When employees work remotely, they largely operate independently. The increasing prevalence of flexible work arrangements, such as working from home, has led to the growing popularity of self-leadership concepts with an emphasis on how to empower employees while they manage work on their own schedule23. The concept of self-leadership is rooted in several interconnected theories, such as self-management24, self-control25, and self-regulation26 theories, which generally propose that individuals apply specific strategies to direct behavior in desirable and goal-oriented ways27. Self-leadership describes the process by which individuals employ behavioral and cognitive strategies to guide and motivate themselves to perform optimally27,28.
Various self-leadership strategies have been identified in the literature11,23: Behavior-focused strategies aim at increasing an individual’s responsibility through behaviors such as setting specific goals (self-goal setting), acknowledging one’s achievements (self-reward), criticizing oneself (self-punishment), self-assessing performance (self-observation), and using reminders (self-cueing). Constructive thought pattern strategies serve to identify dysfunctional thought patterns and modify them desirably. These strategies include envisioning the accomplishment of work tasks before initiation (visualization of successful performance), engaging in internal dialogue to address challenges (self-talk), and evaluating the suitability of beliefs when faced with problems (evaluation of beliefs and assumptions). Natural reward strategies include incorporating inherently motivating elements into work activities and shifting the focus toward the inherent reward aspects within the work. This can include planning enjoyable activities as part of the work tasks.
According to the JD-R framework14, job demands can result in strain and health impairment, whereas job resources can foster motivation and productivity29. Focusing on the motivational process, the work environment (i.e., work location) provides resources instrumental in attaining work goals and stimulating a positive state related to work, such as increased work engagement29. Work engagement is a positive, work-related emotional and cognitive state30 that fluctuates within individuals from day to day31. Work engagement is characterized by high energy levels and effort at work, a strong involvement in one’s work, and being absorbed by its tasks30. In this context, we argue that self-leadership strategies are proactive responses that employees initiate when they encounter situations requiring them to make an effort to align their abilities with the external demands of their environment, thereby enhancing their work environment and reestablishing this alignment15. Accordingly, when individuals manifest self-leadership behaviors, they are more likely to experience increased work engagement10. Employees who actively apply self-leadership strategies manage and impact their work environment in a way that becomes instrumental in achieving their goals, which, in turn, increases their levels of engagement10.
Self-leadership strategies and work location
In everyday tasks, individuals engage in self-leadership behavior to a certain degree24. Individuals set certain standards and reward or punish themselves according to their performance assessments according to these standards24. The extent of self-leadership opportunities available to employees depends on the specific work context. The traditional office environment includes both physical elements, such as rooms, tools, and equipment, as well as psychosocial aspects like supervision and monitoring, that provide structures and cues to control and reinforce employee behavior externally32. By contrast, the home office removes the structural properties of the office, allowing for more freedom in deciding when and how to work9,33. Employees experience increased autonomy when working from home9,33. In the context of work design, this relates to their degree of flexibility in how they schedule and execute work tasks and manage their daily working routines9. Moreover, in the absence of external cues, employees are more likely to substitute formal leadership by exercising self-leadership to optimally guide and motivate themselves28. Therefore, while the home office offers increased opportunities for self-leadership, it also entails more private life demands (e.g., household or childcare responsibilities, or other family or personal responsibilities, such as caring for the elderly, dog walking, etc.), for which employees must assume additional responsibility and initiative by showing self-leadership behavior11,34. In line with this, Müller and Niessen9 conducted a study with 195 employees who worked periodically in both a traditional office and a home office and found that these employees applied certain self-leadership strategies more frequently on the days spent at home compared to those spent at the office. In particular, the authors observed an increase in self-goal setting, self-rewards, and the visualization of successful performance because of higher job autonomy on home days compared to office days.
Thus, we posit that employees demonstrate more self-leadership on home days than on office days because the working environment at home provides more self-leadership opportunities and demands that employees apply self-leadership strategies.
Hypothesis 1
The work location (coded 0 for office and 1 for home office) is positively related to day-specific use of self-leadership strategies, such that employees use self-leadership strategies more extensively on home days than on office days.
Self-leadership strategies and work engagement
Self-leadership is associated with many beneficial outcomes, including job satisfaction, individual performance, and long-term career success (for an overview, see Stewart et al.35). Based on the JD-R model14, employees who use self-leadership strategies take proactive steps to make their work more resourceful and rewarding, ensuring alignment between their ability and the demands of their environment15,36. Thus, self-goal setting, self-cueing, self-observation, and the visualization of successful performance keep employees focused on their path to goal attainment, which allows them to leverage additional job resources37, resulting in the inherent gratification of overcoming challenges38. Self-talk and evaluations of beliefs and assumptions help employees feel more optimistic and certain about their abilities to positively influence their environment39. Furthermore, self-reward and self-punishment act as motivators to direct employees’ behavior35. Both strategies aim to ensure improved performance by reinforcing desirable behaviors while preventing and correcting undesirable behaviors 10,37,40. In addition, natural rewards let employees create situations where they perceive their work as a source of pleasure and motivation, resulting in work engagement27.
Some studies have suggested that self-leadership positively relates to work engagement. For example, Breevaart et al.10 found that employees felt more vigorous, dedicated, and absorbed in their work—three indicators of work engagement—on days when they practiced more self-leadership. Specifically, they demonstrated that self-leadership enhances work engagement by increasing the availability of job resources such as skill variety, feedback, and developmental opportunities10. In another study, Gomes et al.12 reported a positive relationship between self-leadership, as a general combination of a set of behavioral, cognitive, and rewarding strategies, and work engagement. The authors argue that self-leadership triggers affective-motivational responses and improves positive affective states like work engagement12. In a similar vein, Costantini and Weintraub19 demonstrated that when employees use self-leadership strategies, they create a more resourceful work environment for themselves, which triggers a motivational process leading to more work engagement. Considering the above, we postulate the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2
The day-specific use of self-leadership strategies is positively related to day-specific work engagement.
Based on our arguments that employees apply self-leadership strategies more extensively on home days than on office days (Hypothesis 1), and that using self-leadership strategies fosters work engagement (Hypothesis 2), we propose that employees experience higher work engagement on home days than on office days because they apply self-leadership strategies more extensively on home days. Behavior-focused strategies, such as self-reward, are likely to be important in promoting higher work engagement during home days. For example, employees may be able to self-reward themselves if they have the adequate means to do so by indulging in enjoyable activities while working from the convenience of their homes and having direct access to the things they find pleasurable, which, in turn, should increase work engagement. Regarding constructive thought patterns, at home, when there is no external monitoring by a supervisor, employees more frequently visualize the successful completion of work tasks before starting to work, which helps them to stay dedicated and immersed in their work. For natural reward strategies, the lack of external regulation by a supervisor allows employees at home to determine how to perform a specific task. They can incorporate enjoyable elements into their work, such as listening to music while working, leading to higher levels of work engagement.
Hypothesis 3
Employees experience greater work engagement on home days than on office days through the increased use of self-leadership strategies.
Effectiveness of self-leadership strategies in promoting work engagement depending on work location
Complementary to the reasoning behind Hypothesis 3, we ask whether self-leadership strategies are beneficial for daily work engagement depending on the specific setting where such strategies are employed, that is, the setting where employees operate on a specific day (home vs. office setting). Important distinctions may exist between these two work locations, including the physical presence or absence of colleagues and supervisors, and the extent of available workplace resources8. We hypothesize that self-leadership strategies are more effective in an environment where direct leadership and external structure are less present (i.e., at home). Based on the JD-R model14, resources are crucial, especially in demanding situations. Here, self-leadership strategies—considered proactive strategies—should gain salience, especially in the home setting, because there is less direct leadership and external structure in the home office setting compared to the office setting. In other words, gaining salience means that self-leadership strategies should be more conducive for work engagement in the home office context, that is, they should be more strongly related to work engagement in the home office setting versus in the office setting.
For instance, self-reward may be more beneficial on home days than in the office as the same activity may be more self-rewarding in the home than in the office setting: For example, indulging in a short nap in one’ s own bed may be more self-rewarding compared to napping in one’s office chair, preparing a delicious snack at home may be more self-rewarding compared to buying a ready-made snack in the office, and going for a walk after accomplishing a task in a forest nearby one’s home may be more self-rewarding compared to going for a walk around the office building. In addition, the specific activities that employees choose may differ in the home vs. in the office setting and chosen activities may differ in their potential to be self-rewarding: For example, employees may rather engage in a short nap when being at home vs. when being in the office, while they may rather get a delicious coffee when being in the office vs. when being at home as a professional barista coffee machine may be available in the office. Similarly, self-goal setting may be more effective in the home setting than in the office setting because people may face more potential distractions at home. Thus, self-goal setting may be crucial to staying focused on work tasks and experiencing engagement in the home setting. Furthermore, we argue that self-cueing becomes particularly effective if external environmental cues are missing. If more external cues and structure are provided (e.g., supervisors, colleagues, and objects present at the office), whether self-cueing is applied should make less of a difference regarding work engagement. If external cues are less present (at home), then it is even more important for work engagement that employees employ self-cueing. Likewise, if supervisors exert punishment, whether self-punishment is applied is less important. On the other hand, if external punishment by others is less present (e.g., at home), self-punishment becomes crucial for work engagement. In addition, the visualization of successful performance can be substituted by colleagues who can be observed while performing well in the office setting. If employees are less able to observe others’ successful performance in their work environment (which is more likely when working from home), the visualization of successful performance becomes essential. Based on this reasoning, we propose the following competing hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4
Daily self-leadership strategies are more effective in promoting daily work engagement on home days than on office days.
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