Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between coaching leadership dimensions and organizational commitment through self-leadership mediation among 300 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) employees in Seoul and Gyeonggi metropolitan areas. Utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), three comparative models were analyzed: a basic path model, an instrumental support moderation model, and an organization-based self-esteem moderation model. Findings demonstrated that direction, a fundamental coaching leadership dimension, exhibited the strongest association with natural reward strategies (β = 0.336, p < .001), which subsequently predicted organizational commitment (β = 0.228, p < .001). Natural reward strategies partially mediated the relationship between direction and organizational commitment (indirect effect = 0.077, p < .01). Relationship-focused leadership significantly correlated with constructive thought patterns (β = 0.164, p < .05), which also predicted organizational commitment (β = 0.202, p < .001). Organizationbased self-esteem demonstrated substantially stronger moderating effects (f² = 0.375) compared to instrumental support (f² = 0.041) in the self-leadership-commitment relationship. The organization-based self-esteem model explained 70.1% of organizational commitment variance, significantly surpassing alternative models. These results suggest that SME leaders should emphasize clear direction-setting and relationship-building while cultivating environments that enhance employees' organization-based self-esteem. This study advances understanding of how coaching leadership and self-leadership function complementarily within resource-constrained SME contexts, supporting Stewart et al.'s (2019) collaborative self-leadership paradox theory.