1.15 Volunteer Leadership Development Instrument (VLDI)
Purpose
The Volunteer Leadership Development Instrument (VLDI) is designed to assess and measure the leadership development of individuals working for small volunteer organizations in various sectors. It aims to evaluate the effectiveness of leadership programs. These sectors may include nonprofit organizations, community groups, charitable foundations, and other volunteer-driven entities. The goals of the instruments are to improve leadership skills, foster organizational growth, and enhance the overall effectiveness of volunteer-led initiatives (Meier et al., 2012).
The intended test takers for the VLDI are leaders and individuals in leadership roles, including volunteer coordinators, team leaders, committee heads, and other personnel responsible for guiding and managing volunteer teams. The results of the VLDI can be utilized by multiple stakeholders within small volunteer organizations (Meier et al., 2012):
Leaders and managers: Results can help leaders and managers identify areas of strength and areas needing improvement in their leadership development programs.
Volunteer coordinators and HR Personnel: Data can be used to design targeted training and development initiatives.
Board members and organizational decision-makers: Results can inform decisions about resource allocation and strategic planning to enhance volunteer leadership capabilities.
Description
The VLDI was developed and tested in a small, retrospective, cross-sectional study (Meier et al., 2009). The instrument includes Likert-type questions that are scored using statistical methods such as correlation analysis, reliability coefficients like Cronbach’s alpha, and factor analysis.
Internally, personal time management emerged as the variable demonstrating the strongest congruence with the remaining 20 leadership impact items. The authors presented a table with Spearman correlations between this variable and the others, indicating statistically significant relationships for 18 of the 19 items (10 exceeding a correlation coefficient of .600). Still, there is a need for further testing and validation of the instrument, as a review of existing literature identified limited application of the instrument. That said, a successful adaptation for use in El Salvador was reported (Nickels, 2016). More recently, Tsai et al. (2024) addressed some limitations and proposed the Volunteer Leader Behavior Scale.
Access
This tool is accessible via academic journals and research databases, including in the relevant articles listed in the references section. Consult the original articles or directly contact the authors to ascertain the instrument’s availability and any associated permission requirements.
Reference
Meier, A., Singletary, L., & Hill, G. (2012). Measuring the impacts of a volunteer-based community development program in developing volunteers’ leadership skills. The Journal of Extension, 50(2), 67. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol50/iss2/67/
Nickels, S. V. (2016). Leadership, empowerment, and social capital in a civil society mental health program population in El Salvador. [Doctoral dissertation, James Madison University]. JMU Scholarly Commons. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019/109
Tsai, A. C., Newstead, T., Lewis, G., & Chuah, S. H. (2024). Leading volunteers effectively: Development and preliminary validation of the Volunteer Leader Behavior Scale. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 0 (0). https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640241254081
