European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria Vol. 6 No. 1 January, 2022 ISSN 2519-1284 Acces online at www.iipccl.org 251 The Concept ‘Self-Leadership in Nurse Educators’: An Integrative Literature Review Dr. Vhothusa Edward Matahela Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa Prof. Gisela Hildegard Van Rensburg Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa Abstract The existing body of research on leadership has revealed that leadership atributes at individual level are essential for the success of organisations, where self-leadership is alluded to as a critical facilitator of successful organisational leadership. Despite a wealth of knowledge about the self-leadership of managers accessible in literature, not much is known about the self- leadership of nurse educators. The aim of this integrative literature review is to understand the meaning of nurse educator self-leadership in a nursing education institution context to improve quality of nursing education. The keyword ‘self-leadership’ was used to conduct a comprehensive computer-assisted literature search. Databases such as Google Scholar, CINAHL, ProQuest, PubMed, SAGE, MEDLINE, ERIC, and EMERALD were used to ensure a comprehensive search. The integrative literature review focused its search on studies that were and available in the English language from years 2000 to 2019. Fourteen peer-reviewed research articles were included following a critical review. The themes that emerged relate to self-leadership benefts; lack of self-leadership and factors that enable self-leadership in educators. Regardless of an educational seting, self-leadership improved the performance of educators. However, the way nurse educator self-leadership is practiced in nursing education institutions remains unknown, owing to insufcient literature on the phenomenon. It is essential that the concept of nurse educator self-leadership be further explored to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the concept and its practice in a nursing education context. Key words: improved academic performance, motivation, nurse educators, nursing education institution, self-leadership. Introduction Organisational environments are shifting from outdated top-down leadership ap- proaches and regulatory leadership styles to concentrate on empowering employ- ees with intrinsic leadership skills, a phenomenon known as self-leadership (Arnold, 2018). Twenty frst century organisations recognise self-leadership as one way of ac- complishing organisational efectiveness as it has potential to assist individuals in making good decisions where outdated external leadership still exists (Daud, 2021). Self-leadership is based on a view that suggests that organisational members can lead themselves to some degree. With self-leadership, the role of the formal leader is to provide support and guidance instead of giving orders. In this way, employees can