PhD Final Thesis April 2013.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Thesis Keith Gale 2013points in the questionnaire with positive and negative wording styles (Labaw, 1980).The scale used to measure responses for section 2 of the questionnaire is between thevalues of 1 and 3.Section 3 of the questionnaire comprised a statement and participants are requestedto select a graded closed 5 position Likert response. Alternatives range from stronglyagree to strongly disagree and participants are also allowed to insert ‘not applicable’if they felt they could not respond to a statement. As with section 2, questions aremixed regarding topics and categories, and are positively or negatively worded toencourage honesty of responses. The scale used to measure responses for section 3 ofthe questionnaire is between the values of 1 and 5 for graded answers plus value 6for a ‘not applicable’ choice.9.9 Checking reliability of scales used with questionnaire constructionA check for reliability of scales used for collection of data from the questionnaire isan essential element with which to understand the underlying statistical construct.Both sections of the questionnaire are checked for internal consistency usingCronbach’s alpha coefficient. Results from this analysis are shown in Table 9.6.Table 9.6: Cronbach’s alpha reliability statistics for sections 2 and 3 of thequestionnaireQuestionnaire section Cronbach's Alpha N of ItemsSection 2 – questions 6 to 17 .747 12Section 3 – 18 to 39 .901 22Commentary upon results of Table 9.6:Both sections of the questionnaire achieve Cronbach’s alpha values in excess of 0.7and the scales for both can be considered reliable. Further investigation intoindividual items for section 2 and section 3 reveals a range of alpha value scoresfrom 0.255 to 0.891. Low values below 0.3 may be removed if considered affectingthe overall result – but as these are single isolated values, results have been includedwith the analysis.Significant questions posed to participants – namely those that relate to performanceoutcomes, critical success factors and economic information measured againstprojects during quantitative analysis of this research – were tested for normality203