Research Monograph: The Development of the Common-Metric Questionnaire (CMQ)

The Common-Metric Questionnaire (CMQ), an incumbent-completable job analysis instrument targeted at both exempt and nonexempt jobs, was developed to address several limitations facing past worker-oriented instruments, including: (a) reading levels that are so high that they preclude incumbent completion; (b) items and rating scales that are so behaviorally abstract that it is difficult to collect accurate and verifiable data; and (c) deficiencies in content coverage, especially for managerial jobs. The CMQ’s items and rating scales were written to be both more behaviorally specific than typical the worker-oriented instrument (2,077 pieces of item-level data are collected) and easier to understand (an eighth-grade reading level was used). The CMQ’s "matrix" structure allows efficient data collection: approximately two-thirds of the 4,552 positions (representing over 900 jobs) analyzed in the field test were rated in 2 hours or less. Over 1,200 CMQ ratings are used in a scoring system that describes jobs in terms of 80 work dimensions (median scale coefficient alpha = .86). CMQ work dimension scores are useful for functions that require an abstract view of work (e.g., compensation, job classification, synthetic validity); for addressing functions that require greater specificity (e.g., job descriptions, performance appraisals), CMQ item-level data can be used. The CMQ dimensions are highly predictive of external criteria: in the CMQ field-test, policy-capturing Rs predicting pay rates were in the .80’s and .90’s, and hit rates predicting dichotomous FLSA exempt status were in the 80-90% range.