A contribution to the Italian adaptation of the Destructive-Constructive Leadership Questionnaire

The study aimed to supply a preliminary contribution to the adaptation of the Destructive-Constructive Leadership Questionnaire (DCL; Ekvall & Arvonen, 1991; Aasland et al., 2010) to the Italian context. The scale, comprising 22 items across 5 dimensions, may represent a comprehensive measure of both negative leadership – such as Tyrannical, Derailed, Supportive-Disloyal, Laissez-faire behaviors – as well as positive leadership, that is Constructive behavior. The study was carried out with 1230 participants (age: M = 41.75; SD =11.13), both men and women, employed for at least one year at the time of data collection (March-June, 2014). The research questionnaire include the DCL scale, a 5-item measure of Job Satisfaction (Brayfield & Rothe, 1951) and some socio-demographic questions, such as gender, age, level of education, seniority. Results of a CFA performed via LISREL supported the goodness of fit of the 5 factor model (RMSEA = .03, CFI = .99). Reliability estimates by means of Cronbach’s alpha were acceptable and ranged between .63 to .84. A positive correlation emerged between the measure of Job Satisfaction and that of Constructive leadership. Conversely, the satisfaction measure had a negative connection with Destructive leadership, in line with theoretical assumptions. The DCL could be a useful tool both for scholars and practitioners who want to detect different facets of leadership behaviors in applied empirical research or intervention, be it positive or negative facets. This is something that already existing leadership inventories rarely offer.