The psychology of leading together: free will beliefs, self-regulation, and self-efficacy in shared leadership.

Introduction: In this study, a quantitative research model has been adopted and the possible relationships among shared leadership, perceived self-regulation, free choice, and self-efficacy have been examined. Methods: Snowball sampling surveyed 283 public and private white-collar workers online. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) tested the model in question. Our measurement approach has strong internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity for all variables. Results: In the structural model, perceived self-regulation substantially predicts self-efficacy. While shared leadership does not have a direct significant effect on self-efficacy, it has a significant and positive effect on perceived self-regulation, and self-regulation significantly increases self-efficacy. These findings reveal that perceived self-regulation plays a full mediating role in the relationship between shared leadership and self-efficacy. In contrast, the free will variable has no significant direct or indirect effect within the model. Discussion: The results confirmed our assumption regarding the positive impact of shared leadership on employees' self-efficacy perceptions, which occurs largely through self-regulation mechanisms. In this context, the study contributes to the organizational behavior and leadership literature, while also suggesting to practitioners that they should focus on leadership approaches that support self-regulation processes to increase employees' self-efficacy.