Development and validation of the Work Environment Complexity Scale for leaders

Teresa Bezler, Giovanni B. Moneta*, Gary Pheiffer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a Work Environment Complexity (WEC) Scale for leaders.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, gathered in the course of major organisational restructuring, using samples from employees (n=305) and leaders (n=120) in two health care organisations.

Findings
The research developed and validated a scale of WEC for leaders with two factors: frequent change and events, and uncertain work demands. Comparisons between samples suggest diverging employee and leadership representations of WEC.

Practical implications
Being the first scale to measure the comprehensive construct of WEC, a foundation is laid to measure the amount of complexity in a leader’s work and the functioning of leaders with regards to WEC.

Originality/value
This paper contributes to leadership research and practice by clarifying the construct of WEC for leaders empirically and validating a bidimensional scale of WEC.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)296-308
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Organizational Change Management
Volume32
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 May 2019

Keywords

  • Complexity
  • Leadership
  • Measurement
  • Organizational behaviour
  • Work Environment Complexity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Decision Sciences
  • Strategy and Management
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Development and validation of the Work Environment Complexity Scale for leaders'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this