Measuring follower confidence in top leadership direction

The purpose of this paper is to define the construct of confidence in top leadership and to develop a brief measure of that construct.

Two studies were conducted in which 674 working adults completed measures of work‐related attitudes. In both studies, the scale demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity with like and unrelated constructs.

The results provide evidence for the construct validity of the new measure.

Respondents were relatively young and drawn predominantly from a working student population in a single region of the USA. Additional research should be conducted with additional working populations, especially in the context of addressing organizational change.

The short five‐item scale would be useful as a diagnostic tool for assessing the confidence of organizational members in their top leadership.

This study supports a concept, confidence in top leadership, that as a followership variable, can be used to identify if top leadership has the support of its followers.