The SLQ^© has demonstrated acceptable reliability scores and has demonstrated content, face, predictive and discriminate validity in statistical evaluations.  

Reliability. Following each administration of the SLQ, the items were subject to empirical analyses followed by discussions conducted in an iterative fashion until the statements were representative of the strategic Leadership construct and ongoing analysis and refinements in the instrument continue. Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations and Cronbach Alpha’s for the SLQ Version1 and Version2.    

Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations and Reliability Coefficients of the Subscales of the Strategic Leadership Questionnaire: Version1, 2007 and Version2, 2008.

 Internal reliabilities were assessed through the standardized Cronbach’s Alpha  .70 value generally considered to indicate a sufficient reliability by classical psychometric authorities (Nunnally, 1978; Peterson, 1994). Reliability statistics for the SLQv1 range between .71 and .77 for the subscales and .89 for the total scale. The SLQv2 yielded Cronbach Alpha scores of Transforming .958, Managerial .950, Political.939, and Ethical .949. The SLQ^© appears free of cultural bias.

Factor Structure. The SLQv1 was not subjected to factor analyses due to low case numbers. Revisions were made in the items and they were retested in version 2. The SLQv2 was subjected to a principle axis factoring method with iterative communality estimation and oblimin with Kaiser Normalization rotation. By factoring the 77 questions on the SLQ©v2, four interpretable factors consistent with strategic leadership theory were obtained. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was .946, and the four factors extracted explained 65.4 percent of the variance. Values less than the .20 threshold were suppressed and not reported on the table.

As seen on Table 2, the managing and transforming action sets yielded one factor which we are calling Man/Trans. SL theory identifies two independent action sets as an ideal type but in actual use proposes that leader’s - lead- manage – lead – manage - in an iterative fashion. The Lead/Man factor indicates that for the population studied with SLQv2 – school principals – the responsibilities are not sufficiently disparate to break into two independent factors. A study of upper echelon leaders needs to be undertaken to determine if in fact the factor remains as a combination of transforming and managing. The political action sets yielded two separate factors which we have called bridging and bartering. The ethical action set yielded one factor which we call bonding. These results are consistent with SL theory and the further delineation of the political action set is seen as an improvement.

Table 2. Factor Structure (Factor Loadings) for the STQv4. (n=328) 

Extraction Method: Principal Axis Factoring. Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization. Rotation converged in 17 iterations. Values less than the .20 threshold were suppressed