Using multi‐item psychometric scales for research and practice in human resource management

• Date: 01 May 2018
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21852
• Author: Mark A. Robinson

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Using multi-item psychometric scales for research and practice

in human resource management

Mark A. Robinson

Leeds University Business School, University

of Leeds

Correspondence:

Mark A. Robinson, Leeds University Business

School, University of Leeds, Leeds,

LS2 9JT, UK.

Email: m.robinson@lubs.leeds.ac.uk.

Questionnaires are a widely used research method in human resource management (HRM), and

multi-item psychometric scales are the most widely used measures in questionnaires. These

scales each have multiple items to measure a construct in a reliable and valid manner. However,

using this method effectively involves complex procedures that are frequently misunderstood

or unknown. Although there are existing methodological texts addressing this topic, few are

exhaustive and they often omit essential practical information. The current article therefore

aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive guide to the use of multi-item psychometric

scales for HRM research and practice, including their structure, development, use, administra-

tion, and data preparation.

KEYWORDS

measurement, multi-item scales, psychometric scales, questionnaires, surveys

1|INTRODUCTION

Questionnaires are one of the most widely used research methods in

the social sciences (Bourque, 2004) and multi-item psychometric

scales are the most widely used measures in questionnaires. For

instance, 29 of the 62 articles published in Human Resource Manage-

ment during 2015 used multi-item psychometric scales to collect data

about topics as diverse as organizational ambidexterity (Halevi, Car-

meli, & Brueller, 2015), employee voice (Matsunaga, 2015), and per-

formance management (Festing, Knappert, & Kornau, 2015).

Despite their widespread use, however, the complex principles

and procedures underlying multi-item psychometric scales are fre-

quently misunderstood or unknown, even by experienced researchers

and practitioners in human resource management (HRM). This is par-

ticularly true of HRM practitioners conducting staff surveys

(e.g., employee engagement), which ostensibly appear psychometric

in nature but often neglect key steps in research design and analysis.

Such errors, omissions, and misunderstandings have major implica-

tions for HRM research and practice. Unreliable scales prevent the

consistent measurement of variables, while scales low in validity may

not be measuring the intended variables (Cook, 2009). Such problems

can distort research findings, hinder theoretical development, and

result in ineffective or even counterproductive HRM practice.

Although methodological guidance is available, most texts focus

on specific topics or phases and omit essential practical information.

Accordingly, this article addresses all phases of multi-item psychomet-

ric scale use—including their structure, development, administration,

and the preparation of the collected data for analysis—to provide a

comprehensive resource for HRM researchers and practitioners that

addresses the many practical issues and common points of confusion.

The article will also be useful forresearchers and practitioners in other

social sciences (e.g., industrial and organizational psychology, manage-

ment) who use multi-item psychometric scales frequently.

Questionnaires comprise a number of questions that participants

are required to answer and are therefore usually a self-report

research method (Stone & Turkkan, 2000); although the same meth-

ods are sometimes used to rate others, such as supervisor ratings of

performance (see, e.g., Yam, Fehr, & Barnes, 2014). Multi-item psy-

chometric scales, the focus of this article, are a specialized type of

quantitative measure used in questionnaires (see, e.g., Nevill, Lane,

Kilgour, Bowes, & Whyte, 2001) and the most frequently used mea-

sure in HRM research. Such scales each have multiple items to mea-

sure a variable of interest in a reliable and valid manner (Kline, 2000).

Throughout the article, the term psychometric scale or simply scale is

used for brevity rather than the full term multi-item psychometric

scale. However, it is clear from the literature that several synonymous

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21852

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is

properly cited.

© 2017 The Author. Human Resource Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:739–750. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm 739