Will self-leadership leads to high performance when working from home? The competitive mediating role of ego depletion

Working from home has become common in the era of digital intelligence, highlighting the increasing prominence of self-leadership. However, the effectiveness of self-leadership in this new work context has not been thoroughly examined. In addition, the potential “dark side” of self-leadership has been ignored by previous studies. Under ego depletion theory, the present study explored the relationship between self-leadership and work performance and the mediating role played by ego depletion, as well as the moderating role played by workplace type. The questionnaire mainly distributed through the online platform, supplemented by on-site questionnaires, 336 sets of leader-employee paired questionnaires from China were identified using the cross-sectional sampling method. The hierarchical analysis results supported our hypothesized model that: (1) employees’ self-leadership positively affects their work performance; (2) ego depletion has a competitive mediating effect between self-leadership and work performance; and (3) workplace type moderates the competitive mediating effect between self-leadership and work performance, and the positive effects of self-leadership weaken when working from home. These findings provide theoretical implications for future research and practical implications for organizations.