Leader Attentive Communication: A new Communication Concept, Validation and Scale Development

Abstract

Effective communication is a foundational leadership skill. Many leadership theories implicitly assume communication skills, without investigating them behaviorally. To be able to research leader communication as a building block of effective leader behavior, we propose a new concept, i.e., leader attentive communication which refers to “an open-minded, attentive demeanor while in a conversation with an employee”. Instead of focusing on the content or form of the communication, we propose to study the communication skills of the leader from the viewpoint of the employee. In this article, we both validate a questionnaire and test LAC's influence on employee wellbeing in four different studies. We use information from 1,320 employees and their leaders, in 422 teams, in 3 different datasets. The result is a 10-item questionnaire with 2 dimensions consisting of general attention (towards the employee) and attention to non-verbal cues. We also find that LAC is associated with work engagement, psychological needs and Kahn's conditions for work engagement. With this questionnaire, we contribute to calls for a more behavioral, detailed view on leader communication behavior.