RATING SCALES 5 
previous employers, or even by the applicant himself may 
be made an integral part of the employment process. 
The rating scale is seen to have its definite place in the 
investigation. Together with the more objective psycho- 
logical test and the perhaps less reliable questionnaire, it 
serves as a means of obtaining systematic information about 
the employee. Some of its inherent shortcomings may be 
diminished by an application of the practices about to be 
described. 
METHODS OF ESTIMATING ABILITIES 
Below are descriptions of some of the forms of rating 
scales and other devices which have been used as aids in 
recording estimates of abilities (55). In the first three of 
these forms each individual is compared with other mem- 
bers of the group. 
Order of merit. Considering each ability in turn, the 
judge ranks the men in order of merit, heading his list with 
the member of the group having the greatest amount of the 
ability in question and ending with the member having the 
least amount. 
Each man’s rank in the list is his rating. If the group is 
ranked by a number of judges, each man’s average rank in 
the ability is calculated. The names are then ranked in 
order of size of this average, which gives each man’s final 
rating in the ability. If the list of one of the judges is in- 
complete because he does not know some of the men well 
enough to pass judgment on them with reference to a certain 
ability, the investigator will have to obtain average ratings 
by resorting to one of a number of methods that have been 
developed to meet this situation (145,192). 
This form of man-to-man comparison is a brain-racking 
process, but there is a simple way of making the task less 
disagreeable. Each man’s name is written on a card. The 
judge sorts these cards into three groups, representing men 
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