1.You are developing a survey to be completed by everyone in an organization. Survey items are on an agree-disagree scale, e.g. "My supervisor welcomes new ideas" and "I have enough authority to do my job well." A colleague suggests the item "We do not take short-cuts or safety risks."

-Is that a good item? Why or why not?

2.Why are "reverse scale" questions, where strongly agree is "bad," good or bad (and, if they are only sometimes good or bad, when are those times)?

-Consider both employee and customer surveys.

3.You have been asked to conduct an external assessment of a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture which does research to benefit organic farmers.

This research center wants to assess its performance to both justify its budget and to improve its long-term effectiveness.

-What questions would you ask as part of a structured interview?

-What metrics might be useful?