An ordinal scale not only categorizes the variables in such a way as to denote differences among the various categories, it also rank-orders the categories in some meaningful way. With any variable for which the categories are to be ordered according to some preference the ordinal scale would be used. The preference would be ranked and numbered 1,2 and so on.
For example respondents might be asked to indicate their preferences by ranking the importance they attach to five distinct characteristics in a job that the researcher might be interested in studying. The ordinal scale helps the researcher to determine the percentage of respondents who consider interaction with others as most important, those who consider using a number of different skills as most important and so on.
Such knowledge might help in designing jobs that would be seen as most enriched by the majority of the employees. We can now see that the ordinal scale provides more information than the nominal scale. The ordinal scale goes beyond differentiating the categories to providing information on how respondents distinguish them by rank-ordering them. However that the ordinal scale does not give any indication of the magnitude of the differences among the ranks.
For example respondents might be asked to indicate their preferences by ranking the importance they attach to five distinct characteristics in a job that the researcher might be interested in studying. The ordinal scale helps the researcher to determine the percentage of respondents who consider interaction with others as most important, those who consider using a number of different skills as most important and so on.
Such knowledge might help in designing jobs that would be seen as most enriched by the majority of the employees. We can now see that the ordinal scale provides more information than the nominal scale. The ordinal scale goes beyond differentiating the categories to providing information on how respondents distinguish them by rank-ordering them. However that the ordinal scale does not give any indication of the magnitude of the differences among the ranks.
