Influence Resources and Power from The Teachers’ Perspective: An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Abstract

In the face of the public, having certain types of influence is perceived to may help practitioners and even ordinary employees to draw the people’s attention into believing the news or story which spreads to serve any particular purpose. However, it is believed that previous researchers are yet to develop a set of items that can help to interpret the role of influence and power dimension among employees. This study aims to identify the key factors that can help to affirm the suitability of a set of items, namely, Influence Resources Scale (IRS). A total of 187 respondents consisting of school teachers in Kelantan had voluntarily participated in providing feedbacks towards the Influence Resources Scale (IRS). The completed questionnaires were analysed in the exploratory factor analysis procedure to identify the role of influence and power dimension among employees. A principal component analysis procedure, along with the varimax rotation was conducted. The factors generated from the procedure are Relational: Internal, Informational: Access to Information, Individual: Skills, and Individual: Professional. The study concludes that the four –factors derived from principal component analysis with varimax rotation can help to assess the role of Influence Resources among Teachers in Kelantan, Malaysia. The study also suggests that the Influence Resources Scale (IRS) can be replicated to other local and Asian respondents as a predicting factor towards additional variables such as gossip engagement and individual work performance.