The present research transfers the concept of self-leadership, originally rooted in organizational psychology, to the domain of elite sports. For this two studies were conducted: The first study analyzes whether self-leadership maintains construct-specific variance when compared with the similar concept of volition. Results showed that self-leadership and volition are distinguishable, albeit weak to moderately correlated concepts (r = .33). Moreover using the Rubicon model of action phases to integrate volition and self-leadership within a coherent theoretical framework revealed that self-leadership supplements volition during goal attainment. The second study refines the concept of self-leadership using the Rubicon model of action phases. This eliminates current conceptual weaknesses from the construct of self-leadership within organizational psychology. Based on a refined self-leadership conceptualization an interview guide was developed to specify self-leadership ability within elite sports. Already successful elite athlets (n = 43) were interviewd to identify self-leading strategies, which they used successfully to cope with critical situations applied within the domain of elite sports (e.g. goal conflicts, setbacks). Results specify that the global ability of self-leadership can be divided in five general dimensions of self-leading strategies labeled motivational skills, volitional skills, self-regulation skills, resource managing skills, and metacognitive skills. Furthermore an empirically generated set of self-leading strategies was identified which was used successfully to cope with critical situations applied within the domain of elite sports. Therefore the present findings provide a starting point to spur future lines of research particularly in the area of measurement and training of self-leadership in elie sports.
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The present research transfers the concept of self-leadership, originally rooted in organizational psychology, to the domain of elite sports. For this two studies were conducted: The first study analyzes whether self-leadership maintains construct-specific variance when compared with the similar concept of volition. Results showed that self-leadership and volition are distinguishable, albeit weak to moderately correlated concepts (r = .33). Moreover using the Rubicon model of action phases to in...
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