Forced choice method

This method was created to eliminate bias and the preponderance of high ratings that may occur in some organisations. The main purpose of the forced choice method is to right the tendency of a rater to give constantly high or low ratings to the entire worker. This method makes use of many sets of pair phrases, two of from may be positive and two can be negative and the rater is asked to show which of the four phrases is the most & least descriptive of a specific worker. In fact, the statement items are grounded in such kind of way that the rater cannot simply judge which statements apply to the most effective worker. The following Table is a typical illustration of the forced option items in organisations.

Box 

The favourable qualities receive a plus credit and the unfavourable ones get the reverse. The worker obtains an overall plus rating, while the positive factors override the negative ones or while one of the negative phrases is examined as being insignificantly rated.

They total objectivity is increased using this method in evaluation of workers' performance, since the rater does not know how low or high he is evaluating the specific  person as he has no access to the scoring key. However, this method has a strong restriction. In the preparation of phrases sets trained technicians are required and as such the method becomes very costly. Furthermore, managers can feel frustrated rating the worker 'in the dark'. At last, the results of the forced choice method cannot be useful for training workers because the rater himself does not know how he is evaluating the employee. Despite of these limitations, the forced choice technique is quite famous.