Transformational and transactional leadership: An analysis of the factor structure of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) in a Spanish sample

Transformational and transactional leadership: An analysis of the factor structure of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) in a Spanish sample. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) has been one of the most commonly used instruments to assess leadership in organizational settings for the last two decades. However, the factor structure proposed by the MLQ authors has received some criticism. The aim of this work is to examine the fit indices of several alternative factor models suggested by the literature. In order to accomplish this objective, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses in a sample of 954 participants using a Spanish version of the MLQ. Results show that the model that produces the better tit with the data consists of four factors: transformational leadership. developmental/transactional leadership, corrective leadership and avoidant/passive leadership. This model is parsimonious and consistent with the MLQ literature.