Testing the Psychometric Features of the Academic Intellectual Leadership Scale in a University Environment

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to develop a scale for measuring the level of academics’ intellectual leadership, test the scale by examining the influence of their personal and institutional characteristics, and then investigate the relationship of academic intellectual leadership (AIL) to communication, climate, and managerial flexibility regarding scholarly practices in universities. The pilot version was applied to 359 faculty members, then validity and reliability studies were carried out on it. According to exploratory analysis, the scale has a fivefactor structure which explains 64.83% of the variance for AIL. This factorial structure was also tested through confirmatory analysis using the secondary data set of 504 faculty members from different universities, which confirmed the five-factor structure. In addition, the alpha reliability coefficient was found to be .91. These results prove that the scale is a valid and reliable data collection instrument for measuring academics’ intellectual leadership. Moreover, there are significant differences in faculty members’ AIL in terms of gender, title, field of discipline, and establishment date of their universities. Furthermore, their AIL has significant correlations to communication, climate, and flexibility with managerial practice. Therefore, faculty members’ AIL level can be enhanced within a more collegiate organizational climate in universities by implementing various communication mediums and operating different managerial practices to support academics’ activities.