Servant leadership

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument intended to measure servant leadership behavior in the Chinese hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachAfter reviewing the literature, a scale of nine dimensions with 81 items was generated and then subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using a sample of 600 participants from a polytechnic college and hospitality industry, resulting in 6-factor-33-item solution. The derived measure was then shortened to 24 items by using item response theory (IRT). Drawing on the data from 440 respondents in the hospitality industry, this 6-factor-24 item measure was subsequently validated with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the test of construct validity.FindingsDifference in factors has been found between this instrument and western-developed scales. This study resulted in 6-dimension-24-items scale. These dimensions were named integrity, self-sacrifice, building community, empowering people, emotional healing and visioning. This servant leadership scale was demonstrated to have good internal consistency reliability and strong construct validity.Originality/valueThis is the first study that used IRT as a statistic tool to shorten a servant leadership scale and also this study provided additional support to cultural psychology theory.