A leadership self-efficacy taxonomy and its relation to effective leadership

This research involved the development of a taxonomic structure of leadership self-efficacy (LSE) and an examination of its relations with leadership effectiveness. In Phase 1, 88 key leadership behaviors were derived from interviews with 44 senior executives and served as the basis for creating measures of LSE and leadership effectiveness, respectively. In Phase 2, a principal components analysis based on managers’ self-efficacy ratings of the 88 behaviors (N = 227) yielded 18 LSE dimensions. Also in Phase 2, a principal components analysis based on multi-source effectiveness ratings (2070 raters rated 251 managers) of the 88 leader behaviors yielded nine leadership effectiveness dimensions. In Phase 3, canonical analyses (N = 227) yielded significant and highly interpretable relations between the taxonomic structures of LSE and leadership effectiveness. These results indicated distinct taxonomic structures of LSE and leadership effectiveness, and underscored the potential utility of LSE as a means to predict, understand, and develop effective leadership.