Page 208 - [Uma_Sekaran]_Research_methods_for_business__a_sk(BookZZ.org)

192 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES: OPERATIONAL DEFINITION AND SCALES

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 cat-
egories:
___ 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.

Review of Scales

The four scales that can be applied to the measurement of variables are the nom-
inal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales. The nominal scale highlights the differ-
ences by classifying objects or persons into groups, and provides the least
amount of information on the variable. The ordinal scale provides some addi-
tional information by rank-ordering the categories of the nominal scale. The
interval scale not only ranks, but also provides us with information on the mag-
nitude of the differences in the variable. The ratio scale indicates not only the
magnitude of the differences but also their proportion. Multiplication or division
would preserve these ratios. As we move from the nominal to the ratio scale, we
obtain progressively increasing precision in quantifying the data, and greater
flexibility in using more powerful statistical tests. Hence, whenever possible and
appropriate, a more powerful rather than a less powerful scale should be used
to measure the variables of interest.
We have discussed both operational definition and scaling. The following two
exercises might be interesting to work on.

Do Exercises 8.8. and 8.9.

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 cul-
tures and has at least 20 different interpretations in some countries. Likewise,