Construction and Validation of Leadership Archetypes Scale for Business Leadership

ABSTRACT
Literature suggests that people hold different perceptions of leadership, particularly ideal leadership, and associated characteristics. Building on this, it was proposed that an instrument that could assess local views or ‘archetypes’ of what a leader should be like can be helpful in Pakistani organizational settings. Owing to the dearth of a reliable and valid scale for assessment of leadership archetypes in business settings, this study aimed to develop the Leadership Archetypes Scale. Initially item pool of 90 statements was formulated with the aid of previous literature and interviews with 30 business sector employees. Advice from subject matter experts resulted in the final selection of 81 items which were put through an EFA after obtaining data form 365 employees. A five-factor solution containing 57 items was suggested and it was confirmed through a CFA on an independent sample (N = 359).