A measurement scale developed to investigate the effect of leaders' perceptions regarding attitudes towards and commitment to quality management of training

It is broadly acknowledged that, for quality management to be effective, it needs to be viewed and implemented as a dynamic and active process by people in an organisation, specifically its leaders. This study aimed to determine the level of leaders' commitment with regard to their perceptions and attitudes concerning quality management of training in corps training units within the South African Army. The Leader Perception and Attitude Scale was developed for this purpose. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 229 leaders at six of the eight South African Army's corps training units. Correlation coefficients were determined, and structural equation modelling was performed. The results indicated that leaders' attitudes had a statistically significant influence on their commitment (p < 0.001), whereas perceptions had no statistically significant influence (p = 0.488). The results contrast with previous studies, which have mostly indicated that perceptions influence employee commitment. By targeting leaders' attitudes, therefore, the South African Army may be able to design and implement appropriate strategies to improve leaders' commitment and thereby enhance training effectiveness. The potential usefulness of a scale that measures the level of commitment of leaders and is able to indicate the level of effect that perceptions and attitudes can have, may be of interest to other military settings and organisations that conduct in-house training.