RELIABILITY OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS IN MANAGEMENT SCIENCES RESEARCH: AN EXPOSITORY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The reliability of test scores is the extent to which they are consistent across different occasions of testing, different editions of the test, or different raters scoring the test taker’s responses. Popular and commonly used reliability assessment approaches in Nigeria and in the field of management are the use of Cronbach alpha and Test-retest reliability tests for instrument reliability. Despite these, there are different types of reliabilities which are less reported in the field of management in the Nigeria academia. Based on this, the study reviewed various approaches and types of reliability test commonly utilised in Management sciences. The study used an exploratory research technique and relied on information from previous studies and publications, including journals, textbooks, periodicals, and the internet. The paper explored all of the pertinent concerns surrounding quantitative research instrument reliability and reviewed test reliability which include but not limited to: “alternate-forms reliability,” “inter-rater reliability,” “internal consistency,” “reliability coefficient,” “classification consistency,” with illustrations. It was concluded that reliability testing must be properly performed in order to do successful quantitative research.

Keywords

• research instrument
• reliability
• alternate-forms reliability
• inter-rater reliability
• internal consistency
• reliability coefficient