ABSTRACT
Symbolic leadership uses symbols to motivate followers. Symbolic leaders have an advanced understanding of their organization's culture. There are several primary ways in which symbolic leaders communicate ideas: verbal symbols, physical symbols, structural symbols, relational symbols, ceremonial symbols, and ritual symbols. Symbolic leaders often use stories from military exploits, Greek mythology, biblical passages, sports, and personal triumph to communicate messages. Many symbolic leaders employ ceremonial symbols to illustrate ideas. Nevarez & Wood –symbolic leadership descriptor inventory is designed to assess the degree to which a leader adheres to a symbolic frame. For aspiring leaders, conceptualize how the actions in formal (e.g., work) and informal (e.g., home, extracurricular activities) settings may determine the degree of leadership influence. Two internal consistency estimates were employed to examine the reliability of the symbolic leadership inventory: split-half coefficient and coefficient alpha. For the split-half reliability, the scale was divided into equal halves for item equivalency.
