VALIDATION OF THE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP SCALE WITH LEADERSHIP EDUCATORS

Abstract

The Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS) was designed by Tyree to measure leadership in college students as espoused by the Social Change Model of Leadership Development (SCM). The purpose of this quantitative study was to validate the SRLS for use with a non-college student population, specifically leadership educators. A leadership educator is a faculty or staff member who seeks to develop or improve the knowledge and practice of others by providing high quality leadership education informed by credible leadership literature and practice. Respondents included leadership educators from universities which participated in either of the last two iterations of an international study focused on college student leadership. Five hundred thirty potential respondents were identified from 115 universities. Of the 530, 199 engaged the survey, with 173 as viable for data analysis. The respondents identified as 113 females and 60 males; four Asian, twenty-one black or African American; one Native Hawaiian or other Pacific islander, and 149 white. The respondents were highly educated, as all but fifteen attained a master's degree or higher. Of the other fifteen, two completed high school and thirteen competed their bachelor's degree. One hundred and fifty-nine self-identified as leadership educators. Preliminary screening was conducted to confirm and address any issues with the following: accuracy of data, missing data, univariate outliers and normality, and multivariate outliers and normality. Reliability was examined using Cronbach's alpha. The eight SCM constructs yielded Cronbach's alphas above .70 indicating respectable alpha scores. Four in particular had very good Cronbach's alphas greater than .80. Validity was examined using Principal Component Analysis. The results support the reliability and construct validity of the SRLS with leadership educators. This scale will be referred to as the SRLS-LE. Implications for leadership educators and recommendations for future research are also discussed. Ultimately, this study will begin the use and measurement of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development beyond college student populations and inform professional development agendas for leadership educators.