LESSON 5

Chapter 8
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
AND SCALES

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 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION AND SCALES
TOPICS DISCUSSED
✓ MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
 Dimensions and Elements of Concepts
 What an Operational Definition Is Not
✓ THE FOUR TYPES OF SCALES
 Nominal
 Ordinal
 Interval
 Ratio
✓ INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF OPERATIONAL DEFINITION AND SCALING

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. After completing Chapter 8, you should be able to operationally define
(or operationalize) concepts.
2. You should know the characteristics and power of the four types of
scales—nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
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HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED

• Measurement of the variables

in the theoretical framework is
an integral part of research
and an important aspect of
research design.
• Unless the variables are
measured in some way, we will
not be able to test our
hypotheses and find answers
to complex research issues.
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HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED

 Objects that can be physically

measured by some calibrated
instruments pose no
measurement problems.

❑ For example:
✓The length and width of an office table
✓The office floor area

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HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED
❑ For example: (cont.)
✓ The demographic characteristics of the employees:
• How long have you been working in this organization?
• How long have you been working on this particular
assignment?
• What is your job title?
• What is your marital status?
✓ The absenteeism of employees.
✓ The number of products produced.
✓ The rejects during the course of each month.

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HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED
❑ For example: (cont.)
 However, even such objective data might, in some cases,
call for careful interpretation while making managerial
decisions. When we get into the realm of people‘s
subjective feelings, attitudes, and perceptions, the
measurement becomes difficult.

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 HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED
 There are two types of
variables:
✓ One lends itself to objective and
precise measurement.
✓ The other is more nebulous
and does not lend itself to
accurate measurement because
of its subjective nature.

 One technique is to reduce the abstract notions, or concepts

such as motivation, involvement, satisfaction, buyer behavior,
stock market exuberance, and the like, to observable behavior
and characteristics. In other words, the abstract notions are
broken down into observable characteristic behavior.
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 HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED
❑ For instance, the concept of thirst is
abstract; we cannot see thirst. However,
we would expect a thirsty person to
drink plenty of fluids. In other words, the
expected reaction of people to thirst is
to drink fluids. If several people say they
are thirsty, then we may determine the
thirst levels of each of these individuals
by the measure of the quantity of
fluids that they drink to quench their
thirst. Reduction of abstract concepts to
render them measurable in a tangible
way is called operationalizing the
concepts.
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 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
 Operational definition is a
statement of the specific
dimensions and elements through
which a concept will become
measurable.
 Operationalizing is done by looking
at the behavioral dimensions, or
properties denoted by the concept.
These are then translated into
observable and measurable
elements.
 Operationally defining a concept
involves a series of steps. An
example will help to illustrate how
this is done.
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.1: OPERATIONALIZING THE CONCEPT OF
ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
 What behavioral dimensions or facets or characteristics would
we expect to find in people with high achievement motivation?
 They would probably have the following five typical broad
characteristics, which we will call dimensions.

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 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
✓ Five typical broad characteristics – dimensions:
1) They would be driven by work; that is, they would be working
almost round the clock in order to derive the satisfaction of
having “achieved and accomplished.”
2) Many of them would generally be in no mood to relax and direct
their attention to other than work-related activity.
3) Because they want always to be achieving and accomplishing,
they would prefer to work on their own rather than with others.

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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
✓ Five typical broad characteristics – dimensions: (cont.)
4) With mind and heart set on accomplishment and achievement,
they would rather engage in challenging jobs rather than
easy, hum-drum ones. However, they would not want to take
on excessively challenging jobs because the expectation and
probability of accomplishment and achievement in such jobs
would not be very high.
5) They would be yearning to know how they are progressing in
their jobs as they go along. That is, they would like to get
frequent feedback in direct and subtle ways from their
superiors, colleagues, and on occasions even their
subordinates, to know how they are progressing.

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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.1: (cont.)
Elements of Dimension 1
▪ It is possible to describe the
behavior of a person who is
driven by work.
(1) be at work all the time
(2) be reluctant to take time off
from work.
(3) persevere even in the face of
some setbacks.
▪ These types of behavior would
lend themselves to measurement.
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.1: (cont.)
Elements of Dimension 2
▪ The degree of unwillingness to
relax can be measured by asking
persons such questions as:
(1) how often do you think about
work while you are away from
the workplace?
(2) what are your hobbies?
(3) how do you spend your time
when you are away from the
workplace?
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.1: (cont.)
Elements of Dimension 3
▪ Individuals with high achievement motivation have no
patience with ineffective people and are reluctant to
work with others.

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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.1: (cont.)
Elements of Dimension 4
▪ A measure of how excited people are at seeking challenging
jobs can be had by asking employees what kinds of jobs they
prefer.
▪ A number of different job descriptions can be presented -
some jobs entailing stereotyped work of a routine nature,
and others calling for gradations of challenges built into
them.
▪ Employee preferences for different types of jobs could then be
placed on a continuum ranging from those who prefer fairly
routine jobs to those who prefer jobs with a progressive
increase in challenge.
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.1: (cont.)
Elements of Dimension 5
▪ Those who desire feedback would seek it from their
superiors, co-workers, and sometimes even from their
subordinates. They would want to know others‘ opinions
on how well they are performing.
▪ Feedback, both positive and negative, would indicate to
them how much they are achieving and accomplishing. If
they receive messages suggesting a need for
improvement, they will act on them.

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❑ Figure 8.1: schematically diagrams the dimensions (the several facets or
main characteristics) and the elements (representative behaviors) for the
concept of achievement motivation.
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
 Operationally defining the concept is the best way to
measure it. We measure it by ask the respondents to
report their own behavior patterns by asking them
appropriate questions, which they can respond to on
some scale that we provide.

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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
❑ Example 8.2: Answers to the following questions from
respondents would be one way of tapping the level of
achievement motivation.
✓ The researcher should try to ask questions about the
elements of the concept.
1) To what extent would you say you push yourself to get the
job done on time?
2) How difficult do you find it to continue to do your work in
the face of initial failures or discouraging results?
3) How often do you neglect personal matters because you
are preoccupied with your job?
4) How frequently do you think of your work when you are at
home?
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
✓ The researcher should try to ask questions about the
elements of the concept (cont.)
5) To what extent do you engage yourself in hobbies?
6) How disappointed would you feel if you did not reach
the goals you had set for yourself?
7) How much do you concentrate on achieving your
goals?
8) How annoyed do you get when you make mistakes?
9) To what extent would you prefer to work with a
friendly but incompetent colleague, rather than a
difficult but competent one?
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What an Operational Definition Is Not
 Just as important to understand
what an operational definition
is, equally important is to
remember what it is not.
➢ An operational definition does
not describe the correlates of
the concept.
 The operational definition does
not consist of delineating the
reasons, antecedents,
consequences, or correlates of
the concept. Rather, it describes
its observable characteristics in
order to be able to measure the
concept.
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What an Operational Definition Is Not
 If we judge the achievement motivation of this
person with performance as the yardstick, we would
have measured the wrong concept. Instead of
measuring achievement motivation-our variable of
interest- we would have measured performance,
another variable we had not intended to measure
nor were interested in.

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What an Operational Definition Is Not
❑ Example 8.3:
OPERATIONALIZING THE CONCEPT OF LEARNING
 Learning is an important concept in the educational setting.
How could we measure the abstract concept called learning?
✓ First, we need to define the concept operationally (the
dimensions).
✓ Second, break it down to observable and measurable behaviors
(the elements).

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What an Operational Definition Is Not
❑ Example 8.3: (c0nt.)
The dimensions of learning may
well be as follows:
1) Understanding (understands
what is taught in the class room).
2) Retention (remembers what is
understood).
3) Application (applies whatever
has been understood and
remembered).

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What an Operational Definition Is Not

❑ Example 8.2: (cont.)

 These terms still abstract, it is necessary to break these
three dimensions into elements so we can measure the
concept of learning.
 A schematic diagram of the operational definition of the
concept of learning is shown in Figure 8.2. The diagram
will facilitate our understanding of the discussion.

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❑ Figure 8.2:

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SCALES
 A scale is a tool or
mechanism by which
individuals are distinguished
as to how they differ from
one another on the variables
of interest to our study.
 A scale is a fine – tuned tool
that differentiates individuals
on the variables with varying
degrees of “sophistication” .

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SCALES
 There are four basic types of scales:

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 1. Nominal Scale
 A nominal scale is one that
allows the researcher to assign
subjects to certain categories or
groups.
❑ For example, with respect to the
variable of gender, respondents
can be grouped into two
categories - Male and Female.
 These numbers serve as simple
and convenient category labels
with no intrinsic value, other
than to assign respondents to one
of two non overlapping or
mutually exclusive categories.
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 2. Ordinal Scale
 An ordinal scale not only categorizes
the variables in such a way as to
denote differences among the
various categories, it also rank-
orders the categories in some
meaningful way.
 With any variable for which the
categories are to be ordered
according to some preference, the
ordinal scale would be used. The
preference would be ranked (e.g.,
from best to worst; first to last) and
numbered 1, 2, and so on.
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 Ordinal Scale (cont.)
❑ Example 8.5:
Rank the following five characteristics in a job in terms of how important
they are for you. You should rank the most important item as 1, the next
in importance as 2, and so on, until you have ranked each of them 1, 2,
3, 4, or 5.

Job Characteristic Ranking of Importance

The opportunity provided by the job to:
1. Interact with others. —

2. Use a number of different skills. —

3. Complete a whole task from beginning to end. —

4. Serve others. —

5. Work independently. —

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 Ordinal Scale (cont.)
 The ordinal scale helps the researcher to determine the
percentage of respondents who consider interaction
with others as most important, those who consider using
a number of different skills as most important, and so on.
Such knowledge might help in designing jobs that would
be seen as most enriched by the majority of the
employees.

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 3. Interval Scale
 An interval scale allows us to
perform certain arithmetical
operations on the data collected
from the respondents. Whereas the
nominal scale allows us only to
qualitatively distinguish groups by
categorizing them into mutually
exclusive and collectively exhaustive
sets, and the ordinal scale to rank-
order the preferences, the interval
scale lets us measure the distance
between any two points on the
scale.
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 Interval Scale (cont.)
❑ Example 8.5:

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 Interval Scale (cont.)
 The interval scale, then, taps the differences, the order,
and the equality of the magnitude of the differences
in the variable. As such, it is a more powerful scale than
the nominal and ordinal scales, and has for its measure
of central tendency the arithmetic mean. Its measures
of dispersion are the range, the standard deviation,
and the variance.

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 4. Ratio Scale
 The ratio scale overcomes the disadvantage of the
arbitrary origin point of the interval scale, in that it has
an absolute (in contrast to an arbitrary) zero point,
which is a meaningful measurement point.
 Thus the ratio scale not only measures the magnitude
of the differences between points on the scale but also
taps the proportions in the differences. It is the most
powerful of the four scales because it has a unique
zero origin (not an arbitrary origin) and subsumes all
the properties of the other three scales.

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 Ratio Scale (cont.)
 The weighing balance is a good example of a ratio scale. It
has an absolute (and not arbitrary) zero origin calibrated
on it, which allows us to calculate the ratio of the
weights of two individuals.
❑ For instance, a person weighing 250 pounds is twice as
heavy as one who weighs 125 pounds. Note that
multiplying or dividing both of these numbers (250 and
125) by any given number will preserve the ratio of 2:1.

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❑ Figure 8.3: 39
❑ Example 8.7: USE OF THE NOMINAL SCALE

Nominal scale is always used for obtaining personal data such

as gender or department in which one works, where grouping
of individuals or objects is useful, as shown below.

1. Your gender 2. Your department

Male Production
Female Sales
Accounting
Finance
Personnel
R&D
Other (specify)

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❑ Example 8.8: USE OF THE ORDINAL SCALE
Ordinal scale is used to rank the preferences or usage of
various brands of a product by individuals and to rank
order individuals, objects, or events, as per the examples
below.

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❑ Example 8.8: USE OF THE ORDINAL SCALE
(cont.)
1. Rank the following personal computers with respect to
their usage in your office, assigning the number 1 to the
most used system, 2 to the next most used, and so on.
If a particular system is not used at all in your office,
put a 0 next to it.
Apple Hewlett-Packard
Compaq IBM
Comp USA Packard Bell
Dell Computer Sony
Gateway Toshiba
Other (Specify) 42
❑ Example 8.8: USE OF THE ORDINAL SCALE
(cont.)
2. Rank the cities listed below in the order that you
consider suitable for opening a new plant. The city
considered the most suitable will be ranked 1, the
next 2, and so on.
Cincinnati Milwaukee
Detroit Pittsburgh
Des Moines St. Louis
Houston

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❑ Example 8.9: USE OF THE INTERVAL SCALE
Interval scale is used when responses to various items
that measure a variable can be tapped on a five-
point (or seven-point or any other number of points)
scale, which can thereafter be summated across the
items. See example below of a Likert scale.

Using the scale below, please indicate your response

to each of the items that follow, by circling the
number that best describes your feeling.

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❑ Example 8.9: USE OF THE INTERVAL SCALE
(cont.)

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❑ Example 8.10: USE OF THE RATIO SCALE
Ratio scales are usually used in organizational research
when exact numbers on objective (as opposed to
subjective) factors are called for, as in the following
questions:
1. How many other organizations did you work for before joining
this system?
2. Please indicate the number of children you have in each of
the following categories:
below 3 years of age
between 3 and 6
over 6 years but under 12
12 years and over
3. How many retail outlets do you operate?
The responses to the questions could range from 0 to any
reasonable figure.
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 INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION AND SCALING
Operational Definition
 In conducting transnational research, it is important to
remember that certain variables have different
meanings and connotations in different cultures.
❑ For instance, the term “love” is subject to several
interpretations in different cultures and has at least 20
different interpretations in some countries.

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 INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION AND SCALING
Scaling
 Apart from sensitivity to operational definition of
concepts in other cultures, the issue of scaling also
needs to be addressed in cross-cultural research.
Different cultures react differently to issues of
scaling.
❑ For instance, a 5-point or a 7-point scale may make
no difference in the United States, but could in the
responses of subjects in other countries (see Sekaran
& Martin, 1982; Sekaran & Trafton, 1978). Barry
(1969) for instance, found that in some countries, a
7-point scale is more sensitive than a 4-point scale
in eliciting unbiased responses.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND POINTS TO PONDER
1. What is meant by operational definition and why is it
necessary? Variable # dimension # element # categories/groups

2. Operationally define the following:

a. Sexual harassment
b. Diversity-positive environment
c. Career success
3. Describe the four types of scales.
4. How is the interval scale more sophisticated than the
nominal and ordinal scales?
5. Why is the ratio scale considered to be the most
powerful of the four scales?
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 EXERCISES
Exercise 8.1 Schematically depict the operational definition
of the concept of stress and develop 10
questions that would measure stress.
Exercise 8.2 Schematically depict the operational definition
of the concept of enriched job and develop
12 items to measure it.
Exercise 8.3 Suggest two variables that would be natural
candidates for nominal scales, and set up
mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive
categories for each.

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 EXERCISES
Exercise 8.4 Develop an ordinal scale for consumer
preferences for different brands of beer.
Exercise 8.5 Measure any three variables on an interval
scale.
Exercise 8.6 Example 8.2 lists 14 items directed toward
tapping achievement motivation. Take items 6
to 9 and item 14, and use an interval scale to
measure them. Reword the questions if you
wish, without changing their meaning.

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 EXERCISES
Exercise 8.7 Mention one variable for each of the four
scales in the context of a market survey, and
explain how or why it would fit into the scale.
Exercise 8.8 Attempt to delineate the dimensions and
elements of the concept “intangible assets” of
an organization.
Exercise 8.9 Try to delineate the dimensions of the concept
of waging war in the context of the present
political environment.
"Impact of proactive personality on student citizenship
behaviors: a case of International School“
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