Hyung Joon Yoon, Ji Hoon Song, Wesley Donahue, Katheryn Woodley

February 27, 2010

Penn State Leadership competency inventory™: A comprehensive approach for developing and validating measurement

The Leadership Competency Inventory (LCI)

32 items, keyed to competencies shown to be critical to successful performance in supervisory or managerial roles

Research-based, drawing on extensive studies by the Federal OPM, which drew on the original large scale studies by AT&T; appended with basic, core competencies (SCANS & Work Keys)

Self and Manager parallel versions

Group-based results (but can be used for individual development planning)

Leadership Development Planner

Purpose of the Study

1. To report the process used for developing a leadership competency inventory.

2. To examine the validity evidence of the LCI with the data collected. If the evidence turns out to be valid, the process of development and validation of the LCI may be duplicated in the HRD field by researchers and practitioners.

Conceptual Framework

• 22 Competencies +

• 32 Competencies

• 5 Competencies• 3 Foundational skills domains

Synthesis

Development Process of the Leadership Competency Inventory

Validation Method

• Participants– A total of 323 individuals from 11 healthcare-related

organizations were drawn from a larger data set.

• Instrument– Form I (Developmental Need Data)

• Five-point Likert scale

Validation Method (Cont’d)

• Data Analysis1. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

• Principal axis factoring followed by promax rotation

2. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient

3. The corrected item-total correlation

4. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) [Lisrel]

Results1) Exploratory Factor Analysis

Results1) Exploratory Factor Analysis

Results2) Reliability: Cronbach’s Alpha

and Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Factor Cronbach’s Alpha

Supervisory/Managerial Competencies .924

Organizational Leadership .880

Personal Mastery .885

Resource leadership .776

Overall Leadership Competency .955

• The corrected item-total correlations for each item: 435-.735. (Cutoff: 0.3 or less)

Results3) Confirmatory Factor Analysis

1. Single order CFA results

Results3) Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Cont’d)

2. Higher-order CFA results

Conclusions

• The results show the LCI to possess sound reliability and validity for the population of health care supervisors and managers studied.

• There is a possibility that the LCI can be used for any populations regardless of industry.

Recommendations for Future Research

• Further validation research is necessary to ensure whether or not the four defined factors are valid for other major industries such as manufacturing and public service.

• The use of the importance data is desirable, because it will cross-validate the LCI’s factor structure.

• Re-assess and update the competencies by reflecting on the most recent changes in society and the workplace.

Contributions to New Knowledge in HRD

• This LCI validation study exhibited a comprehensive approach by integrating the LEF (OPM, 1993) and the SCANS report for America 2000 (SCANS, 1992).

• This study added one more perspective—basic skills—to Naquin and Holton’s (2006) study.

• HRD researchers/practitioners will be able to easily develop and validate their own, sound leadership assessments geared toward their specific purposes.

ReferencesDonahue, W. E. (1996). A descriptive analysis of the perceived importance of leadership competencies to

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Naquin, S. S., & Holton, E. F. (2006). Leadership and managerial competency models: A simplified process and resulting model. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 8(2), 144-165. doi: 10.1177/1523422305286152

Pennsylvania State University Continuing and Professional Education. (2007). Penn State Leadership Competency Inventory™: Administration Instructions. University Park, PA: Author.

Pennsylvania State University Continuing and Professional Education. (2008). Penn State Leadership Competency Inventory™. University Park, PA: Author.

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Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. (1992). Skills and tasks for jobs: A SCANS report for America 2000. Washington, DC: United States Department of Labor.  

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Human Resources Development Group, & Office of Executive and Management Policy. (1993). Leadership effectiveness framework and inventory. Unpublished report. Washington, DC: Author.