Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on self-leadership in teams; extend self-leadership theory by focusing on the underlying processes in teams and moderating team context variables; and relate self-leadership in teams to a set of differentiated member work role behaviors including proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity. After a review of research on individual and team members' self-leadership, the underlying motivational processes of individual self-leadership in teams are examined. Building on these, moderating team context variables on the self-leadership work role-performance relationship are proposed. A summarizing multilevel framework is presented which relates self-leadership in teams to a differentiated set of team member work role behaviors including proficiency, adaptiey, and proactivity. Additionally, motivational processes are proposed which mediate self -leadership-behavior relationships. Finally, research implications are discussed. The framework extends current theories by (1) examining individual self-leadership in teams, (2) using a comprehensive and differentiated set of team member work role performance, and (3) applying an individual-level model of motivation in teams to explain effects of self-leadership in teams.