SELF-LEADERSHIP AS A FOUNDATION FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

The conventional approaches to developing leaders have majorly focused on interpersonal influence and external organisational management competences. Nevertheless, these methods tend to ignore the inner basis upon which the ultimate effectiveness of leaders is determined. This theoretical treatise critically places self-leadership as a formative but often overlooked component in the formation of authentic and sustainable community and organisational leaders. Using the self-leadership theory, Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Determination Theory, the paper will discuss the ability of self-awareness, self-regulation, intrinsic motivation and personal accountability to create not only the competence in the individual but also a wider effect of ethical and social consequences. Despite the prevalence of positive correlations in Western research, a critical interpretation would indicate that such practices are understudied and thus unsuitable to the context of developing countries like Malaysia whereby cultural and structural aspects often interfere with the process of individual self-leadership translation to collective results. The paper suggests a new conceptual framework which synthesises these factors and explains crucial implications to leadership training programmes. The improvement of self-leadership is likely to improve organisational performance and lead to responsible and sustainable development of communities, if cultural and empirical gaps are mitigated.