Korean J Health Promot KJHP Korean Journal of Health Promotion 2234-2141 2093-5676 Korean Society for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 10.15384/kjhp.2017.17.4.275 Original Article Validity and Reliability of the Korean Version of Empowering Leadership Questionnaire Kim Eun Kyung 1 Kim Se Young 2 Jung Myun Sook 3 Kim Jong Kyung 4 You Sun Ju 5 Department of Nursing, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea. Department of Nursing, Changwon National University, Changwon, Korea. College of Nursing, Institute of Health Science, Gyungsang National University, Jinju, Korea. College of Nursing, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea. Department of Nursing, Mokpo National University, Muan, Korea. Corresponding author: Se Young Kim, PhD, RN. Department of Nursing, Changwon National University, 20 Changwondaehak-ro, Uichang-gu, Changwon 51140, Korea. Tel: +82-55-213-3576, Fax: +82-55-213-3579, sarakimk@changwon.ac.kr 12 2017 28 12 2017 17 4 275 281 22 09 2017 22 11 2017 Copyright © 2017 Korean Society for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 2017 Korean Society for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background

The manager's empowering leadership has been reported to have a positive impact on employees' psychological empowerment, motivation, creativity, and increase commitment and turnover intentions. However, there is a lack of Korean version of empowering leadership tools that have been verified for validity and reliability, so that they can be applied to Korean nursing organizations. The aim of this study was to develop the Korean version of Empowering Leadership Questionnaire (K-ELQ) and to examine its' psychometric properties.

 Methods

Translation of the K-ELQ was validated through forward-backward translation. Participants were 322 staff nurses working in four general hospitals in South Korea. To test reliability and validity, content validity index, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson's correlation, confirmatory factor analysis were used.

 Results

The K-ELQ consisted of 34 items to evaluate empowering leadership of nursing managers. Construct validity of K-ELQ was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CMIN/DF=2.72, Root Mean square Residual=0.03, Goodness of Fit Index=0.91, Normal Fit Index=0.87). Cronbach's alpha was 0.98. Criterion validity compared to the psychological empowerment of nurses showed significant correlation (r=0.19, P=0.001).

 Conclusions

The K-ELQ is an appropriate instrument to measure empowering leadership of nursing managers. Further studies are needed to utilize K-ELQ in leadership education and to identify related factors of empowering leadership.

 Power Leadership Validation studies Nurses Christmas K How work environment impacts retention Nurs Econ 2008 26 5 316 318 Brady Germain P Cummings GG The influence of nursing leadership on nurse performance: a systematic literature review J Nurs Manag 2010 18 4 425 439 Chiok Foong Loke J Leadership behaviors: effects on job satisfaction, productivity and organizational commitment J Nurs Manag 2001 9 4 191 204 Cummings G Investing relational energy: the hallmark of resonant leadership Nurs Leadersh (Tor Ont) 2004 17 4 76 87 Bakker AB Killmer CH Siegrist J Schaufeli WB Effort-reward imbalance and burnout among nurses J Adv Nurs 2000 31 4 884 891 Cummings GG MacGregor T Davey M Lee H Wong CA Lo E Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environments: a systematic review Int J Nurs Stud 2010 47 363 385 Kouzes JM Posner BZ The leadership challenge 3rd ed San Francisco Jossey-Bass 2003 1 496 Zhang X Bartol KM Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: the influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement Acad Manage J 2010 53 1 107 128 Srivastava A Bartol KM Locke EA Empowering leadership in management teams: effects on knowledge sharing, efficacy and performance Acad Manage Rev 2006 49 6 1239 1251 Albrecht SL Andreetta M The influence of empowering leadership, empowerment and engagement on affective commitment and turnover intentions in community health service workers: test of a model Leadersh Health Serv 2011 24 3 228 237 Lee HS Ryu EY Ryu BG Xian Z The effects of empowering leadership on organizational citizenship behavior: focus on the mediating role of psychological empowerment J Hum Resour Manag Res 2013 20 3 31 49 Chah DO Kim JS The relationship between empowering leadership and job involvement and organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior J Organ Manag 2011 35 171 198 Ye JE Chi SH Chin H A Study on the relationship between empowering leadership and work engagement: investigating mediating effects of self-efficacy and meaningfulness Korean J Bus Adm 2013 26 2 435 452 Ju SE Jeong IS Kim JS Park DH A study on the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative behavior: investigating mediating effects of self-regulatory focus Korean J Bus Adm 2015 28 6 1725 1745 Choi SB Kim JE Chang SD The effects of empowering leadership on the innovative behavior: creativity as a mediator and innovative support as a moderator J Hum Resour Manag Res 2013 20 3 209 229 Nam YJ Kang EG Lee SK Cha YC A study on the influence of empowering leadership to creativity: moderating effect of leader-member exchange J Digit Converg 2012 10 4 95 106 Kim SY Lee BC Kim KH Research on the influence of empowering leadership on followers' knowledge sharing and intrinsic motivation: through trust on supervisors Knowledge Manag Res 2013 14 2 89 116 Choi I Roh M How does air force organizations empowering leadership effect types of conflict management Dispute Resol Stud Rev 2013 11 3 27 60 Lee JS Park YJ A study on effects of middle social workers' empowering leadership to service quality: focused on the mediating effect of leader trust and organizational commitment J Korean Social Welfare Admin 2014 16 3 401 434 Choi DH The effects of empowering leadership on followership and work engagement: focused on general hospital nurses in U area [dissertation] Ulsan University of Ulsan 2016 Korean Arnold JA Arad S Rhoades JA Drasgow F The empowering leadership questionnaire: the construction and validation of a new scale for measuring leader behaviors J Organiz Behav 2000 21 3 249 269 Spreitzer GM An empirical test of a comprehensive model of interpersonal empowerment in the workplace Am J Community Psychol 1995 23 5 601 629 Kim MH The moderator-mediator role of empowerment in the community welfare center [dissertation] Seoul Ewha Women's University 2004 Korean Harrington D Confirmatory factor analysis: pocket guides to social work research methods series 1st ed New York Oxford University Press 2009 1 136 Cho E Choi M Kim EY Yoo IY Lee NJ Construct validity and reliability of the Korean version of the practice environment scale of nursing work index for Korean nurses J Korean Acad Nurs 2011 41 3 325 332 Bae B Structural equation modeling with Amos 19: principles and practice 1st ed Seoul Chungram Books 2011 1 668 Lawler EE The ultimate advantage: creating high-involvement organization 1st ed San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1992 1 392 General characteristics of participants (n=322)

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation or number (%).

 Model fitness test results

Abbreviations: CMIN/DF, x2/df; RMR, root mean square residual; GFI, goodness of fit index; AGFI, adjusted goodness of fit index; NFI, normal fit index; CFI, comparative fit index.

 Model fit indices for K-ELQ subscales from confirmatory factor analysis

Abbreviations: K-ELQ, Korean version of Empowering Leadership Questionnaire; RMR, root mean square residual; GFI, goodness of fit index; AGFI, adjusted goodness of fit index; NFI, normal fit index; CFI, comparative fit index.

 Correlations between empowering leadership and psychological empowerment Reliability coefficients for K-ELQ sub-scales

Abbreviations: K-ELQ, Korean version of Empowering Leadership Questionnaire; SD, standard deviation.