Analyzing the formation mechanism of self-leadership from the perspective of enterprise social media communication visibility

Purpose In the current digital transformation era, guiding employees toward realizing self-leadership has become a critical strategy for enterprises to mitigate the risks of external uncertainty. This study explores the intrinsic relationship between enterprise social media (ESM) communication visibility and self-leadership on the basis of communication visibility theory (CVT) and conservation of resources theory (COR) to support the sustainable growth of employee self-leadership. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 332 Chinese employees across three stages. Hierarchical regression analysis and the bootstrap method were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings Network translucence and message transparency positively affect self-leadership. Relational energy and job control mediate the relationship between communication visibility and self-leadership. Moreover, response expectations weaken the positive relationship between relational energy and self-leadership as well as between job control and self-leadership. Practical implications Managers can use ESM to provide work and social support for employees’ job control and social network development to achieve long-term maintenance of employees’ self-leadership. At the same time, within the context of ESM use, moderately reducing response expectations can offer situational support for employees to achieve self-leadership. Originality/value This research sheds light on the internal mechanism by which ESM communication visibility affects self-leadership and explores the key boundary conditions that impact how self-leadership is formed. These findings expand the understanding of self-leadership development in the context of ESM use and offer new technical insights for guiding and fostering sustainable employee self-leadership.