Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Management
Committee Chair/Advisor
Kristin Scott
Committee Member
Craig Wallace
Committee Member
Sharon Sheridan
Committee Member
Thomas Britt
Abstract
The modern workplace increasingly requires employees to function autonomously while managing limited psychological resources, presenting a tension between the benefits of self-reliance and its potential costs to well-being. This dissertation examined how self-reliance simultaneously influences task persistence and emotional exhaustion, and explores whether personal spirituality moderates these relationships. Drawing on the Strength Model of Self-Control (SMSC), I develop and test a theoretical framework investigating the relationships between self-reliance, work overload, task persistence, emotional exhaustion, and workplace spirituality.
Through a time-lagged field study with 453 working professionals across three measurement waves, I found that self-reliance positively predicted task persistence, supporting the strength-building principle of the SMSC. Contrary to hypotheses, self-reliance did not significantly predict work overload, though supplemental analyses revealed a significant direct relationship between self-reliance and emotional exhaustion. This finding suggests that self-reliance operates through parallel pathways - simultaneously enhancing task persistence while creating vulnerability to emotional exhaustion through direct psychological mechanisms. Perceived work overload strongly predicted emotional exhaustion, but objective work hours did not, highlighting the primacy of subjective experiences over objective conditions. The proposed moderating effects of workplace spirituality were not supported, though supplemental analyses revealed that specific dimensions of spirituality - particularly engaging work - directly influenced perceived overload and emotional exhaustion.
This research contributes to organizational theory by revealing the dual pathways through which self-reliance influences workplace outcomes, demonstrating the importance of subjective experiences over objective conditions, and establishing the multidimensional nature of workplace spirituality. The findings further highlight the complex interplay between individual traits, showing that conscientiousness moderates the relationship between self-reliance and perceived overload. The findings suggest that organizations should leverage the performance benefits of self-reliance while implementing strategies to mitigate its emotional costs through fostering meaningful work experiences and helping employees constructively manage their perceptions of workplace demands.
Recommended Citation
Schad, Alexander, "Autonomous, Yet Anchored: Exploring the Interplay of Self-Reliance and Personal Spirituality on Employee Outcomes" (2025). All Dissertations. 3994.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3994