Charismatic Tour-Guiding: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Charismatic leadership has been conceptualized as a signaling process whereby a leader influences followers to achieve effective management. Although there have been many studies on charismatic leadership, no scale exists to measure tour leaders’ charismatic guiding. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable charismatic-guiding scale for tour leaders, from the perspectives of both tour leaders and tour members. Through a rigorous development process, the study’s 20-item, 4-dimensional tour leaders’ charismatic-guiding scale was proven to be valid and reliable. The novel scale may function as a tool for tour leaders to measure their charismatic guiding as well as for travel agencies in their assignment of tour leaders. This study applied charismatic leadership theory to tourism, furthering knowledge of charismatic guiding in tour leaders and establishing a foundation for future theoretical development.