LAS Details

Leadership Appraisal Survey (LAS)

Purpose:

The Leadership Appraisal Survey (LAS) evaluates a leader's stylistic behavior from the associates' point of view. Used for assessment and development purposes with non-management supervisory personnel, campus and community groups, volunteer organizations, and administrative personnel.

Model:

Leadership Grid, based on Robert Blake and Jane Mouton's Managerial Grid.

Scoring:

Self-scored

Format:

A 60-item paper/pencil inventory, employing the 10-point Williams-Hall scale, for assessing a leader's impact on and stimulus value for the group from the associates' point of view. The inventory covers leader philosophy, planning, implementation, and evaluation practices as these are viewed by associates. The inventory yields analysis of overall leadership style. The inventory may be administered in conjunction with the Styles of Leadership Survey (SLS) to provide a comparison of the associates' ratings with the leader's self-rating on the SLS. Normative data are provided.

Note: Uses the same items as those found in the Management Appraisal Survey, normed for leadership purposes.

Brief Description:

The purpose of this survey is to obtain co-worker assessments of the leadership practices of their leader. A wide range of leadership situations is covered within which the leader's practices may be evaluated. Some of these situations will be familiar and others will be less familiar. In these latter cases, respondents should simply indicate what they believe their leader would be inclined to do if ever confronted with that set of circumstances. The results of this survey are used to provide a leader with meaningful information about his or her impact on others.

As a companion to the SLS, the LAS gives feedback to the leader from associate assessments of that leader's behavior. It yields rating scores to be compared with self-ratings from the SLS. The LAS sheds light on the leader's impact on others and stimulus value for the group. It clears up leaders blindspots, pinpoints strengths and weaknesses, and confirms the way leadership practices come across to associates.

Sample Item:

Participants enter each response at a point on the scale that represents how characteristic that response is for their leader.

1.	The leader's job is to accomplish work through people. What relationship between leaders and other members does your leader feel to be most effective for accomplishing this? My leader:
		a.	Feels that the best relationship is one in which the leader plans and directs the work of the members and the members implement these plans and directions in a reasonable period of time.
		b.	Feels that the best relationship is one in which the leader and the members work together in meeting organizational goals and individual needs for job satisfaction.
		c.	Feels that the best relationship is one characterized by autonomy in the work situation and minimal contact between the leader and other members.
		d.	Feels that the best relationship is one in which both the leader and members are willing to "give a little and take a little" when necessary to get the job done.
		e.	Feels that the best relationship is one in which the leader ultimately places emphasis on the morale and well-being of the other members rather than on the requirements of the job.

Companion Piece:

Styles of Leadership Survey (SLS)

Video Support:

None

Languages:

English, Spanish, French, Swedish, German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Author:

Jay Hall, Ph.D.

Publication Date:

Revision Date:

Norms:

In this instrument norms provide a reference point in the form of standardized T-scores. So that a leader may compare his or her co-worker assessments with those others have made about their leaders -- as well as with self-assessments. T-scores have been generated from a substantial normative sample of individuals who have completed the LAS. The current sample is 1,437.

Reliability
and
Validity:

The SLS is an adaptation of Teleometrics' Styles of Management Inventory (SMI) and good construct and concurrent validities have been established by a strong correlation with the Edwards Personal Preference Scale (EPPS) and Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale. The median coefficient of stability is greater than .70, indicating fair reliability. The SLS is deemed suitable for both concept and diagnostic training and research purposes.