A Brief Tutorial on the Development of Measures for Use in
Survey Questionnaires
Timothy R. Hinkin, Cornell University
The adequate measurement of abstract constructs is perhaps the greatest
challenge to understanding the behavior of people in organizations. Problems with the
reliability and validity of measures used on survey questionnaires continue to lead to
difficulties in interpreting the results of field research. Price and Mueller suggest that
measurement problems may be due to the lack of a well-established framework to guide
researchers through the various stages of scale development. This article provides a
conceptual framework and a straightforward guide for the development of scales in
accordance with established psychometric principles for use in field studies