Amos S. Engelbrecht

Integrity, ethical leadership, trust and work engagement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how leader integrity and ethical leadership can influence trust in the leader and employee work engagement. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using an electronic web-based questionnaire completed by 204 employees from various business organisations. Data were analysed by means of item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis conducted via structural equation modelling. Findings High levels of reliability were found for the measurement scales. Good model fit was demonstrated for the measurement and structural models. Empirical support was found for all the postulated relationships in the structural model. Originality/value This study is the first to analyse the joint relationships between leader integrity and work engagement through the mediating role of ethical leadership (i.e. moral management) and trust in the leader. The findings emphasise the key role played by ethical leaders in creating an ethical and trusting work climate conducive for employee engagement.

A study to assess the reliability and construct validity of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire: a South African study:

Self-leadership has been recognised as a fundamental competency for effective learning and job performance. The primary goal of this study was to validate the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire on a South African sample. Numerous questionnaires have been developed to measure self-leadership, with the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire being the most widely used questionnaire. However, the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire has been deemed too long; hence, the authors abbreviated the measure. Therefore, there is a need to assess the reliability and construct validity of the abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire on a South African sample. A non-probability sample consisting of 400 students drawn from a university in the Western Cape was used. The reliability of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire was evaluated using SPSS, while construct validity was assessed via confirmatory factory analyses in the LISREL program. Moderate levels of reliability were found for the subscales of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire. Reasonable model fit with the data was found for the first-order measurement model. The study contributes to the requirements of the Amended Employment Equity Act of South Africa (Republic of South Africa, 1998) which promotes the use of reliable and valid instruments in South Africa by confirming the psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire.