Self-management: An analytical-behavioral Interpretation

Abstract

Self-management is a phenomenon, that despite being involved in various dimensions of human life, is not well defined yet. It is possible to identify different concepts and uses of the term in different areas of knowledge. The present study aimed to systematize the concept of self-management from the scientific literature of different areas of knowledge to propose a behavior analytic definition of the phenomenon. For this purpose, a bibliographic search was carried out in six national and international databases and it was selected 31 articles related to self-management definition in different areas of knowledge. Texts referring to self-management at the collective, team or social group level were excluded. After analyzing the information, nine categories of definitions of concepts and 26 categories of behavior were identified. It was observed that self-management is a complex phenomenon that involves a series of behavioral classes such as self-control, self-knowledge, self-reinforcement, and goal setting. Furthermore, it is a behavioral process in which the individual manipulates the variables of which his behavior is a function to increase the probability of behaving to reach his target behavior and obtain subsequent reinforcement. The systematization of the concept allows a better understanding of the phenomenon for future research on self-management.