Development and validation of headteachers' leadership behavior questionnaire (HLBQ)

Abstract

The leadership behavior of the headteachers is associated with institutional worth. This study intended to develop and validate a headteachers’ leadership behavior questionnaire (HLBQ) to measure the leadership behavior of headteachers. The questionnaire encompassed two sub-dimensions viz: people-oriented leadership behavior and task-oriented leadership behavior as per Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid. After a rigorous literature review followed by focus group discussions, the preliminary draft of the tool encompassed forty-three (43) items on the five (5) points Likert Scale. Based on the content and face validity, the items with CVR values less than 0.42 were dropped. The revised questionnaire was pilot tested on three hundred and ten (310) public secondary school teachers employed in the school education department. The data were processed through Smart PLS version 4, which provided the questionnaire’s validity, reliability, and model fit. After deleting the unfit items, the questionnaire was further reduced to thirty-one (31) items. AVE values of the items related to people-oriented leadership behavior were 0.658 > 0.5, and for task-oriented were 0.686 > 0.5. Fornell-Lacker criterion value (0.828) was more than the correlations with other latent constructs, i.e., 0.811 and 0.831. The Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio (HTMT) value was 0.859 < 0.9, which is acceptable. Cronbach alpha for people-oriented leadership behavior was 0.967 > 0.7, and task-oriented leadership behavior was 0.658 > 0.7. Similarly, the composite reliability (CR) values for people-oriented leadership behavior were 0.970 > 0.7, and task-oriented leadership behavior was 0.963 > 0.7. Thus, the headteachers’ leadership behavior questionnaire (HTLB) was internally consistent, valid, and reliable. The findings of the entire study supported using the headteachers’ leadership behavior questionnaire (HLBQ) to explore and measure the leadership behavior of the headteachers.