Measuring leadership an assessment of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

Although the most used measure of transformational leadership, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), has been the subject of intense scrutiny among leadership scholars, little interest has been shown in analyzing the relationship between its underlying constructs and / or their measures. T...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, Batista Foguet, Joan Manuel, Esteve, Marc
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Ramon Llull (URL)
Repositorio:DAU Arxiu Digital de la Universitat Ramon Llull
OAI Identifier:oai:dau.url.edu:20.500.14342/5032
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14342/5032
http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254329
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)
Descripción
Sumario:Although the most used measure of transformational leadership, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), has been the subject of intense scrutiny among leadership scholars, little interest has been shown in analyzing the relationship between its underlying constructs and / or their measures. The present study identifies a formative factor structure for most MLQ first-order factors, replacing the usual reflective model. We demonstrate the value of this structure using data from two different samples. First, we applied the MLQ to a sample of 129 police officers from the Catalan Police workforce. Second, we ran an online survey with 300 US citizens. We argue that three second-order factors (transformational, transactional, and laissez faire) should be used as emergent aggregate multidimensional models to describe three different leadership styles, challenging the ubiquitous multidimensional latent models favored in the extant literature. We then propose that transformational/charismatic leadership should be treated as a multidimensional emergent profile model, replacing the leadership development order of precedence, which is dominant in modern leadership research.