Manz and Neck (2006) described self-leadership as a normative concept that
prescribes applications rather than as a descriptive theory that tries to explain the hows
and whys behind a process (p. 275). Houghton and Neck (2006) argued, "Self-leadership
is a normative concept that provides certain behavioral and cognitive prescriptions while
operating within and through the theoretical contexts provided by self-regulation, social cognitive, self-control and intrinsic motivation theories" (p. 276). Self-leadership
practices contain prescriptive processes, according to Houghton and Neck (2006); the
authors and their colleagues argued that "people influence themselves to achieve the selfdirection
and self-motivation necessary to perform" (Houghton, Bonham, Neck, & Singh,
2004, p. 427).