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Disengaging Leadership Scale (DLS)

What Is Disengaging (Need-Frustrating) Leadership?

A leader can not only motivate employees but also actively undermine their engagement and motivation. This typically occurs through excessive control over how tasks are performed, criticism of employees’ competence, devaluation of their contributions, or hindering their professional development. Such behavior is known as disengaging (need-frustrating) leadership.

It is important to distinguish between disengaging leadership and the mere absence of positive leadership, as both can demotivate subordinates, yet for different reasons. The absence of positive leadership is characterized by passivity, avoidance of decision-making, failure to address problems, and a lack of constructive feedback. Disengaging leadership, by contrast, involves active negative behaviors that frustrate employees’ basic psychological needs.

Disengaging Leadership Scale

The Disengaging Leadership Scale (DLS) is a relatively new instrument published in 2021. It assesses the extent to which a disengaging leader undermines employees’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence recognition, relatedness, and acknowledgment of their contribution.

Research has consistently confirmed the reliability of the DLS across diverse employee groups: it performs equally well for workers in operational, administrative, and managerial roles.

This questionnaire is designed to be completed by subordinates to evaluate the negative behaviors of their direct supervisor.

Source

I. Nikolova, M. C. J. Caniels, W. Schaufeli, J. H. Semeijn. Disengaging Leadership Scale (DLS): Evidence of Initial Validity

1. My direct supervisor pressures me to do my job in a specific way.
2. My direct supervisor enforces work methods which I would not choose myself.
3. My direct supervisor instigates his or her vision without asking about my opinion.
4. My direct supervisor enforces his or her ideas without taking my opinion into account.
5. My direct supervisor burdens me with tasks which are against my personal convictions.
6. My direct supervisor obstructs my professional development.
7. My direct supervisor denies me access to trainings and courses at work.
8. My direct supervisor ensures I do not get any interesting tasks from which I can learn new things.
9. My direct supervisor gives me the feeling that I am not capable of doing my job well.
10. My direct supervisor suggests that I cannot solve complicated situations at work.
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