Volume 32, Issue 2: April, 2005

Abstract

Development of Measures of Organizational Leadership for Health Promotion

Linda Barrett, MSc, Ronald C. Plotnikoff, PhD, Kim Raine, PhD, and Donna Anderson, PhD

This study describes the development and psychometric evaluation of four scales measuring leadership for health promotion at an organizational level in the baseline survey (n = 144) of the Alberta Heart Health Project. Content validity was established through a series of focus groups and expert opinion appraisals, pilot testing of a draft based on capacity assessment instruments developed by other provinces involved in the Canadian Heart Health Initiative, and the literature. Psychometric analyses provided empirical evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the organizational leadership scales. Principal component analysis verified the unidimensionality of the leadership scales of (a) Practices for Organizational Learning, (b) Wellness Planning, (c) Workplace Climate, and (d) Organization Member Development. Scale alpha coefficients ranged between .79 and .91 thus establishing good to high scale internal consistencies. These measures can be used by both researchers and practitioners for the assessment of organizational leadership for health promotion and heart health promotion.