behaviour. The paper contributes to attribution theory by specifying a potentially under-theorised function of attributional processing: evaluating whether interpreted outcomes constitute evidence of personal capability. The framework also offers a theoretical basis for future research into self-leadership development and interventions that strengthen learning from experience.