Assuming that high centralised management style in the main small business characteristics, where the owner-managers have full control, authority and power in running the business operation. In particular, I am interested to investigate the level of personal control of owner-manager in hospitality small business and its relationship on employees' work behaviour.
If you are designing a questionnaire, you may ascertain the degree of personal control (or influence perhaps?) by identifying a number of indicators that may indirectly give you a sense of the extent of direct personal control. Among the could be the following:
1. The obvious ones
a. shareholdings - direct or through entities where the owner is the ultimate beneficiary.
b.number of family members working in the business or key positions.
c. decisions referred to the board or family council if they exist (absence of such decision bodies often indicate absolute control / influence by owner as sole decision maker.
d. delegated authority if one exists (same comment as in c).
2. The less obvious ones
a. extent of bank debt, supplier credits, or other loans to finance business.
b. extent supplier credits or assistance play in the funding or operations of the business.
c. concentration of business in number of customers.
d. relance on government aid or subsidies.
Under this second category, while the owner may appear to assert full control over the decisions taken for the business, other parties may restrict the owner's alternatives or actions.
There are of course other aspects you can explore. This is a way to give you a possible way of thinking about the design of your questionnaire.
Perhaps the the inverse of the Laissz-Faire scale of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) measures what you're interested in. The Laissez-Faire scales measures how much a leader is hands-off in his or her style. The inverse would measure how much he or she controls everything.
Versions exist measuring both the leader's and the followers' perspective.
This is really interesting and I wonder whether the above, plus another well tested instrument might be useful - the mental toughness questionnaire. It's more of a psychological perspective.
http://aqrinternational.co.uk/mtq48-mental-toughness-questionnaire
http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Mental_toughness
Delegating in the Workplace, available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266478092_Delegating_in_the_Workplace, reproduces on page 4 a continuum of delegation that surely lends itself to the questionnaire/scale the question refers to.
Article Delegating in the Workplace