Self‐construal orientation: Validation of an instrument and a study of the relationship to leadership communication style

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to test rigorously the measurement equivalence of the Independent and Interdependent Self‐Construal Scales (Gudykunst et al., 1994) across three cultural groups and for males and females, and (b) to determine the comparative amount of variance in self‐perceived leadership communication style that can be predicted by self‐construal orientation, culture, and biological sex. College students from the United States (n = 224), New Zealand (n = 218), and the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan (n = 228) responded to the self‐construal scales and the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (Hemphill & Coons, 1957). Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the Independent and Interdependent Self‐Constnial Scales should be considered as tzvo distinct one‐factor solutions rather than two factors of the same construct as previously assumed. Multiple groups comparisons indicated that, with one minor exception, measurement on each of the self‐construal scales was invariant across cultures and sexes, thus providing evidence of the validity of the two scales when used for cross‐cultural research.

Key concepts:

• Self‐construal orientation
• individualistic
• collectivistic
• independent self‐construal
• interdependent self‐construal
• leadership communication style
• structural equation modeling
• confirmatory factor analysis