The Adaptation of the Motivation to Lead Instrument to the Estonian Military Context

Abstract

Purpose: This study is a contribution to the validation of the Motivation to Lead (MTL) scale proposed by Chan and Drasgow (2001) in order to measure three types of motivation to be a leader: affective, social-normative and calculative. This research examines the psychometrical properties of the MTL scale in the Estonian context.

Design/methodology/approach: The sample of 517 military and non-military individuals from the Estonian Defence Forces, Estonian Police and students from Tallinn University participated in the study. The original MTL scale was expanded by with the addition of ideological and patriotic dimensions proposed by Amit and colleagues (2007). The factorial structure of the MTL Scale was analysed by using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (respectively N = 170 and N = 347).

Findings: The results confirmed that both three- and five-component MTL scales are applicable in the Estonian context; the pool of 35 items was reduced into 25 items with good internal reliability. Moreover, the results showed correlations between leadership self-efficacy and MTL components, and differences between leaders’ and non-leaders’ MTL. The results indicate that the MTL scale can be a reliable and useful instrument to measure leadership motivation in the Estonian military context.

Originality/value: This study is the first to adapt the MTL scale to the Estonian context. In addition, it examines the validity of ideological and patriotic MTL as part of the general MTL construct outside of the Israeli samples.