Theoretical models

A theoretical model is the framework used to measure one of the two fixed sections. It defines which categories exist and how they combine into the index.

It is not an aesthetic preference: it is the instrument. Changing it changes what gets asked and how the index is computed.

One per index, not one per questionnaire

Each questionnaire points at two models: one for Satisfaction and one for Climate.

That follows directly from the two indices being parallel and never combined. They are two different questions about the same people, so choosing the theory behind one says nothing about the other. See Satisfaction and Climate.

The catalog is global and you do not edit it

Models ship with the product. There is no way to write your own system questions, and that is deliberate.

Comparability rests on a strong claim: two companies choosing the same model measure exactly the same thing, with the same instrument. If every account could rewrite those questions, that claim could not be made about any pair of organizations — and cross-company comparison would go with it.

The place for what is specific to your organization is Section 3, which is editable precisely so this never has to be. See Questionnaires and inheritance.

Changing model starts from zero

This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth knowing beforehand.

Results from one model do not mix with those from another. An account that has measured Satisfaction with one model for three years and tries another does not see three years of history in the new one: it sees day one.

That is correct. They are two different instruments, and joining their series would assert a trend between two things that were not measured the same way. In practice a model behaves like a separate space: each has its own history, and they are independent.

Practical consequence: choose the model at the start and change it deliberately, never to try it out. A model change costs that index's history, and that cost is not recoverable.

If you want to see what another model looks like before committing, do it in a test account, not the one that has been measuring.

A model is not deleted: it is retired

When a model stops being offered it disappears from the selectors, but nothing already measured is touched. Studies measured with it keep their results, and their series still names it.

It had to work this way: deleting it would leave published results with no way to say which instrument produced them, which is the same as not being able to interpret them.

The questionnaire decides, and it does so per branch

The model belongs to the questionnaire, not the study. Since questionnaires are inherited per branch, two branches of the same company can be configured with different models.

What cannot happen is one study measuring with two models at once: the index would be the average of two instruments, which is not a number that means anything.

When you create a study, step 3 of the wizard shows you the model in force on that branch, already selected. Normally you confirm and move on.