Assessment Instrument Overview Activity
DISCLAIMER: We require and expect students in the Communication program on the ASU’s West campus
(where this course is housed) to be conversant in research methods. They take two research courses and are asked
to regularly read research articles in their other courses for the major. If your program does not ask that of you
then this assignment could prove particularly challenging. However, all of the correct information that your are
asked to find, access, and report is contained within the documents you are instructed to read for this unit.
Furthermore, the nature of the information you will be asked to find is covered in this unit or the preceding units.
Follow the steps below to be successful on this activity.
STEP 1: Review the Measurement PowerPoint from Unit 4. That is where you will find information related to
Unit of Measurement.
STEP 2: Review the Measurement Reliability PowerPoint in this unit (Unit 6). That is where you will find the
information related to the reliability estimate or reliability coefficient, measurement items, and
measurement dimensions.
STEP 3: Read the two articles in this unit that describe the development of assessment instruments. These
include:
Kassing, J. K. (1998). Development and validation of the Organizational Dissent Scale. Management
Communication Quarterly, 12, 183-229.
Wood, J. A., & Winston, B. E. (2007). Development of three scales to measure leader accountability.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 28, 167-185.
STEP 4: Look at the final version of the assessment instrument, understanding that instruments are
administered and tweaked (items added to or taken away) several times before a final version is
determined. This is the case in both of the articles you will be consulting. For example, the final
version of the Organizational Dissent Scale appears in the Study 2 portion of the article.
STEP 5: Know and understand what it is you are looking for (review STEPS 1-2) when you consult the
articles, otherwise you will get lost and overwhelmed quickly.
This includes:
What an assessment instrument is and does.
