The Service Leadership Attitude Scale : normative data and personal correlates in Chinese university students

Abstract

As there are few validated measures of service leadership in the Chinese contexts, there is a need to develop and validate scientific instruments to assess service leadership attitudes and beliefs of Hong Kong university students. The purpose of the present study was to present normative findings for the 46-item Service Leadership Attitude Scale (SLA-SF-46) and explore the potential personal correlates in a large university sample (N = 4,486) recruited from eight universities in Hong Kong. Results showed that while female students scored significantly higher on the SLA-SF-46 compared to male students, no age-related differences were observed. Hence, separate norm tables for both gender groups were constructed. With regard to the potential personal correlates, students' grade point average (GPA), previous leadership training, and experiences of being a leader were all positively correlated with their SLA-SF-46 scores, although the effect sizes were not large. The creation of the percentile norms helps educators and practitioners to understand the service leadership attributes of individuals.