Using a systematic literature review to clarify ambiguous construct definitions: identifying a leader credibility definitional model

Consistent construct definitions are critical for growing research knowledge. Unfortunately, the demands for unique publications often lead us, as researchers, to create definitions reflecting our unique perspectives. A lack of definition clarity and consistency makes research replication and theory development more difficult. For instance, while the phrase “leader credibility” is commonly used in business research, we found no consistent or commonly used definition in the literature. This is ironic given leader credibility research is extensive and appears in many academic fields. To address this issue, we applied a literature review to clarify the “leader credibility” definition. Through a systematic literature review of 296 potential articles and subsequent coding of definitions from 88 relevant articles, we developed and validated a leader credibility definitional model through a six-step process. We present this detailed process including the use of a thorough literature review and inter-judge coding to consolidate a leader credibility definition. Furthermore, we offer our process as a method for researchers to clarify other constructs lacking consistently stated definitions across significant bodies of research. As a result, we define leader credibility as the “the perception of a leader’s competence and character.”