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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