Construction of a Likert-Type Transformational Leadership Scale

Abstract

The aim of the current study1 is to develop a free-access valid Likert-type measure to assess transformational leadership. Following a preliminary study involving literature reviews and interviews with 20 employees and 10 managers, 37 items were developed to tap behaviors describing both transformational and transactional styles. The newly developed Transformational Leadership Scale (TLS) was validated in Turkey with a subsequent sample of 165 employees nested under 38 superiors. Construct validation indicated a two-factor structure and converging associations with the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), especially for transformational leadership. Concurrent criterion-related validation indicated that transformational leadership predicted followers' job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and the satisfaction of work-related basic psychological needs of relatedness and autonomy, whereas transactional leadership did not. Within-group agreement for perceived transformational leadership was higher when assessed with the TLS as compared with the MLQ; which indicates that the newly developed scale yields more reliable follower perceptions across employees working with the same manager. The basic contribution of the study is the introduction of the free-to use TLS developed in Turkey, which includes generic and culture-specic elements of valued leadership behaviors. We would like to encourage researchers from Turkey and from more diverse cultural work contexts to further study the validity and applicability of the TLS within a broader nomological network.

Keywords

• Leadership
• Transformational Leadership
• Turkish Culture
• Work Attitudes
• Likert-Type Scale
• Assessment