Authentic Leadership and Employee Trust During COVID-19–Measurement Model

Description

The Authentic Leadership and Employee Trust During COVID-19—Measurement Model (Zheng, Dong, & Zhang, 2024) was developed as part of a study examining the various impacts of authentic leadership on employee trust and the fit between employees and organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how attributes of authentic leadership influence employee trust, organizational fit, and how these effects differ based on gender and position levels. Adapted items from previous research (e.g., Neider & Schriesheim, 2011; Rego et al., 2022; Ausar et al., 2016) were used to construct the model. The measure was administered to US employees, and results on factor structure, reliability, and validity were provided for this 19-item measure.

Authors

• Zheng, Qi
• Dong, Chuqing
• Zhang, Yafei

Author Identifiers

• Dong, Chuqing: ORCID: 0000-0003-1522-7577

Affiliations

• Zheng, Qi: Michigan State University, Department of Advertising and Public Relations
• Dong, Chuqing: Michigan State University, Department of Advertising and Public Relations
• Zhang, Yafei: Renmin University of China, School of Journalism and Communication

Emails

• Dong, Chuqing: [email protected]

Test Year

2024

Items of Authentic Leadership and Employee Trust During COVID-19

• Number of Items: 19
• Rating Scale: Seven-point Likert scale

Instrument Type

Inventory/Questionnaire

Constructs

• Authentic Leadership
• Employee Trust

Purpose

The purpose of this measurement model is to assess the various impacts of authentic leadership on employee trust during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reliability

• Internal Consistency: Cronbach’s alpha and Composite Reliability (CR) values were above 0.8 for all constructs, indicating excellent internal consistency.

Validity

• Convergent Validity: All constructs demonstrated satisfactory convergent validity, with factor loadings exceeding the threshold of 0.5.
• Discriminant Validity: Discriminant validity was assessed using the Chi-square difference approach, comparing the measurement model with two alternative models, demonstrating acceptable results for the discriminant validity of the constructs (χ2(152) = 2201.2, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.72, RMSEA = 0.18; χ2(158) = 2038.5, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.74, RMSEA = 0.17).

Factor Analysis

• Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): CFA was conducted on six key constructs—self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, internalized moral perspective, employee-organization fit, and trust. The results showed a good fit for the measurement model, with model indices: χ2(137) = 436.7, p < 0.001, SRMR = 0.04, NNFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.95, CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.07, indicating the model fit the data well.

Test Methodology

• Test Validity
• Convergent Validity
• Discriminant Validity
• Test Reliability
• Internal Consistency
• Factor Analysis
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis
• Measurement Model

Reference

Zheng, Q., Dong, C., & Zhang, Y. (2024). When relational transparency backfires: Examining the various impacts of authentic leadership on employee trust during the COVID-19 pandemic. Corporate Communications, 29(3), 430–450. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-05-2023-0066