Leadership, management, and team practices in research labs: Development and validation of two new measures

Effective leadership and management practices contribute to responsible, high-quality research and the well-being of team members. We describe the development and initial validation of a measure assessing principal investigators' leadership and management practices and a measure of research team practices.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, 570 postdoctoral researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health reported on the perceived behaviors of their principal investigator (PI) and the research team. The PI leadership and management items factored into two dimensions: fostering relationships and directing research.

Correlations of these new scales with existing, validated measures of ethical leadership and general leader behavior provided evidence of convergent validity. Providing evidence for criterion-related validity, scores on the new measures predicted lab climate for research ethics, self-reported productivity, and job satisfaction. Research team practices provided additional predictive value beyond leadership and management behaviors.

This study provides construct validity evidence for the new Leadership and Management in Science (LAMPS) Measure and the Research Team Practices (RTP) Measure. Qualitative responses to an open-ended item reinforced the importance of relationships and directive supervision for a positive environment. These measures can be useful tools for future research or may be useful for PIs seeking feedback about their practices.