Interpretive leadership skill as the meaning-making leadership competency in public service organizations: content, construct, and criterion validity

This research examines the conceptualization and measurement of interpretive leadership skill (ILS) in public service organizations. ILS is conceptualized as an individual leadership competency for meaning-making whose function is interactive: the leader’s capacity to read the working context, build shared understandings that promote coherent action for the organization, and revise those understandings as conditions change. This research reports three studies using two large-scale samples to validate the psychometric and predictive properties of ILS in the public service logic. Study 1 develops and validates a multidimensional measure of ILS and demonstrates its content validity. Study 2 establishes construct validity by situating ILS within a three-level model of leader development. Study 3 demonstrates criterion validity by showing ILS’s predictive property on organizational public service performance. Together, these studies validate ILS as the meaning-making competency of public service leaders and provide implications for leadership theory and practice across public and non-profit organizations.