Measuring Malaysian youth leadership competencies: validation and development of instrument

A multi-stage approach to develop an empirically-validated instrument is developed in this study to assess the Malaysian youth leadership competencies through a multi-dimensional set of individual cognitive-affective constructs that have an influence on the youth leadership competencies. Also, an initial item pool is developed through an extensive literature review and a dimensional structure is tested via focus group interview. Then, the first set of instruments was developed and validated by a selected panel of experts. The study further tested the clarity and representativeness of the item by experts. This was followed by the reliability test of the item through a pilot study using 30 respondents. A main survey of over 541 youth throughout Malaysia has been collected. The model good of fitness is deductively tested through factor analysis (EFA). After identifying the rationales behind youth leadership, the validated instrument has the heuristic potential to clarify the theories of leadership and culture. The 10-factor measures can be both prescriptively and descriptively employed. In addition, the study presents a pragmatic approach to assess competencies among the youth and can equally be used to create a foundational level of the Malaysian youth leadership competencies scale. This measure presents a leadership construct that serves as a complement to early research by scholars in the field of leadership. The findings with the suggestions provided in this study serve as alternative perspectives to leadership measures and as an extension to the basic framework for future exploration.