Conceptual construction and scale development of leadership taking charge behavior in the Chinese cultural context

This study aims to address the measurement issues related to leaders’ taking charge behavior within the context of Chinese culture and to fill the gap in the literature on taking charge behavior by developing and validating a scale for measuring this construct. In Study 1, a grounded coding method was used to construct a model of organizational identity structure and to preliminarily explore three dimensions of this behavior: initiative change, taking responsibility, and not fearing risks. In Study 2, exploratory factor analysis ( N = 249) and confirmatory factor analysis ( N = 244) were conducted to develop and validate a measurement scale with five items per dimension, confirming the best fit of a three-factor model. Additionally, to enhance the scale’s validity and practicality, three items with the highest factor loadings that best represent the core content of each dimension were selected to create a short version of the leadership taking charge behavior scale. Finally, Study 3 investigated the predictive utility of the short version of the leadership taking charge behavior scale by examining its relationships with two criterion variables: employees’ felt obligation for constructive change and their perception of organizational change significance. This study also further explored the impact mechanisms of leadership taking charge behavior.