Article in Group & Organization Management · January 014 citations reads 13,031 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

Hypothesis 2a (H2a): Job autonomy will moderate the relationship 
between self-leadership behaviors and supervisor performance rating, 
such that the relationship will be stronger under high job autonomy than 
under low job autonomy.
Hypothesis 2b (H2b): Job autonomy will moderate the relationship 
between self-leadership behaviors and objective work performance, such 
that the relationship will be stronger under high job autonomy than under 
low job autonomy.
Hypothesis 2c (H2c): Job autonomy will moderate the relationship 
between self-leadership and job satisfaction, such that the relationship will 
be stronger under high job autonomy than under low job autonomy.
 by guest on July 31, 2014
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Group & Organization Management 39(4)
Method
Participants
We recruited participants from a wide variety of organizations located in 
Hong Kong and mainland China in four different industries (Engineering, 
Public Transportation, Insurance, and Manufacturing) using a modified 
snowball approach (Bryman & Bell, 2007). Using contacts known to the first 
author, we initially contacted five organizations in Hong Kong and asked if 
they would be willing to be involved in the study. Next, these contacts were 
also asked to nominate contacts in other organization who might be interested 
in the research. In total, 10 out of the 14 organizations we contacted agreed to 
participate in the study. All employees in these 14 organizations were ethnic 
Chinese. One group of respondents consisted of 182 insurance sales agents 
from five insurance companies in Hong Kong. Another group consisted of 80 
engineers from different organizations, who were members of the Hong 
Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). A third group of respondents con-
sisted of 61 employees from one public transportation company in Hong 
Kong. A fourth group consisted of 89 workers from three manufacturing 
firms in mainland China.
Once we had obtained agreement from the organization for participation 
in the study, the human resource managers at each company and the 
Chairman of the HKIE were asked to forward an email to their staff or HKIE 
members to invite them to participate in the study. This email outlined the 
purpose of the study and detailed the nature of participant involvement and 
that participation was voluntary. Participation required employees to com-
plete a “subordinate” questionnaire package containing questions regarding 
self-leadership behaviors, job autonomy, and job satisfaction. In return, each 
of the employee participants would be provided with an individual report 
reflecting his or her level of self-leadership skills. In addition, all partici-
pants were informed that the human resources managers or Chairman of 
Engineering Institution would then approach their supervisor to get their job 
performance ratings. The immediate supervisor of these respondents would 
receive a “supervisor” questionnaire package containing questions regard-
ing the general job performance of the subordinate. In addition, supervisor 
questionnaires that were distributed to those supervisors from insurance 
industries included one more question seeking objective sales performance 
of their subordinates. Thus, the investigation of H1b, examining the rela-
tionship between self-leadership behaviors and objective work performance, 
is limited to a subgroup of the sample—namely, the insurance sales agents. 
We received objective sales performance data from 153 supervisors from 
 by guest on July 31, 2014
gom.sagepub.com
Downloaded from 

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