The role of need for achievement in self-leadership: Differential associations with hope for success and fear of failure

Self-leadership and need for achievement show conceptual convergences as both constructs have been found to be phenotypically associated with heightened levels of performance (Neck and Manz, 1992; Spangler, 1992). We thus aimed to clarify how both are interrelated with their respective subfacets in three studies (N = 185, N = 228, N = 374) and found that (a) self-leadership and need for achievement tap different domains, (b) self-leadership is differentially associated with hope for success versus fear of failure, and (c) concurrent live contexts may play a role in associations. Specifically, most self-leadership facets are related to hope for success, but self-punishment and natural reward strategies are positively and negatively related to fear of failure, respectively. Limitations and future research possibilities are discussed.