Psychometric Characteristics of the Serbian Version of the Ethical Leadership at Work Questionnaire (ELW-RS)

The aim of this study was to translate the Ethical Leadership at Work Scale (ELW) into Serbian and, by examining the construct validity of the new version, to analyze the level of invariance between the Serbian version (ELW-SR) and the original ELW scale. Focusing on the constructs defined by Kalshoven et al. (2011), this paper aimed to verify the seven-dimensional structure of ethical leadership and its preservation in Serbian adaptation. The sample consisted of 306 participants with at least six months of work experience, predominantly female (72.50%), aged between 20 and 63 years, mostly highly educated, and primarily employed on a permanent basis in the private sector (74.80%). The analysis confirmed that ELW-SR adequately reflects all dimensions of the original scale: people orientation, fairness, power sharing, concern for sustainability, ethical guidance, role clarification, and integrity. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a seven-dimensional solution with correlated residuals provides a good fit (χ²=, df=; CFI = .92, TLI = .91, RMSEA = .07, and SRMR = .10), thereby affirming the validity of the Serbian version of the scale. However, the study points to the need for caution in generalizing results, particularly concerning variables such as gender and type of organization, where the assumptions of invariance were not unequivocally confirmed. Additionally, the scale's convergent validity was further supported by significant correlations between dimensions of ethical leadership and related constructs such as job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and psychological safety. These findings imply that ELW-SR can be an effective tool for assessing ethical leadership in the Serbian business context.