Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8826-3793

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Chambers College of Business and Economics

Department

Management

Committee Chair

Jeffery Houghton

Committee Co-Chair

Michael Goldsby

Committee Member

Michael Goldsby

Committee Member

Ryan Angus

Committee Member

Xiaoxiao Hu

Abstract

Self-leadership, or the process through which individuals perform various cognitive and behavioral strategies to attain the self-direction and self-motivation necessary to perform in desired ways, has consistently been evidenced to enhance individuals’ performance through promoting a variety of positive individual cognitions, such as self-efficacy, positive affect, and engagement and through diminishing key threatening mental states such as stress, negative affect, and dysfunctional thinking (Harari et al., 2021; Knotts et al., 2022). The cognitive component of self-leadership, thought self-leadership (TSL) has been found to be particularly impactful, aiding the individual to modify and adapt their dysfunctional thinking to be more constructive and aligned with their goals (Neck & Manz, 1996; Knotts et al., 2022). Unfortunately, many cognitive-oriented self-leadership studies have found only marginal significance for pertinent outcomes such as enhanced self-efficacy and reduced stress (Neck & Manz, 1996; Knudstrup et al., 2003; van Raalte et al., 2016). This may be driven by the self-leadership literature’s failure to examine how a foundational element of these cognitive strategies – the perspective (first- versus second/third-person) used during their performance – may alter their effectiveness (Holmes & Mathews, 2010; Kross et al., 2014; Papeo & Lingnau, 2015; Moser et al., 2017; Orvell & Kross, 2019; Gainsburg et al., 2022). This study therefore takes the first steps toward addressing this oversight, expanding self-leadership theory to include psychological perspective distancing in the performance of TSL through examining how the use of second/third- versus first-person self-talk and mental-imagery more effectively promotes individuals’ self-efficacy, reduces stress, and thereby enhances their self-perceived performance. Through utilizing structural equation modeling to perform multi-group comparison analyses, the efficacy of second/third- versus first-person TSL is evaluated across both a student and employee sample. Evidence suggests psychological perspective distancing – utilizing a second/third-person perspective – in TSL considerably increases its effectiveness in producing desired outcomes, such as decreased stress, enhanced self-efficacy, and greater self-perceived performance. As a result, the paper argues for the need of a substantial transformation to existing self-leadership theory by incorporating the use of a distanced second/third person perspective in TSL’s self-talk and mental imagery. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed, as are many avenues for future research.

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