VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF PRINCIPAL AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP INSTRUMENT

Abstract

Several researchers criticised the existing authentic leadership instruments developed by previous scholars as being copyright-protected and commercially oriented. Access to these instruments often requires a subscription fee which limits continuous use and long-term exploration. Thus, authentic leadership instruments were constructed in this study based on theoretical views and authentic leadership models. This article discusses the validity and reliability of authentic leadership instruments based on teachers' perceptions. The instrument was constructed based on expert validation and incorporated classical measurement theory through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and modern measurement theory, specifically the Rasch measurement model. The analysis showed that the instrument meets the requirements of validity and reliability and is suitable for measuring authentic leadership among school principals. This study’s respondents consisted of secondary school teachers in four states of Peninsular Malaysia. Theoretically, the study’s findings imply that teachers' perceptions of three authentic leadership factors can be measured using a 10-point scale in contrast to four authentic leadership factors presented by previous scholars.