Navigating Organizational Inertia: “The Boundary Role of Self-Leadership in Shaping Employee Performance”
Abstract
This study observes the effect of organizational inertia on employee performance and explores the moderating role of self-leadership in alleviating this relationship. Organizational inertia, described as resistance towards change and rigid practices rigid structures, entrenched routines, and resistance to change, is debated to decrease employee performance specifically in dynamic business environments. Quantitative research design is adopted in this research and data is collected from 400 respondents working in four major State-Owned Enterprises between October and December 2025 through structured questionnaires. Proposed relationships was tested through Structural equation modeling technique. The outcomes of the research show that there is a significant negative relationship between organizational inertia and employee performance outcomes, but self-leadership is a key moderator that weakening this negative relationship among inertia and performance. This is an important contribution towards organizational behavior literature by emphasizing self-leadership as an important boundary condition that eliminates the negative outcomes of inertia. Practically, the judgements of the study recommend that organizations who are working in inertia based conditions should emphasize in self-leadership improvement programs to heighten employee adaptability and sustain performance.
Keywords: Organizational Inertia, Self-Leadership, Employee Performance Structural Equation Modeling, State-Owned Enterprises, Pakistan.
