Measuring Empathy in Traditional and Remote Workplaces

Empathy is a pivotal leadership skill that significantly influences employee engagement, particularly in dynamic, modern workplace environments. Despite its importance, existing empathy measurement tools are primarily designed for fields such as psychology, medicine, and social work, leaving a critical gap in instruments tailored to the unique demands of contemporary organizational dynamics, including remote and hybrid work settings. This article addresses this gap through two studies. This study introduces the Lartey Empathy Measurement Scale (LEMS), a pioneering tool specifically designed to assess empathy in the 21st-century workplace. Developed using DeVellis's systematic eight-step scale development methodology, LEMS comprises a three-factor model: Emotional Perception, Dispassion, and Dependability. This 12-item model was rigorously validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, alongside evaluations of face validity, content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, and reliability.