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Servant Leadership Scale (SL-28 / SL-7)

The most used multidimensional servant-leadership measure, with a validated 7-item short form.

OBLeadershipFree for research

At a glance

Construct measured	Servant leadership
Developed by	Liden, Wayne, Zhao & Henderson (2008)
Original publication	Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(2), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006
Number of items	28 (SL-28: seven dimensions, 4 items each); 7 (SL-7 short form)
Response format	7-point agreement scale (1 = Strongly disagree to 7 = Strongly agree)

Dimensions & subscales

Emotional healing (4 items)
Creating value for the community (4 items)
Conceptual skills (4 items)
Empowering (4 items)
Helping subordinates grow and succeed (4 items)
Putting subordinates first (4 items)
Behaving ethically (4 items)

Reliability (commonly reported)

Dimension alphas are commonly reported in the .76–.91 range; the SL-7 composite is commonly around .80–.90.

Validity evidence

CFA supports the seven-factor structure and a global composite; the scale shows incremental validity over transformational leadership and LMX in predicting community citizenship, in-role performance and creativity. The SL-7 (Liden et al., 2015) correlates very highly with the SL-28 composite.

Populations & contexts

Employees and student workers in the US original; since validated across many countries and industries.

Origin, translations & adaptations

United States. Numerous translations with published validations (including Chinese and several European languages).

Licensing & permission

Free for academic research (cite the source)
The items are printed in the published articles and are routinely used in academic research with citation; contact the authors for commercial applications.

How to cite (APA 7)

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(2), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006 [SL-7: Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Meuser, J. D., Hu, J., Wu, J., & Liao, C. (2015). Servant leadership: Validation of a short form of the SL-28. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(2), 254–269.]

Short versions & notable variants

SL-7 (Liden et al., 2015) — one item per dimension, global composite
Alternative servant-leadership measures include van Dierendonck & Nuijten's (2011) Servant Leadership Survey

Related constructs

Ethical leadershipEmpowering leadershipCommunity citizenship

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