A Validation of Servant Leadership Scale on Multinational Sample

Servant leadership has been gaining attention from all types of organizations, whether it be business organizations or public schools. With the increase of studies on the servanthood characteristics of organizational leaders, various scales of servant leadership were used to examine servant leadership behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes in different organizations. In line with the increasing interest on servant leadership, the purpose of the study was aimed at characterizing the Servant Leadership (SL) scale psychometrically through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis. The related data were collected from 461 teachers across several countries. The one-factor structure of the SL was confirmed in CFA along with the Rasch Rating Scale model, with the analyses of rating scale diagnosis, item fit assessment, reliability, unidimensionality, local independence, and differential item functioning (DIF). High person separation and reliability statistics supported the consistency of the SL scores. Only one item (Item 7) did not fit the Rasch model, and another item (Item 1) showed DIF to be in favor of females. Overall CFA and the Rasch models provided enough evidence for the seven-item SL scale.