Lead Yourself through Change: How Self-Leadership Buffers the Impact of Change Fatigue on Employee Outcomes

In this study, we shed light on the underlying psychological mechanism of the negative impact of change fatigue on employees’ extra-role performance, which represents a positive change outcome. Drawing from self-determination theory in combination with job demands–resources theory, we assume that the negative impact of change fatigue on extra-role performance is mediated by psychological need satisfaction. Furthermore, by considering the buffer hypothesis in job demands–resources theory, we hypothesize that self-leadership represents a sufficient personal resource to compensate for the negative effects of change fatigue. To test our hypotheses, we investigated a two-wave sample from a German insurance company. The results partially confirm our theoretical predictions. For organizational practitioners, the results imply that self-leadership represents a valuable personal resource for employees to mitigate the psychological consequences of fatigue caused by organizational change. Thus, especially organizations that are undergoing change may provide training for employees to learn to apply self-leadership strategies.