From an African philosophy to a cross-cultural instrument: Development and validation of a scale for measuring interconnected leadership

Traditional leadership research, shaped predominantly by Western individualistic perspectives, has struggled to distinguish culturally specific leadership principles from those applicable across diverse contexts. Ubuntu leadership, encapsulated by the notion of “I am because we are,” emphasises solidarity, compassion, respect, and dignity, and offers a relational and collectivistic basis for ethical and inclusive leadership. This study developed and validated the Interconnected Leadership Scale (ILS) to operationalise Ubuntu-inspired leadership. Building on an emic, participatory Interactive Qualitative Analysis conceptualisation, a cross-sectional quantitative design was applied across three independent studies involving 6381 employees from 110 South African public and private organisations. Exploratory factor analysis refined the initial 22-item scale to a unidimensional 10-item instrument explaining 62.63% of the variance, while confirmatory factor analysis supported its structure (CFI ≥.95; RMSEA ≤.093). The ILS demonstrated excellent reliability (α ≥ .90), measurement invariance across race, age, sector, and organisational role, and convergent validity with eight established relational leadership constructs, including authentic, servant, ethical, and transformational leadership. By operationalising Ubuntu’s holistic, human-centred philosophy, the ILS provides a psychometrically sound framework for advancing ethical, inclusive, and effective leadership across cultural contexts, while further cross-cultural validation is recommended.