Cronbach's coefficient

Hareesh kumar ms S2 iem vjcet

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Cronbach's (alpha)

Cronbach's (alpha)is a coefficient of reliability

It is commonly used as a measure of the internal

consistency or reliability of scales

Cronbach solved the problem of calculating the

reliability of the test when you only take it once repeated occasions or parallel forms of a test were not no longer needed

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It was originally derived by Kuder & Richardson (1937)

later generalized by Cronbach (1951) to account

for any scoring method

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Reliability

Reproducibility of a measurement

Not reliable
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reliable
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Reliability

The

degree

of

stability

exhibited

when

measurement
conditions

is

repeated

under

identical

Cronbachs coefficient of scales

is for assesing reliability

Lack of reliability may arise from divergences

between observers or instruments of measurement

or instability of the attribute being measured
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Cronbachs

Applied not to one item, but to groups of items that

are thought to measure different aspects of the

same concept

Measures internal consistency reliability among a group of items combined to form a single scale

It is a reflection of how well the different items

complement each other in their measurement of

different aspects of the same variable or quality
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Cronbachs equation

The standardized equation for finding is

K- no of items

- is the mean inter-item correlation

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Cronbachs equation

The value of Cronbach's coefficient alpha is

between 0 and 1

A score of .70 or greater is generally considered to be acceptable .90 or > = high reliability .80-.89 = good reliability

.70-.79 = acceptable reliability

.65-.69 = marginal reliability
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Example
Manufacturing flexibility (alpha = 0.7896)

1. Your company's ability to put new product designs into

production quickly (0.8088)

2. Compared to the market demand, your company's overall flexibility is best described as: (0.7719)

3. Your company's ability to operate efficiently at different levels of output (0.7608)

4. Your company's ability to adapt itself or its organizational structure to changes in business environment (0.7417)

5. Your company's ability to develop or modify new product designs (0.7348)

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REFERENCES

Kuder & Richardson, 1937, The Theory of the Estimation of Test Reliability (Psychometrika v. 2 no. 3)

Cronbach, 1951, Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests (Psychometrika v. 16 no. 3)

Cortina, 1993, What is coefficient alpha? An examination of theory and applications (J. of Applied Psych. v. 78 no. 1 p. 98-104)

Streiner, 2003, Starting at the Beginning: An Introduction to Coefficient Alpha and Internal Consistency (J. of Personality

Assessment v. 80 no. 1 p. 99-103)

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Thank you

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