Leadership competency inventory: A systematic process of developing and validating a leadership competency scale

This article reports psychometric evaluation of the Penn State Leadership Competency Inventory (LCI). The 32-item LCI was validated on a sample of 323 managers in the health care industry. Preliminary validity and reliability evidence of the LCI was established through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), item-total correlations, Cronbach's alpha coefficients, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The four-factor leadership competency scale, comprising supervisory and managerial competencies, organizational leadership, personal mastery, and resource leadership, accounted for 58% of variance. According to CFA results, the model fit of the four latent factors of the LCI was confirmed to be appropriate. Cross-validation with other populations is needed to confirm the factor structure. Limitations and further research recommendations are discussed.