Scale library · HRM & organizational behavior
Transformational leadership (GTL): Carless et al. (2000)
The GTL was proposed by Carless, Wearing and Mann (2000) as a short measure of transformational leadership covering 7 behaviors: communicating a vision, developing staff, giving recognition, fostering teamwork, encouraging innovative thinking, acting consistently with values, and inspiring through the leader's own competence. Each item represents one behavior, and the scale treats transformational leadership as a single overall construct. It is often chosen instead of the proprietary MLQ and suits theses on how managers affect employee engagement, satisfaction, creativity and commitment, including in schools and hospitals.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: GTL
- Constructs: 1
- Items: 7
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Transformational Leadership (TL, 7 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| TL1 | My manager communicates a clear and positive vision of the future | No |
| TL2 | My manager treats staff as individuals, supports and encourages their development | No |
| TL3 | My manager gives encouragement and recognition to staff | No |
| TL4 | My manager fosters trust, involvement and cooperation among team members | No |
| TL5 | My manager encourages thinking about problems in new ways and questions assumptions | No |
| TL6 | My manager is clear about his/her values and practices what he/she preaches | No |
| TL7 | My leader instills pride and respect in others and inspires me by being highly competent | No |
Response scale
5-point frequency scale, not an agreement scale, as used by Hendrikx et al., 2022 (1 = Never … 5 = Frequently, if not always); many other studies use a 5-point agreement scale. Employees rate their direct manager; the score is the mean of the 7 items.
Licence and permission
The items are published in an academic article and widely used in research as an alternative to the MLQ. We found no purchase or licensing conditions; cite Carless, Wearing and Mann (2000).
Sources (APA 7)
- Carless, S. A., Wearing, A. J., & Mann, L. (2000). A short measure of transformational leadership. Journal of Business and Psychology, 14(3), 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022991115523
- Hendrikx, I. E. M., Vermeulen, S. C. G., Wientjens, V. L. W., & Mannak, R. S. (2022). Is team resilience more than the sum of its parts? A quantitative study on emergency healthcare teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(12), Article 6968. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19126968
- Kloutsiniotis, P. V., Mihail, D. M., Mylonas, N., & Pateli, A. (2022). Transformational leadership, HRM practices and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of personal stress, anxiety, and workplace loneliness. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 102, Article 103177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2022.103177
- Saif, N., Amelia, Goh, G. G. G., Rubin, A., Shaheen, I., & Murtaza, M. (2024). Influence of transformational leadership on innovative work behavior and task performance of individuals: The mediating role of knowledge sharing. Heliyon, 10(11), Article e32280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32280
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.