The aim of this research is to investigate the mediating role of the mechanism of success at work in the influence of personality traits on self-leadership, emphasizing the moderating role of active personality. The current research is applicative in terms of purpose, and descriptive-correlative in terms of nature and method. The statistical population (300 people) was the employees of Sepahan Battery Factory, who were selected by simple random method and through Cochran's formula (169 people). The questionnaires of Snyder et al, (1996) and Scheier and Carver (1985), which include positive personality traits; the questionnaire of Prussia et al (1988) in self-leadership, the questionnaire of Porath et al (2012) in the mechanism of success; and also the questionnaire of Janssen et al (2017) in active personality were used. The validity and reliability of the questionnaires indicated that the measurement tools have good validity (convergent and divergent) and reliability (factor loading, composite reliability coefficient, Cronbach's alpha coefficient). The results of hypothesis testing by SMART-PLS software and using t-test statistics and path coefficients (β) show that positive personality traits have an effect on the mechanism of success at work and on self-leadership, the mechanism of success in Work has an effect on self-leadership, finally, the mediating role of success mechanism in work and the moderating role of active personality were confirmed. With these words, managers should be able to pay attention to the positive personality traits of employees in order to increase self-leadership. For this purpose, they can take advantage of the mechanism of success at work as a mediator in this increase of self-leadership. However, they should be careful to reduce the level of active personality because it leads to the reduction of this type of relationship.

Extended abstract

Introduction

Sepahan Battery Company is one of the most successful companies in the field of production and employment, and has tried to use modern European systems to present its products and provide suitable services to them. However, several factors can hinder the sustainable development of this company. This company will attract the Iranian market by producing all kinds of industrial and automotive batteries. But the managers should think about giving importance to sustainable and permanent development. This matter might probably be paid attention by both the managers and the employees. Therefore, having an active personality in the employees and a pleasant feeling in them can contribute to the success of this company by creating a self-leadership discussion in each department and each person, and therefore, the increase in interest in creating self-leadership organizations in sustainable organizations increases research and attention of managers to the issue of company sustainability. Corporate sustainability is a factor defined by the concept of self-leadership development in sustainable organizations in the United Nations report: it is not possible to meet the needs and demands of the present without jeopardizing the ability to meet these needs in the future. Sustainability includes organizational efforts to achieve the triple satisfaction of economic, environmental and human performance. However, less attention has been focused on the human dimension of sustainability. For sustainability, it is imperative that organizations improve their ability to continuously identify factors that affect their long-term growth, develop their skill sets and knowledge on how to deal with adverse effects, and create changes effectively in a sustainable manner in themselves (Abid et al, 2020). Therefore, according to the above statements, it has been determined that self-leadership has a positive impact on a variety of attitudes and consequences at the individual level, such as absenteeism, job success, employee productivity, adaptive performance, ethical behaviors, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, creative work behavior along with team level results such as team management, team performance, and team sustainability and others. Although many studies on the accumulation of knowledge about leadership is under progress (Stewart et al, 2011) to be clear that the insight of the internal forces that guide self-leadership in different cultural contexts is limited. Therefore, the importance of domestic production in the conditions of oppressive sanctions requires sustainable development, and it should be mentioned to examine the possibly effective components in this field. Therefore, in this research, we will analyze the impact of positive personality traits on self-leadership, emphasizing the mediating role of success and the moderating role of active personality in Sepahan Battery Factory.

Theoretical Framework

This study, with a comprehensive review of the literature, investigates the effect of positive personality traits (optimism and hope) on self-leadership along with the evaluation of the intervention effect of a type of positive behavior "mechanism of success at work", and the moderation of active personality. In other words, the researchers in this article have tried to focus specifically on hope and optimism as previous variables that can have a positive effect on leadership in Sepahan Batari Company. By adopting a positive attitude in their company (in all departments) with the aim of developing hope and optimism, managers can increase the self-leadership abilities of employees, and managers, by adjusting the role of an active personality and mediating of the mechanism of success, can see how positive personality traits affect the self-leadership.

Methodology 

This research is "applicative" in terms of its purpose, and "descriptive-correlative with a survey" in terms of data collection. The statistical population (300 people) were the employees of Sepahan Battery Company, of which 169 people were selected using Cochran's formula by simple random method (in terms of gender: 24% male and 24% female; in terms of age: 63% less than 40 years and 27% more than 40 year; in terms of degree: 21% senior and above, 47% high school and 32% diploma; in terms of work experience, 33% less than 10 years, 67% more than 10 years). The positive personality traits questionnaire of Snyder et al (1996); Scheier and Carver (1985) consisting of 18 questions, self-leadership of Prussia et al (1998) consisting of 20 questions, the success mechanism in the work of Porath et al (2012) consisting of 12 questions, and finally the active personality of Janssen et al (2017) which consisted of 5 questions were used as a data collection tool, the basis of the measurement scale was the five-choice Likert spectrum questions. Three types of validity, "content, convergent validity, and divergent validity" were used to confirm validity; and three criteria (factor loadings, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and composite reliability coefficient) were used to confirm reliability. In Tables 1 and 2, the results of the reliability and validity of the measurement tool are given in full.

Research Findings

In order to investigate the hypotheses of the research, partial least squares structural equation modeling was used with the help of SMART-PLS software. The results of the first hypothesis indicated the effect of positive personality traits on the mechanism of success at work. The results of the second hypothesis also stated that positive personality traits have a significant effect on self-leadership. The results of the third hypothesis also stated that the success mechanism at work has a significant effect on self-leadership. The results of the fourth hypothesis also stated that the mechanism of success at work plays a mediating role in the influence of positive personality traits on self-leadership. At the end, the results of the fifth hypothesis also stated that active personality has a moderating role in the influence of positive personality traits on self-leadership.

Conclusion and Discussion

The purpose of this research was to investigate the mediating role of the mechanism of success at work in the influence of positive personality traits on self-leadership, emphasizing the moderating role of active personality. These studies are consistent with Nasiri and Salari (2020), and Nasr Esfahani et al, (2016), Salimi et al, (2006). In the end, considering the results of the structural equation model, the conceptual framework of the research can be considered as an experimental framework that can be a guide and a basis for future scientific and practical research. Therefore, practical suggestions in line with the research as follows will be fruitful. 1. In order to create a culture that can strengthen the sustainability of the organization, Sepahan Battery factory must invest significantly in employee training. Since both hope and optimism are adjustable, focused educational interventions to develop hope and optimism can not only help guide employees' self-motivation and perseverance to overcome obstacles to organizational sustainability, but also will increase the abilities of self-leadership in them. In the end, according to the mentioned results and suggestions, the limitations of the researchers in the form of future suggestions are as follows: In this study, the statistical population was the employees of Sepahan Battery Factory. Therefore, the results of the study may not be generalizable to other companies. A cross-sectional approach was used in this study; therefore, researchers are advised to use a longitudinal approach in future studies.