3.2.7 Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)

Purpose 

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) evaluates organizational leadership behaviors, focusing on actions and behaviors rather than psychological traits. It measures and provides feedback on leadership practices that enhance organizational effectiveness, workgroup vitality, job satisfaction, and commitment. By prioritizing observable actions and behaviors, the LPI helps leaders understand how their practices impact their teams and organizations. The goal is to foster leadership practices that drive positive organizational outcomes and personal leadership growth. The feedback from the LPI helps leaders understand their strengths and areas for improvement, facilitating personal and professional growth. Organizations use these insights to build stronger leadership capabilities, improve team dynamics, and achieve better organizational outcomes.

Description 

The LPI was developed by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner in 1988. Developing the instrument involved investigating 2,876 managers and their subordinates from various countries. Surveys and interviews of over 1,100 leaders about their best personal leadership experiences yielded data about the ideal behaviors of leaders. A process of testing on another 2,100 managers and narrowing down the data resulted in the LPI, which consists of 30 Likert-type questions, assessing leadership actions and behaviors across five domains.

In terms of reliability and validity, the LPI has undergone extensive testing and validation. Internal consistency of the five subscales ranged from .70 to .91, indicating good reliability. Test-retest reliability was reported to be .93 and above, indicating high stability over time. Posner&Kouzes (1993) conducted an empirical research study on 36,000 respondents concerning the psychometric propriety of the LPI instrument and to explore the differences in gender, ethnic, functional, and cross-cultural dimensions. Their empirical research study uses a 5-factor scale that was consistent with the five hypothesized dimensions of the LPI. This updated empirical analysis indicates that LPI is a reliable instrument to assess leadership behaviors and skills, and it also presents evidence to show how the practical evidence is linked with relative individual and organizational-level outcomes.

Access 

The LPI is available both in print form and online. It can be accessed through the Leadership Challenge website https://www.leadershipchallenge.com/. Contact the owner directly for pricing information. Permission from the authors is required for its use, as it is a proprietary instrument.

References

Fields, D. L., & Herold, D. M. (1997). Using the Leadership Practices Inventory to measure transformational and transactional leadership. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 57(4), 569–579. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164497057004003

Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (1988). Development and validation of the Leadership Practices Inventory. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48(2), 483–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164488482024

Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (1993). Psychometric properties of the Leadership Practices Inventory—Updated. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53(1), 191–199. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164493053001021

Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (1994). An extension of the Leadership Practices Inventory to individual contributors. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54(4), 959–966. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164494054004012