Analysis of the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the ethical leadership scale in the working life

In this study, it was aimed to adapt into Turkish the Ethical Leadership at Work Questionnaire (ELW), developed by Kalshoven, Den Hartog, and De Hoogh (2011) and to test its psychometric properties, validity and reliabity. In this context, the factor structure (exploratory factor analysis), construct validity (convergent validity and relations with other constructs) and reliability (internal consistency) of the Turkish version of the ELW (ELW-TR) were tested. In order to test the convergent validity of the scale, ELW-TR has two different scales related to ethical leadership; De Hoogh and Den Hartog (2008) with Brown et al. (2005) and its Turkish-adapted scales were examined. In order to test the relationship of the scale with other structures, its relationship with autocratic leadership, job satisfaction and cynicism from other leadership types was examined. The psychometric properties of the scale were tested with linguistic equivalence, item analysis, Cronbach Alpha reliability analysis and construct validity methods. 221 employees working in various sectors participated in the study. According to the research findings, it was determined that the ELW-TR was supported in line with its 5-factor structure instead of the 7-factor structure. The internal consistency value of the ELW-TR was calculated as 0.96 and it was concluded that the reliability of the scale was at an acceptable level. It was concluded that the total score and sub-factors of the ELW-TR were positively related to the other two ethical leadership scales, and its convergent validity was supported. As expected, ELW-TR showed a positive relationship with job satisfaction and a negative relationship with cynicism and autocratic leadership. Based on all these findings, it is seen that the ELW-TR is a scale for which various evidences have been obtained for its psychometric properties. Keywords: Ethical leadership, ELW ethical leadership scale, validity, reliability.