Gender as a Moderator between Self-leadership and Self-efficacy among University Teachers in India and Spain

Psychologists have always been insisting on the role of positive psychological capital in adapting to life stressors and nurturing personal growth. Self-leadership is one such psychological attribute, which has been studied extensively in relation to other positive behaviours especially in the work context. It is also evident that self-management strategies like self-leadership play an important role in developing positive attributes like self-efficacy but the nature of this effect might vary across genders. The rationale behind this assumption is that gender as a social construct might lead to completely different set of gender role expectations for men and women. While gender can be a powerful moderator in the relationship between self-leadership and self-efficacy, the validity of this conceptual framework might vary across different cultures. The primary reason being gender role expectations are highly culture specific and they also rely heavily on the cultural notions of gender appropriate behaviours and careers. Thus in this study we aim to understand the way gender influences the relationship between self-leadership and self-efficacy among university teachers. We also aim to understand whether the nature proposed relationship (Gender moderating Self-leadership and self-efficacy) will vary across Indian and Spanish respondents. Survey method using standardized questionnaires was used to collect data from Indian (n=88) and Spanish (n=105) university teachers. Multisample SEM and hierarchical regression analysis were used test the main and moderation effects across the two samples (Indian and Spain). Results showed that gender moderated the relationship between Self-leadership and Self-efficacy only among Spanish teachers. The paper also discusses the implications of these findings.