CLASSIFICATION OF

DATA
1. ON THE BASIS OF COLLECTION
1.1 Primary
1.2 Secondary
2. ON THE BASIS OF ANALYSIS
2.1 Nominal
2.2 Ordinal
2.3 Interval
2.4 Ratio
3. ON THE BASIS OF TIME HORIZON
3.1 Cross-Sectional
3.2 Longitudinal
4. ON THE BASIS OF PRESENTATION
4.1 Ungroup
4.11 Pie Chart
4.12 Pictogram
4.13 Bar Chart
4.14 Stem & leaf
4.2 grouped
4.21 Histogram
4.22 Frequency Polygon
4.23 Cumulative Frequency Polygon
4.24 Line Chart
4.25 Pareto Diagram
4.26 Box plot
 1) ON THE BASIS OF COLLECTION

The contextual information mentioned may be obtained through various primary and/or secondary

data collection methods, such as interviews and a review of company records and archives. Data

gathered through existing sources are called secondary data. Secondary data are data that have

been collected by others for another purpose than the purpose of the current study. Some secondary

sources of data are statistical bulletins, government publications, published or unpublished

information available from either within or outside the organization, company websites and the

Internet. The collection of secondary data is very often quite helpful in the early stages of the

research process, but in some cases information is best obtained by other methods such as

interviewing people, observation, or by administering questionnaires to individuals. Such data that

the researcher gathers first hand for the specific purpose of the study are called primary data

(sakaran & Bougie).

2) DATA ON THE BASIS OF ANALYSIS:

a. NOMINAL SCALE

A nominal scale is one that allows the researcher to assign subjects to certain categories or groups.

For example, with respect to the variable of gender, respondents can be grouped into two categories

– male and female. These two groups can be assigned code numbers 1 and 2. These numbers serve

as simple and convenient category labels with no intrinsic value, other than to assign respondents

to one of two non overlapping, or mutually exclusive, categories. Note that the categories are also

collectively exhaustive. In other words, there is no third category into which respondents would
normally fall. Thus, nominal scales categorize individuals or objects into mutually exclusive and

collectively exhaustive groups. The information that can be generated from nominal scaling is the

calculation of the percentage (or frequency) of males and females in our sample of respondents.

For example, ifwe had interviewed 200 people, and assigned code number 1 to all male

respondents and number 2 to all female respondents, then computer analysis of the data at the end

of the survey may show that 98 of the respondents are men and 102 are women. This frequency

distribution tells us that 49% of the survey’s respondents are men and 51% women. Other than this

marginal information, such scaling tells us nothing more about the two groups. Thus, the nominal

scale gives some basic, categorical, gross information.

b. ORDINAL SCALE

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 (e.g., from best to worst; first to last) 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. Such a question might take the form shown in the following

example. 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 are 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.

Note, however, that the ordinal scale does not give any indication of the magnitude of the

differences among the ranks. For instance, in the job characteristics example, the first-ranked job

characteristic might be only marginally preferred over the second-ranked characteristic, whereas

the characteristic that is ranked third might be preferred in a much larger degree than the one

ranked fourth. Thus, in ordinal scaling, even though differences in the ranking of objects, persons,

or events investigated are clearly known, we do not know their magnitude. This deficiency is

overcome by interval scaling, which is discussed next.

c. INTERVAL SCALE

In an interval scale, or equal interval scale, numerically equal distances on the scale represent

equal values in the characteristics being measured. Whereas the nominal scale allows us only to

qualitatively distinguish groups by categorizing them into mutually exclusive and collectively

exhaustive sets, and the ordinal scale to rank-order the preferences, the interval scale allows us to

compare differences between objects. The difference between any two values on the scale is

identical to the difference between any other two neighboring values of the scale. The clinical

thermometer is a good example of an interval-scaled instrument; it has an arbitrary origin and the

magnitude of the difference between 98.6 degrees (supposed to be the normal body temperature)

and 99.6 degrees is the same as the magnitude of the difference between 104 and 105 degrees.

Note, however, that one may not be seriously concerned if one’s temperature rises from 98.6 to

99.6, but one is likely to be so when the temperature goes up from 104 to 105 degrees! The interval

scale, then, taps the differences, the order, and the equality of the magnitude of the differences in
the variable. As such, it is a more powerful scale than the nominal and ordinal scales, and has for

its measure of central tendency the arithmetic mean. Its measures of dispersion are the range, the

standard deviation, and the variance.

d. RATIO SCALE

The ratio scale overcomes the disadvantage of the arbitrary origin point of the interval scale, in

that it has an absolute (in contrast to an arbitrary) zero point, which is a meaningful measurement

point. Thus, the ratio scale not only measures the magnitude of the differences between points on

the scale but also taps the proportions in the differences. It is the most powerful of the four scales

because it has a unique zero origin (not an arbitrary origin) and subsumes all the properties of the

other three scales. The weighing balance is a good example of a ratio scale. It has an absolute (and

not arbitrary) zero origin calibrated on it, which allows us to calculate the ratio of the weights of

two individuals. For instance, a person weighing 250 pounds is twice as heavy as one who weighs

125 pounds. Note that multiplying or dividing both of these numbers (250 and 125) by any given

number will preserve the ratio of 2:1. The measure of central tendency of the ratio scale may be

either the arithmetic or the geometric mean and the measure of dispersion may be either the

standard deviation, or variance, or the coefficient of variation. Some examples of ratio scales are

those pertaining to actual age, income, and the number of organizations individuals have worked

for (Sakaran & Bougie, Measurement Scaling, reliability and validity).

a. CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES

A study can be undertaken in which data are gathered just once, perhaps over a period of days or

weeks or months, in order to answer a research question. Such studies are called one‐shot or cross‐

sectional studies (see the following example).

The purpose of the studies in the two following examples was to collect data that would be

pertinent to finding the answer to a research question. Data collection at one point in time was

sufficient. Both were cross-sectional designs.

b. LONGITUDINAL STUDIES

In some cases, however, the researcher might want to study people or phenomena at more than

one point in time in order to answer the research question. For instance, the researcher might

want to study employees’ behavior before and after a change in the top management, so as to

know what effects the change accomplished.

Here, because data are gathered at two different points in time, the study is not cross‐sectional or

of the one‐shot kind, but is carried longitudinally across a period of time. Such studies, as when

data on the dependent variable are gathered at two or more points in time to answer the research

question, are called longitudinal studies (Sakaran & Bougie, Elements of research design)
References
sakaran, U., & Bougie, R. (n.d.). Defining and refining the problem. In Research Methods for Business (pp.
37-38).

Sakaran, U., & Bougie, R. (n.d.). Elements of research design. In Research Methods for Business (pp. 104-
105).

Sakaran, U., & Bougie, R. (n.d.). Measurement Scaling, reliability and validity. In Research Methods for
Business (pp. 207-212).