I am currently encountering some issues with a specific scale in my research. Could anyone here help me?
In my study, I am employing the "Servant Leadership Scale" developed by Barbuto and Wheeler in 2006. This scale comprises 15 items, such as: “I encourage my followers to be hopeful about the company; I can help my followers overcome negative emotions," etc.
I have two questions regarding this scale:
(1) Can I use scale developed in corporate setting to conduct research by using the same scale in eduational setting?
Specifically, Barbuto and Wheeler developed this scale within a corporate setting. Hence, I wonder if it is suitable for me to use this scale in an academic context to assess “servant leadership” among university professors in the higher education setting. If so, should I acknowledge in the manuscript that this study utilized the scale developed by Barbuto and Wheeler with revisions. For instance, items such as "I encourage my followers to be hopeful about the company" was adapted to "I encourage my followers to be hopeful about the university" to explicitly illustrate the revisions made to the original scale and to underscore the rigor of the paper to editors and reviewers?
(2) If the Scale was designed for managers to take part in the survey, could employee take part in the survey instead?
Specifically, the "Servant Leadership Scale " developed by Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) expects leaders, rather than followers, to take part in the survey to assess leaders' servant leadership. However, If I intend to distribute this survey to students (students are regarded as followers of professors) and invite them to evaluate the servant leadership of their professors ? Should I explicitly state in the paper that this study employed the scale developed by Barbuto and Wheeler(2006) with revisions. For instance, items such as "I can help my followers overcome negative emotion" was adapted to "my professor can help me overcome negative emotion”?
Because this is really urgent, and looking forward to your earliest help!
I would recommend you ask Barbuto and Wheeler permission to change their instrument, and also you will have to investigate validity of the changed instrument to the new population
With such a large shift in the target population, you should do a pre-test to assess whether the scale retains its reliability. You could also do a small-scale set of cognitive interviews to get your potential participants' reactions to the items as currently written.
Thank you, Dr. Morgan.
Following your suggestion, I plans to condut a small-scale set of congitive interview. Afterward, I will conduct a pilot study that have three phases. First, I will check the reliability of the revised scale. Second, I will assess the model fit using CFA. Third, I will assess the convergent and discriminant validity using CFA.
Do you think if this is enough? Do you have more advice?
Thank you very much David L Morgan
Hello! I would recommend you review other scales that better fit the educational context, such as: Authentic Leadership in Education (ALE) or Multifactor Leadership Inventory for Educators (MLQ). Greetings!