4.9 Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS and SRLS-R2)

Purpose

The Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS) and its revised version, the SRLS-R2, help assess students’ capacity for socially responsible leadership. It is quick and easy to use, taking about 15 minutes to complete. The instrument measures eight key aspects of socially responsible leadership: self-awareness, alignment of beliefs and actions, dedication, shared goals, teamwork, respectful debate, responsible citizenship, and fostering change.

The SRLS is designed for research, evaluation, and teaching.

Description
The SRLS, developed by Tracy Tyree in 1998, is built on the Social Change Model (SCM) of leadership development. The revision streamlined the scale by reducing the number of questions from 104 to 68, focusing on key areas of leadership. Research, including a doctoral dissertation by Pyle (2013) at James Madison University, demonstrated that the scale’s reliability alpha ranges from .72 to .90 across the eight areas of leadership.

Access
The tool is distributed by the National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs and is available for purchase through the University of Maryland at https://srls.umd.edu/.

References
Dugan, J. P. (2015). The measurement of socially responsible leadership: Considerations in
establishing psychometric rigor. Journal of Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies, 2015(12), 23–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.7358/ecps-2015-012-duga

Pyle, L. K. (2013). Changes in leadership self-efficacy, leader identity, capacity for socially responsible leadership, and curiosity due to a structured leader development program [Doctoral dissertation, James Madison University]. JMU Scholarly Commons. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=diss201019

Tyree, T. M. (1998). Designing an instrument to measure socially responsible leadership using the
Social Change Model of Leadership Development [Doctoral dissertation].