Development of the Authentic Followership Profile (AFP) Test Instrument
Development of the Authentic Followership Profile (AFP) Test Instrument
Leroy P. VanWhy | 2015
Abstract
Until recently, the concept of followership has been a relatively general term; an individual who was not a leader was a follower. However, just as differing types of leadership theories have emerged, followership theories are an evolving concept. One such theory is authentic followership (AF), which has only started to emerge in the last decade. Although scholars such as Avolio and Reichard (2008); de Zilwa (2014); Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, and Walumbwa (2005); and Goffee and Jones (2006) have developed various models and conceptualizations of AF, to date, there has been no empirical instrument to measure the construct (de Zilwa, 2014). The current research developed and validated a Authentic Followership Profile (AFP) instrument using the attributes that the aforementioned authors used to describe an authentic follower. A panel of five subject matter experts was enlisted to help define a more concise list of attributes of AF from 155 characteristics extracted from the literature. After review and adjudication, the list was narrowed to 74 items that were submitted to a sample participation group via an online survey; 301 completed responses were received. To establish test criterion-related validity, a 20-item test instrument for courageous followership (Dixon, 2003, 2006; Muhlenbeck, 2012) and a nine-item test instrument measuring antisocial behaviors (Fields, 2002; Robinson & O’Leary-Kelly, 1998) were included in the survey that established, as expected, a positive and negative correlation to AF. Component factor analysis results revealed four distinct components within the 74 characteristics that explained 52.48% of the variance. The four components include internalized moral perspective, self-awareness, relational transparency, and psychological ownership, which closely parallel the construct of authentic leadership (Northouse, 2013; Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008) as anticipated. Reliability is very strong with Cronbach’s alphas of .84, .83, .81, and .85, respectively. The final AFP scale contains 23 items. The results of this research open a previously unavailable avenue for future scholarly exploration, as well as potential practitioner application for employee evaluation on this important followership construct.