Development and validity of the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2012-0110 |
| Date | 29 April 2014 |
| Published date | 29 April 2014 |
| Pages | 310-331 |
| Author | Lyse Langlois,Claire Lapointe,Pierre Valois,Astrid de Leeuw |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy |
Development and validity of the
Ethical Leadership Questionnaire
Lyse Langlois
Industrial Relations, Laval University,
Quebec City, Canada
Claire Lapointe and Pierre Valois
Educational Foundations and Practice, Laval University,
Quebec City, Canada, and
Astrid de Leeuw
University of Luxemburg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Abstract
Purpose – This study had five objectives: explain the initial steps that led to the construction
of the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ); analyze the items and verify the ELQ reliability
using item response theory (IRT); examine its factorial structure with a confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) and an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) approach; test the item bias of the
ELQ; assess the relation between the ELQ dimensions and ethical sensitivity. The paper aims to
discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach – Study 1 and Study 2 involved 200 and 668 respondents,
respectively. Step 1 consisted in IRT; Step 2 in CFA and ESEM analysis; Step 3 in invariance of the
ELQ items across gender, and Step 4 in structural equation modeling.
Findings – Results indicated the presence of the three types of ethic in the resolution of moral
dilemmas, validating Starratt’s model. The factor structure was gender invariant. Ethic of critique was
significantly related to ethical sensitivity.
Research limitations/implications – More replications will be needed to fully support the ELQ’s
validity.Given that the instr ument may be used in diverse cultural contexts, invariance across cultures
would be warranted.
Practical implications – As educational organizations become aware of the crucial need for more
ethical leaders, they will need to pay particular attention to the ethic of critique as it appears to play a
significant role in the development of ethical sensitivity.
Social implications – Results presented in this paper answer a vital need for more ethical skills in
educational leadership.
Originality/value – The ELQ provides a validated measure of Starratt’s conceptual framework and
highlights the key role played by ethical sensitivity and the ethic of critique.
Keywords Gender, Measurement, Leadership development, Evaluation, Educational administration,
Skills, Ethical leadership
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Recently, corruption in business and politics has contributed to bringing ethics
to the forefront of public awareness by highlighting the effects of unethical
behavior on organizations. Consequently, an increasing number of researchers
have become interested in understanding the ethical dimensions of leadership.
Our own research program aims at understanding the role different ethical
dimensions play in the exercise of ethical leadership. This research program has led
to a better understandin g of ethical leadership in education (Langlois, 1997, 2004),
to the identification of ethical sensitivity as a component of ethical conduct
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
Received 16 October 2012
Revised 2 April 2013
24 August 2013
26 August 2013
Accepted 10 September 2013
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 52 No. 3, 2014
pp. 310-331
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-10-2012-0110
310
JEA
52,3
(Langlois and Lapointe, 2009), to the development and experimentation of a training
program for ethical leadership (Langlois and Lapointe, 2010), as well as to the
conception of Ethical Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ), a questionnaire measuring
ethical leadership as conceptualized by Starratt (1991). This last step of our research
program aimed at contributing to what Starratt (2012) calls the cultivation of ethical
schools. In this paper, we present the process which led to the development and
validation of the ELQ.
Problem statement
In the 1970s and 1980s, interest in the moral dimensions of educational administration
grew out of work by Bates (1982), Foster (1986), Greenfield (1987), Halpin (1970),
and Hodgkinson (1978) who insisted on the need for a rep ositioning of leadership
on axiological foundations. Starratt, in his seminal paper pub lished in 1991, took a
major step in this direction by incorporating moral reasoning and critical theo ry
constructs into his model of ethical leadership. A few years later, Beck (1994) adopted a
position based on an ethic of care while Brunner (1998) found that two ethical
components could be identified in the way educational leaders work: the ethic
of justice and the ethic of care. These initial studies were part of a growing body of
literature in educational administration (e.g. Beck, 1994; Begle y and Johansson,
2003; Cranston et al., 2005;Crowson, 1989; Enomoto and Kramer, 2007; Kirby
et al., 1992; Marshall et al., 1993; Maxcy, 2002; Stefkovich and Shapiro, 1995[1];
Strike et al., 1998), which provided a framework for studying the characteristics of
an ethics-oriented practice of educational leadership.
More recently, while concern for ethical leadership in the field of business
administration emerged in reaction to scandals, corruption and conflicts of interest
(Colvin, 2003; Kalshoven, 2010; Kalshoven et al., 2011; Mehta, 2003), interest in
ethics in educational administration became more pronounced given the need for
vigilance in the interests of greater social justice, a value that is highly cherished
in the world of education. This vigilance was in response to cuts in education
budgets and their effects on youth as well as to excessive monitoring leading to an
ever-increasing technologization of management practices (Bates, 1982; Stiggins,
2004). These two phenomena raised fears that the rationalization process underway
was such that no one, either within or outside the school system, would be able to
grasp its implications.
Until now, ethical leadership in education has been studied mostly through
qualitative research, an approach which has provided rich information on this complex
phenomenon. However, such qualitative inquiry is limited in its capacity to identify
the key variables in the actualization of ethical conduct which justifies the need for
quantitative studies of ethical leadership.
Measuring ethical leadership
Brown et al. (2005) developed the first instrument to measure ethical le adership
in business administration, the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS).In their paper,
Brown and his colleagues mention that the ELS constitutes an initial step in the
measurement of eth ical leadership a nd that certain limi ts are still present.
We agree with these authors for the following reasons. First, ELS items were tested
mainly with participants from multi-unit financial services fir ms and MBA and
psychology students. This does not take into consideration the fact that using
psychology students as participants may create a bias given their lack of experience
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Development
and validity
of ELQ
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