Measurement of Variables: Operational Definition and Scales

1Measurement of Variables: Operational Definition and ScalesCHAPTER 82Chapter ObjectivesTo be able to operationally define concepts.To know the characteristics and power of the four types of scales: - nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.3Measurement of the VariablesMeasurement 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.4Measurement of VariablesThere 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 tableThe office floor areaThe demographic characteristics of the employees: 5Measurement of Variables How long have you been working in this organization.What is your job title.What is your marital status?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.6Measurement of VariablesObjects 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.7Measurement of VariablesOne 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.8Operational Definition:Dimensions and ElementsOperational 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. 9Example 8.1: Operationalizing the Concept of Achievement MotivationWhat 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:10Example 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. 11Example 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.12Example 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 setbacksAll the above elements could be counted by asking a direct questions to the respondents through a questioners or an interviews.13Example 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? 14Example 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.15Example 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 challenges16Example 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)17Figure 8.1

18Operational Definition:Dimensions and ElementsOperationally 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.19Example 8.2: Answers to the following questions from respondents would be one way of tapping the level of achievement motivationThe researcher should try to ask questions about the elements of the concept.To what extent would you push yourself to get the job done on time?How difficult do you find it to continue to do your work in the face of initial failures?How often do you neglect personal matters because you are preoccupied with your job?How frequently do you think of your work when you are at home?20To what extent do you engage yourself in hobbies?

How disappointed would you feel if you did not reach the goals you had set for yourself?How much do you concentrate on achieving your goals?How annoyed do you get when you make mistakes?To what extent would you prefer to work by yourself rather than with others?

21To what extent would you prefer a job that is difficult but challenging, to one that is easy and routine?During the past 3 months, how often have you sought feedback from your superiors on how well you are performing your job?How often have you tried to obtain feedback on your performance from your co-workers during the past 3 months?To what extent would it frustrate you if people did not give you feedback on how you are progressing?22What an Operational Definition Is NotJust 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.

23What 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.

24What 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.

25Example 8.3Operationalizing the Concept of LearningLearning 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).26Example 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).27Example 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.28Figure 8.2

29What 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.30A Measure of Student LearningAn exam that measures learning in students would include the following questions (the particular dimensions tapped are shown in parentheses):Define the concept of motivation (recall).State the various theories of motivation and explain them, giving examples (understanding and recall).What is your viewpoint of the managers role as motivator? (understanding and analysis).31A Measure of Student LearningDescribe 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).How does motivation relate to leadership? How are these concepts related to a managers job? (understanding, retention, application).32ScalesA scale is a tool or mechanism to measure things. There are four basic types of scales:Nominal ScaleOrdinal ScaleInterval ScaleRatio Scale33ScalesThe 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. 34ScalesWith 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.

35Nominal ScaleA 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).36Nominal ScaleThe information that can be generated from nominal scaling is to calculate the percentage (or frequency) of males and females in our sample of respondents.37Example 8.4Nominally 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 Other38Example 8.4Note 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.39Ordinal ScaleThe 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).40Figure 8C

41Example 8.5Rank 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 5.42Example 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 _____43Example 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.44Example 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.

45Interval ScaleAn 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.46Interval ScaleIn 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.

47Figure 8D

48Example 8.6Indicate 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.

49Example 8.6 (Cont.)The following opportunities offered by the job are very important to me:

54321Interacting with others54321Using a number of different skills54321Completing a task from beginning to end54321Serving others54321Working independently50Example 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.51Example 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.

52Ratio ScaleThe 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.53Ratio ScaleThe 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.

54Figure 8E

55Figure 8F

56Figure 8G: The difference between Categorical and Continuous Variables

57Exercise 8.1 (P. 194)Schematically depict the operational definition of the concept of stress and develop 10 questions that would measure stress.58Solution to Exercise 8.1

59Exercise 8.2 (P.194)Schematically depict the operational definition of the concept of enriched job and develop 12 items to measure it.60Solution to Exercise 8.2