Development of an empowering leadership scale for salespeople: validation and reliability

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore development and validation of an empowering leadership instrument for salespeople. Design/methodology/approach In all, 20 items were developed for an empowering leadership instrument based on published research, concepts and theories. The instrument was applied as a cross-sectional study for salespeople working in small and medium enterprises. The collected data were assessed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to ascertain construct validity. Findings The instrument established excellent reliability at 0.904. Five factors such as “Showing concern and developing strong relationships with members”, “informing”, “coaching”, “participative decision making” and “leading by example” were extracted and validated from the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Originality/value The validity of this questionnaire will facilitate future research to extend the boundaries of empowering leadership measurement in the context of supervision and management in organisations. This instrument will assist researchers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of empowering leadership and further investigate its potential in future studies.