Abstract
This study aims at advancing leadership research in corporate communications by introducing a more rigorous statistical approach to test whether communication professionals of different hierarchical reporting levels, years of experience, and educational backgrounds would ascribe the same meanings to the construct of leadership excellence in corporate communications via survey research. By using an established measurement model of leadership excellence in corporate communications, the study uses three samples, including senior communication executives/leaders, mid-level communication professionals, and senior college students majoring in communication and/or public relations, to conduct the measurement invariance tests. By imposing constraints to different parameters in a sequence of nested models, findings indicate that the measures of leadership excellence in corporate communications can be equivalent across multiple groups. Measurement invariance was confirmed at multiple levels, including the higher-order measurement model, configural invariance, metric invariance, scalar invariance, and error invariance. This study deepens our understanding of measurement invariance when applying multi-group comparison in testing leadership excellence. Such evidence can also be used as central principles when developing corresponding leadership training and development modules by organizations in supporting multicultural and multi-group sensitivity in leadership development. Future research and practical implications are also discussed.
Highlights
This research aims at advancing corporate communication leadership research in by introducing a more rigorous research method and a sophisticated statistical approach, namely measurement invariance (MI), to test the latent variable model of leadership excellence in corporate communications
By using multiple samples recruited via survey research, the statistical approaches to measurement invariance help test whether communication professionals of different hierarchical reporting levels, years of experience, and educational backgrounds would ascribe the same meanings to the construct of leadership excellence in corporate communications
Research on corporate communications in the past two decades has enriched our understanding of corporate communications as a diverse and evolving field, which is composed of various specialized areas of communications such as corporate identity, corporate reputation, corporate advertising, corporate social responsibility, corporate social advocacy, media relations, financial communication, employee communication, and crisis communication (e.g., Argenti, 1996; Rim et al, 2020; van Riel, 1997), few research has addressed the issue of measurement invariance in assessing values of model parameters when the statistical approach of structural equation modeling is applied
Summary
This research aims at advancing corporate communication leadership research in by introducing a more rigorous research method and a sophisticated statistical approach, namely measurement invariance (MI), to test the latent variable model of leadership excellence in corporate communications. Research on corporate communications in the past two decades has enriched our understanding of corporate communications as a diverse and evolving field, which is composed of various specialized areas of communications such as corporate identity, corporate reputation, corporate advertising, corporate social responsibility, corporate social advocacy, media relations, financial communication, employee communication, and crisis communication (e.g., Argenti, 1996; Rim et al, 2020; van Riel, 1997), few research has addressed the issue of measurement invariance in assessing values of model parameters when the statistical approach of structural equation modeling is applied This could leave some potential measurement biases undetected, especially when testing latent variable models in theory development and advancement.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
