A Contribution to the Validation of the Motivation to Lead Scale (MTL): A Research in the Italian Context

Abstract

The study is a contribution to the validation of the Motivation to Lead Scale (MTL), recently proposed by Chan and Drasgow (2001) in order to reveal three types of motivation to be a leader. Participants are 624 university and post-degree specialization students, both male and female, who answered self-report structured questionnaires. The factorial structure of the MTL Scale was investigated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and via multi-sample procedures. Following the analyses, the original scale was reduced into a 15-item form with satisfactory reliability. Other analyses showed the existence of correlations between the MTL Scale, the Social Desirability Scale and the McClelland Scales. Results indicate that the MTL Scale can be considered a useful research instrument in social, personality and organizational psychology. Correlations with the Social Desirability and McClelland Scales should be taken into consideration in order to improve and apply the MTL Scale.