Andreas, try the Polity IV autocracy-democracy scale which ranges from -10 (hereditary monarchy) to +10 (consolidated democracy).

From your description, though, you may mean corporate instead of government leadership styles, but do have a look and see if it fits your purposes.

http://www.nsd.uib.no/macrodataguide/set.html?id=32&sub=1

See the leadership style scale developed by Simon Oates (2010):

 Simon Oates ~ www.Leadership-Expert.co.uk 2010

There are a number of questionnaires you can try using and it would be useful to see if any of them have been validated.

Here is an example of a questionnaire-

http://www.stellarleadership.com/docs/Leadership/assessment/Autocratic-Democratic%20Leadership%20Style%20Questionnaire.pdf

Here is an example of research on the topic-

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135943299398429#.VeeFSH1--Uk

This conception of leadership is quite old. Are you keen to continue with this kind of distinction between leadership styles? IF so you  coudl  try to  source Sargeant and Millers (1971) paired comparison measure from the Jounral of Commuincation, 2(1), Also used by 

Lawrence B. Rosenfeld & Timothy G. Plax (1975) Personality determinants

of autocratic and democratic leadership, Speech Monographs, 42:3, 203-208, DOI:

10.1080/03637757509375895

The link might help

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637757509375895#.VezfKpeEwsc

We built this kind of questioannaire.Write to Tomasz Rowinski [email protected].

Best wishes,

Ania

Thank you all! Short Feedback:

- I checked Oates Leadeship Questionnaire and the section on the website seems to be down. Also the Journal article from Misrha et al 2014 does not cite it correctly, probably because they had problems with the source themselves. I don't know if I can really use that.

- I found the paired comparison measurement from Sargeant and Millers (thx!) but it is really old and I did not find a recent source that used it. The journal seems citable from its ranking so I think it still is my most valid option at the moment.

@Ania: Thx! I contacted Tomasz.

- Stellarleadership seems to be a consulting firm so I don't think I can use any of their surveys. They also don't give data about validity etc.

@Emmanuel: The Scale as provided by the Polity IV scale is indeed, for my needs, inferior to the other scales because of its political focus (in my opinion) and the high complexity to apply it to companies. Thx!

I'm open for discusion :)

An "old school recipe":

1. Determine the "autocrat's" correct "span of control".

2. Determine the control span's rate of employee turnover.

3. Examine all relevant exit interview records.

You can even apply this to external contacts if applicable (e.g., customers, clients, etc., etc.). This should be an ongoing process, which should give a clear picture.

Delegating in the Workplace, available at http://www.adb.org/publications/delegating-workplace, articulates in Figure 1 a continuum of delegation developed after Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt. 1958. How to Choose a Leadership Pattern. Harvard Business Review. March–April. The Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum is a well-known model of areas of freedom for supervisors and subordinates. In the range of behaviors the model depicts, a supervisor makes the decision and announces it; sells the decision; presents his ideas and invites questions; presents a tentative decision subject to change; presents the problem, gets suggestions, and then makes the decision; defines the limits and requests the subordinate to make a decision; or permits the subordinate to make decisions within prescribed limits. We are all familiar with the subtle nuances between telling, selling, checking, including, involving, and empowering. The model may help construct a measurement scale for autocratic leadership style.

Hi Andreas,

Were you able to get the scale for directive leadership style? I too need it for my research. Can you please share what you finally narrowed down to and utilized for your purpose? 

Regards,

Vikas.

https://www.academia.edu/35720765/Leadership_Expert_How_Do_You_Lead_Questionnaire

Hi Andreas,

Were you able to get the scale for leadership style? I too need it for my research. Can you please share what you finally narrowed down to and utilized for your purpose?

Regards