Perceptions of Leadership Integrity in the Logistics Sector in South Florida: A Correlation of Follower's Assessments

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between leadership behaviors and integrity as perceived by followers

METHODOLOGY
Web-based survey results were obtained from 98 of the 460 employees (22% response rate) of a large logistics company in southern Florida. Respondents completed the Leadership Practices Inventory-Observer and Perceived Leadership Integrity Score (Craig & Gustafson, 1998) as perceived by subordinates for their immediate supervisor. The typical respondent was female (55%), Hispanic/Latino (43%), between 31-40 years of age (40%), a college graduate (52%), and with 1-5 years working with their current supervisor (45%). In this study, Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients were .88 for Model, .93 for Inspire, .94 for Challenge, .95 for Enable, and .97 for Encourage.

KEY FINDINGS
Each of the five leadership practices showed a strong significant linear correlation with the Perceived Leadership Integrity Score (PLIS). This was tested using the spearman’s rho correlations, which showed significant results. Spearman’s rho values between dependent variable PLIS score and independent variables for LPI dimensions were as follows – Model the Way (0.77), Inspire a Shared Vision (0.73), Challenge the Process (0.61), Enable Others to Act (0.69) and Encourage the Heart (0.74). These results show a very strong relationship as per the Cohen’s (1998) standard that suggests coefficients above .50 represent a large association or relationship. After meeting the assumption of normality, multiple linear regression also showed significant results suggesting that LPI dimensions accounted for (R2) 72.3% of the variance in PLIS score.

The author concludes:

Whether effective leadership behaviors and perceptions of integrity constructs are measuring the same thing, engaging employees to adopt these leadership practices would lead to a greater sense of integrity in those employees. The application of these leadership practices would result in improved leadership development efforts in organizations (p. 96).

The study’s results indicated that when followers perceived their leaders to possess behaviors attributed in the constructs of the LPI, they tend to react in favor of those leaders having integrity as well. The inverse effect was registered when followers perceived their leaders lacking effective behaviors (p. 103).