Developing and validating the charismatic leadership tactics scale: evidence from multi-source questionnaire studies, cognitive and behavioral assessments and a leadership training evaluation

Abstract

Charisma in managers is a leadership vitamin that enables them to lead more effectively and improve organizational performance. However, existing questionnaire measures of leaders’ charisma suffer from several limitations, primarily that they almost exclusively assess leaders’ charisma in terms of its effects rather than the constituent behaviors, thus conflating cause and effect. Employing the signaling approach to leaders' charisma, I developed and validated the Charismatic Leadership Tactics Scale (CLTS) across ten studies to measure leaders' charisma as an exogenous variable. Scale items were derived from empirical research on distinct charismatic leadership tactics. First, I established the factorial structure and internal consistency of the CLTS with managers (Study 1) and employees (Study 2). Second, I tested the agreement between manager and employee ratings and the scale’s convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity (Studies 3, 4). Third, I demonstrated that the CLTS relate to objectively measured harismatic tactics, the cognitive abilities underlying leaders’ charisma, and the outcomes that leaders’ charisma is expected to influence (external validity; Studies 5, 6, 7). Fourth, I showed the scale’s sensitivity to change in a charisma training program for managers (Study 8). Finally, I present a cross-cultural adaptation of the CLTS with managers (Study 9) and employees (Study 10). Utilizing diverse methodologies, including cross-sectional studies, automated behavioral assessments, cognitive tests, negotiation tasks, and a quasi-experimental training evaluation, these studies establish the CLTS as a valid instrument. The CLTS matches or exceeds established charismatic leadership measures while disentangling its measurement from endogenous or conflicting influences.