Development and initial validation of an instrument to assess followership competency in a Korean manufacturing company

Open Access
- Author:
- Park, Cho Hyun
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 24, 2013
- Committee Members:
- William J Rothwell, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
William J Rothwell, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
David Lynn Passmore, Committee Member
Judith Ann Kolb, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Kyle Leonard Peck, Special Member - Keywords:
- followership
follower
competency
instrument
validation - Abstract:
- The primary purposes of this study were to develop a followership competency instrument and examine the extent to which the instrument validly and reliably measures the characteristics of followership in a Korean manufacturing company. To accomplish these purposes, this study focused on (a) generating items that measured followership competencies (an initial set of 40 items was identified after an extensive review of the literature and survey responses from 106 employees); (b) identifying underlying dimensions (based on a total of 267 responses); (c) providing evidence of factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity from factor analysis (based on a total of 396 responses); and (d) providing evidence of internal consistency reliability (based on a total of 663 responses). After review of the initial 40 items by six subject matter experts, 30 relevant items were retained. With these 30 items, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted. Results led to the identification of four underlying dimensions of followership competencies with 16 items: Goal Orientation, Working Toward Goals, Enthusiasm, and Intellectuality. Through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the factor structure of the four-factor measurement model with 16 items was confirmed and evidence of convergent and discriminant validity from factor analysis was provided. In addition, the unidimensionality of the followership competency instrument was also confirmed by examining a second-order CFA model with four sub-factors. Last, evidence of the internal consistency reliability of the overall scale as well as each factor was provided. Study findings provide a starting point for empirical research on followership in academia and suggest the foundation for followership competency modeling for practice.