Questionnaire Design
BACKED BY 30 YEARS OF RESEARCH, MRG has created a questionnaire design approach unlike any other. Our unique format makes it very difficult for respondents to affect or manipulate results, leading to more meaningful, objective insights. Our unique, semi-ipsative questionnaire design blends elements from two distinctly different formats (forced-choice and anchored rating scales) in order to maximize the advantages of each format resulting in:
- DECREASED RATER BIAS: By eliminating a rater’s ability to give high or low scores to an individual, the unique semi-ipsative format of the MRG questionnaires makes it very difficult for respondents to manipulate the results, giving the individual a more objective assessment.
- BROAD, HOLISTIC SCORING RESULTS: The semi-ipsative approach gives distributions of scores that are widely dispersed over the range of possible values. This makes the MRG assessments highly accurate and effective in measuring and displaying real differences within an individual and also among individuals. Likert scales often have a skewed distribution, clustered very closely around a narrow part of the scale (i.e. everyone scores between 5.2 and 6.2 on a 7 point scale). This clustering of scores makes it harder to interpret individual data, but also harder to interpret group data and do an accurate needs analysis assessment.
- LOW INTER-SCALE CORRELATIONS: Each MRG assessment measures dimensions that are highly independent, with low inter-scale correlations. This increases the questionnaire’s ability to validly measure its underlying dimensions thereby making it a more reliable measurement instrument. Test-retest studies and large-scale research studies show evidence of strong constructs, excellent reliability and predictive validity.
Normed Scoring
MRG assessments are norm-referenced instruments where an individual’s scores are reported as percentile ranks or the percentage of people in a norm group that score below the individual on each scale. MRG research has consistently found that geographic differences in leadership behaviors are more pronounced than other differences such as industry and job function. Therefore, norms groups are based on country and world region. MRG offers more than 20 selected geographic reference groups, each based on a diverse sample of business professionals. Norms are updated every 3 to 5 years.