Measuring Leader Identity

Abstract This chapter conceptualizes leader identity as a pattern created by the currently active self-schema related to leadership in a particular context. This pattern reflects the operation of networks linking self-relevant leadership components with contextual factors. As such, leader identities change with organizational and social contexts, creating potential issues for measurement because how identities are constituted may change over contexts or time. Both construct and predictive validity may differ when questionnaire items are written to elicit responses based on episodic compared to semantic memory. Further, details of how items are written (e.g., concreteness, grammar, contextual specificity) may have a substantial impact on the memory source used as well as the aspect of identity (self as “I” versus self as “me”) that is activated. The authors recommend that researchers go beyond traditional psychometric approaches to help assess the construct validity of leader identity measures and suggest also considering techniques such as measurement invariance analysis and item response theory.