Q. Steps of constructing behaviourally anchored rating scales?

Steps involved in constructing behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS):

a. Identify critical incidents: people with knowledge of the job to be appraised (probed), such as the job holders and supervisors, describe specific examples of effective and ineffective behaviour related to the job performance.

b. Identify or select performance dimensions: the people assigned the task of developing the instrument cluster the incidents into a small set of key performance dimensions. Generally between five to seven dimensions account for the most of the performance. While developing varying level of performance for each dimension (anchors), specific examples should be used, which could later be scaled in terms of good, average or below average performance?

c. Retranslate the incidents: another group of participants who are knowledgeable about the job is instructed to retranslate (reclassify) the critical incidents generated in the step 2 above. Incidents for which there is less than 75 per cent agreement with the first group are not retranslated.

d. Assigning scale values to the incidents: each incident in than rated on a one to seven scale with respect to how well it represents performance on the appropriate dimension. A rating of one represents ineffective performance, and a rating of 7 incidents very effective performance. Rating is done on the basis of of how well the behaviour describes in the deviations are than calculated for the scale value assigned to each incident. Incidents that have standard deviations of 1.5 or less are included in the final anchored scales.

e. Producing the final instrument: a subject of the incidents that meets both the retranslation and standard deviation criteria is used as a behavioural anchor for the final performance dimensions. A final behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS) instrument typically comprises a series of vertical scales (one scale per dimension) that are endorsed by the included incidents. Each incident is positioned on the scale according to its mean value.