Validation of employees' self-leadership using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis

Purpose Self-leadership (SL) involves the strategic management of people's perceptions and behaviours to enable them to set directions, identify their needs and work effectively. Here, an instrument was developed to measure SL of employees, organisations and managers in Thailand context. Design/methodology/approach Questions were developed for a questionnaire based on concepts and theories and validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) along four performance dimensions. Research samples were employees in the accommodation industry in Thailand. Factor analysis results confirmed the questionnaire as a reliable SL instrument with acceptable composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE) and convergent and discriminant validity. Findings Four factors of SL were identified as self-visualising and goal setting, self-reward and positive thinking, self-observation and cueing and self-talking and evaluating beliefs comprising 21 items. Factor analysis confirmed the validity of the questionnaire as a reliable SL tool as evidenced by a CR of 0.811 and AVE of 0.526 with acceptable convergent and discriminant validity criteria. Research limitations/implications - Results were limited to a single group sample of accommodation and cross-sectional design and should be carefully considered for application in different situations. Practical implications - Findings regarding the four performance dimensions suggest that this SL scale questionnaire can be applied to different businesses and settings either as is or with slight modifications. Originality/value Our SL scale is novel and serves as an excellent instrument to measure the behavioural perception of employees.