Authentic Leadership: Development and Initial Validation of a Situational Judgment Test

Abstract

This study describes the development and the search for initial validity evidence (content and internal structure) of the Authentic Leadership Rating Scale (ALRS), a situational judgment test. The initial scale consisted of 16 items presenting challenges in leadership situations. It was evaluated by ten specialists, after which 13 items obtained Fleiss’ kappa indices that were considered good. Internal structure validity evidence was obtained through the application of Cognitive Diagnosis Models on data collected from 532 Brazilian professionals. Good fit indices were obtained for the Generalized Deterministic-input, Noisy-and-gate Model (G-DINA). We concluded that the ALRS is promising for the continuity of Authentic Leadership investigation and presented suggestions for a research agenda.

Keywords

• leadership
• authenticity
• selection tests