How to Q-Sort: An Overview

The following points provide an overview of the Q-Sorting process. For more information on performing a Q-Sort, click on the following link: Perform a Q-Sort

• Each of the 100 Q-Sort items contains two, opposite statements, a "left statement" and a "right statement." For example: "Group members devote enormous attention to detail" versus "Group members are oblivious to detail."
• In completing a Q-Sort, you must identify which of the opposite statements in each item characterizes the organization in question - and to what extent.
• The extent is measured by how you "sort" each item into one of nine groups. Each of the nine groups corresponds to a level of how closely a statement characterizes the organization. Each group must contain a predetermined amount of items based on the following distribution:
  
  

Group	Label	Number of Items
	Left Statement
1	Extremely Characteristic	5
2	Highly characteristic	8
3	Quite characteristic	12
4	Slightly characteristic	16
5	Neither left nor right statement is characteristic	18
	Right Statement
6	Slightly characteristic	16
7	Quite characteristic	12
8	Highly characteristic	8
9	Extremely characteristic	5



• Thus, the five most characteristic statements must be placed in each of the two groups at the tails of this distribution (Group 1 and Group 9). Less characteristic statements must be placed in successive groups working toward the center of the distribution. The 18 items in the middle group are in essence "neutral" statements about the group.