Developing a power scale based on Etzioni's organizational commitment classification for school principals

This study aims to develop a validated and reliable scale grounded in Amitai Etzioni’s organizational compliance framework, addressing a gap in measuring coercive, remunerative, and normative power types in educational leadership. While there are scales in the literature designed to measure the types of power used by school principals, no scale has been identified that corresponds to Amitai Etzioni’s classification of power types—coercive, remunerative, and normative—used to explain organizational compliance (normative, calculative, and alienative). The power sources employed by school principals are crucial for influencing school stakeholders and directing them toward organizational goals. Etzioni’s classification of power types is notably straightforward and comprehensive, and when developed as a scale, it can be utilized alongside other measurement tools. Therefore, there is a need for a concise, practical, and validated scale to measure the types of power used by school principals. The analyses were conducted on data from 580 primary school teachers working in public schools. The development and validation processes were carried out in multiple steps. The literature was reviewed, in-depth interviews were conducted with school stakeholders, and an item pool was created. The suitability of the scale items for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was tested, yielding a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value of 0.904 and a significant Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity. According to the CFA results, the model fit was appropriate, and the correlation between factors and items was satisfactory. Based on the results, a three-factor scale comprising 15 items was developed. School principals' power types were conceptualized as a multidimensional construct with three dimensions: normative power, remunerative power, and coercive power. As a result of the analyses, it was concluded that the “Scale of Power Types Used by School Principals,” defining 15 items across three dimensions, is acceptable and applicable.