Professional Development Leadership: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Professional development leadership (PDL) aims to facilitate a shared understanding of professional quality and to influence employees to realize this understanding in practice. PDL can be important in overcoming clashes between managerial and professional logics and influencing professional work to support organizational goal attainment. This article develops and validates two PDL measurement scales on different subsamples of surveys of public managers ( n = 385) and their employees ( n = 3,865): a 9-item dimensional scale and a 4-item global scale. The paper thus serves as a stepping stone for future research on PDL.