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Measurement of Variables:
Operational Definition and Scales
CHAPTER 8
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Chapter Objectives
To be able to operationally define
concepts.
To know the characteristics and
power of the four types of scales:
- nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
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Measurement of the Variables
Measurement of 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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Measurement of Variables
There are two types of variables:
Objective nature: could be measured
Subjective nature: hard to be measured
Objects that can be physically measured:
The length and width of an office table
The office floor area
The demographic characteristics of the
employees:
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Measurement of Variables
1. How long have you been working in this
organization.
2. What is your job title.
3. What is your marital status?
4. The number of your children.
The absenteeism of employees.
The number of products produced.
The number of products rejects during the
course of each month.
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Measurement of Variables
Objects that cant be physically
measured:
The perceptions of individuals.
extent of authority given to the
individual.
how the supervisor treats the workers.
promotional opportunities.
The degree of understanding.
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Measurement of Variables
One technique to measure these
variables, is to reduce the abstract notion to
observable behavior and characteristics.
For instance, the concept of thirst is
abstract; we cannot see thirst.
We expect a thirsty person to drink water.
We determine the thirst levels by the
measure of the quantity of water that a
person drink.
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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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Example 8.1: Operationalizing
the Concept of Achievement
Motivation
What behavioral dimensions or
characteristics would we expect to find in
people with high achievement motivation?
The people who have high achievement
motivation would probably have the
following five typical broad
characteristics, which we will call
dimensions:
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
1. They would be driven by work
2. No mood to relax
3. Prefer to work on their own rather with
others
4. They engage in challenging jobs rather
than easy ones.
5. They like to get feedback from their
superiors, colleagues, to know how they are
progressing.
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
Although, breaking the concept of
Achievement Motivation into the above five
dimensions has reduced its level of
abstraction, we have still not operationalized
the concept into measurable elements of
behavior.
This could be done by breaking each
dimension into its elements, in order to
distinguish those who have high motivation
from those with less.
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
Elements of dimension 1: (They would be
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
All the above elements could be counted by
asking a direct questions to the respondents
through a questioners or an interviews.
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
Elements of Dimension 2: (No mood to
relax)
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 workplace?
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
Elements of Dimension 3: (Prefer to
work on their own rather with others)
Individuals with high achievement
motivation have no patience with
ineffective people and does not like to
work with others.
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
Elements of Dimension 4: (They
engage in challenging jobs rather than
easy ones)
They dont like routine jobs
they like to take moderate, rather than
overwhelming challenges
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Example 8.1 (Cont.)
Elements of Dimension 5: (They like
to get feedback from their superiors,
colleagues, to know how they are
progressing)
asks for feedback on how the job has
been done, both negative and positive.
( see Figure 8.1)
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Figure 8.1
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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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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 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?
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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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 by
yourself rather than with others?

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10. To what extent would you prefer a job that
is difficult but challenging, to one that is
easy and routine?
11. During the past 3 months, how often have
you sought feedback from your superiors on
how well you are performing your job?
12. How often have you tried to obtain
feedback on your performance from your
co-workers during the past 3 months?
13. To what extent would it frustrate you if
people did not give you feedback on how
you are progressing?
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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
For example, achievement motivation and
performance and/or success may be highly
correlated.
Thus, We cannot measure an individuals level of
motivation through success and/or performance.
Performance and success could have been made
possible as a consequence of achievement
motivation, but in themselves, the two are not
measures of it.
For instance, a person with high achievement motivation may
have failed for some reason, perhaps beyond his control, to
perform the job successfully.

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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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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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Example 8.3 (Cont.)
The dimensions of learning are:
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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Example 8.3 (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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What Is Not an Operational
Definition of Learning?
It is important to remember that learning is
no measure of the effort the teacher
expends in explaining, nor that put in by the
student to understand, though both of these
naturally tend to enhance understanding.
Thus, efforts of the teacher and the
students, may be correlated to learning
they do not actually measure it.
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A Measure of Student Learning
An exam that measures learning in
students would include the following
questions (the particular dimensions
tapped are shown in parentheses):
1. Define the concept of motivation (recall).
2. State the various theories of motivation and
explain them, giving examples
(understanding and recall).
3. What is your viewpoint of the managers
role as motivator? (understanding and
analysis).
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A Measure of Student Learning
4. Describe three different situations in which
a manager of a work organization would
use equity theory, the expectancy theory,
and job designs to motivate employees
(application).
5. How does motivation relate to leadership?
How are these concepts related to a
managers job? (understanding, retention,
application).
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Scales
A scale is a tool or mechanism to
measure things. There are four basic
types of scales:
1. Nominal Scale
2. Ordinal Scale
3. Interval Scale
4. Ratio Scale
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Scales
The degree of sophistication to
which the scales are fine-tuned
increases progressively as we move
from the nominal to the ratio scale.
The information on the variables can be
obtained in greater detail when we
employ an interval or a ratio scale than
the other two scales.
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Scales
With more powerful scales,
increasingly sophisticated data
analyses can be performed, which in
turn, means that more meaningful
answers can be found to our research
questions.

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Nominal Scale
A nominal scale is one that allows the
researcher to assign subjects to certain
categories or groups.
For example, the variable of gender,
respondents can be grouped into two
categories- male and female.
Notice that there are no third category into
which respondents would normally fall.
(See Figure 8 B).
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Nominal Scale
The information that can be
generated from nominal scaling is to
calculate the percentage (or frequency)
of males and females in our sample of
respondents.
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Example 8.4
Nominally scale the nationality of individuals in a
group of tourists to a country during a certain year.
We could nominally scale this variable in the
following mutually exclusive and collectively
exhaustive categories.
American Japanese
Australian Russian
Chinese German
Arabian Malaysian
Other
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Example 8.4
Note that every respondent has to fit
into one of the above categories and
that the scale will allow computation of
the numbers and percentages of
respondents that fit into them.
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Ordinal Scale
The 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.
The preference would be ranked ( from
best to worse; or from first to last) and
numbered as 1, 2, 3, and so on. (See
Figure 8 C).
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Figure 8C
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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 a 2,
and so on, until you have ranked each
of them 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.
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Example 8.5 (Cont.)
Job Characteristic Ranking of
Importance
The opportunity provided by the job to:
1. Interacts with others _____
2. Use different skills _____
3. Complete a task to the end _____
4. Serve others _____
5. Work independently _____
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Example 8.5 (Cont.)
This 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 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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Example 8.5 (Cont.)
We can see that the ordinal scale
provides more information than the
nominal scale. Even though differences
in the ranking of objects, persons are
clearly known, we do not know their
magnitude.
This deficiency is overcome by interval
scaling.

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Interval Scale
An interval scale allows us to perform
certain arithmetical operations on the
data collected from the respondents.
It let us measure the distance between
any two points on the scale. This helps
to compute the means and the
standard deviations of the responses
on the variables.
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Interval Scale
In other words, the interval scale not
only groups individuals according to
certain categories and rank the order of
these groups, it also measures the
magnitude of the differences
among individuals.
See Figure 8D.

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Figure 8D
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Example 8.6
Indicate the extent to which you agree
with the following statements as they
relate to your job, by circling the
appropriate number against each,
using the scale given below.
strongly disagree 1, Disagree 2
Neither Agree Nor Disagree 3
Agree 4, Strongly Agree 5.

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Example 8.6 (Cont.)
The following opportunities offered by the job
are very important to me:

5 4 3 2 1 Interacting with others
5 4 3 2 1 Using a number of different skills
5 4 3 2 1 Completing a task from beginning to end
5 4 3 2 1 Serving others
5 4 3 2 1 Working independently
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Example 8.6 (Cont.)
Suppose that the employees circle the
numbers 3, 1, 2, 4, and 5 for the five items.
The magnitude of difference represented
by the space between points 1 and 2 on the
scale is the same as the magnitude of
difference represented by the space between
points 4 and 5, or between any other two
points. Any number can be added to or
subtracted from the numbers on the scale,
still retaining the magnitude of the difference.
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Example 8.6 (Cont.)
If we add 6 to the five points on the scale,
the interval scale will have the numbers 7,
8,.., 11 ( instead of 1 to 5).
The magnitude of the difference between
7 and 8 is still the same as the magnitude
of the difference between 9 and 10. It has an
arbitrary origin.

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Ratio Scale
The ratio scale has an absolute 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.
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Ratio Scale
The ratio scale is the most powerful
of the four scales because it has a
unique zero origin ( not an arbitrary
origin). See Figure 8 E.
The differences between scales are
summarized in Figure 8 F.

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Figure 8E
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Figure 8F
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Figure 8G: The difference between
Categorical and Continuous Variables
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Exercise 8.1 (P. 194)
Schematically depict the operational
definition of the concept of stress
and develop 10 questions that would
measure stress.
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Solution to Exercise 8.1
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Exercise 8.2 (P.194)
Schematically depict the operational
definition of the concept of enriched
job and develop 12 items to measure
it.
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Solution to Exercise 8.2