Strategic Human Resource Management

Section Four

Graphic Rating Scales

The same survey also addressed the use of graphic rating
scales and found that 31 percent of the Fortune 100 responding
companies used such scales for nonexempt employees.^4
Graphic rating scales involve a format of multiple-interval
response scales carrying numerical values with short descriptive
anchors. For example, a seven-point scale might be used for an
item tapping an employee’s work quality. At the low end of the
scale, the blank carrying a value of one might be anchored by
characterization of “low quality of work” while the high-end
blank carrying a value of seven would be anchored by a
characterization of “high quality of work.” Graphic rating scales
differ in whether their anchors are absolute, such as in the
example just provided, or relative. An example of a productivity
scale constructed with relative anchors would be where the low
end of the scale would be anchored with “one of the least
productive” while the top end would be anchored with “one of
the most productive.” There is some evidence that anchors
expressed in relative terms are superior to those expressed in
absolute terms.^5

Unfortunately, although graphic rating scales can be
improved with the use of anchors expressed in relative terms,
they are typically not anchored in terms of behaviors and often
have items that measure only traits. However, an advantage of