In this study, reliability in scientific research is the degree at which the outcomes and conclusions of a study is repeated over time and are an accurate representation of the overall case under study and therefore if it could be conducted by someone else in the
future under the same methodology the same results will be obtained (Joppe, 2000). The role of the author is linked to the issues pertaining to reliability and validity of the research, therefore the research procedure should be transparently thought through and assess with no logic leaps and false presumptions. The study should be directed and reported in a clear manner that every phase of the study will allow anyone to reproduce the research and evaluate for themselves the reliability of the study with which the outcome should not be random. For instance, if the study involves field work then the information collected from the field should be kept to certify the control over the author’s activities, perhaps weak reliability may be hampered by non-systematic errors that emanate from the negligence in establishing the data. On the other hand, where the idea of reliability is connected to the quality of the research, the perception of validity and its different forms confirms the quality of the study by adding reliability, besides both are connected to the research as a source of complete knowledge. In this particular research, a well organised questionnaire was typed and sent to the production managers of the case companies (2) two weeks after I made a followed up and had an oral extensive interview with the production managers to confirm the answers given on the questionnaire thus if another researcher might carry out similar study with the same approach the same results and conclusion will be achieved, therefore reliability as far as this study is concern is much high.
Validity is the ability of an instrument to measure what it is designed to measure.
Nevertheless, the perception of validity can be applied to all aspect of the research procedures, and furthermore is refers to the appropriateness of each phase in finding out what you plan to, and it is much more related to measurement procedures (Khan, 2018).
The evidence of validity is built every time and continues to the interpretations of the research outcome of the measurement. Furthermore, when a measure contains good test-retest reliability and internal consistency, the author should have an assurance that the
scores shown what they are meant to be. A measure can be adequately reliable but contain no validity. On the other hand, there are three different kinds of validity: face validity, content validity, and criterion validity.
Face validity refers to the extent to which a measurement method looks on its face to measure the construct of interest, therefore a questionnaire that obtain these types of items would have good face validity. Even though, face validity can evaluate quantitatively. For instance, if a test are mend to measure intelligence, the test would be valid if it accurately measured intelligence or measure the intended purpose. Content validity refers to an extent at which a measure covers the construct of interest. Or in other words, it normally concerns on the adequacy at which the test items comprehensively and representatively sample the content area to be measured, whereas criterion-related validity is the degree at which peoples scores on measures linked with other variables (Williams, 2015).
Validity in this research means that the entire research instruments to the study are in a perfect match and therefore determines if the research truly provides what it was made to measure and therefore reflects on the results (Joppe, 2000). On the other hand, only one aspect to confirm the quality of the research is by construct validity and this is mainly about creating the exact operational parameters for the objectives aiming to achieve.
This, however, means that fundamental features of elements of the constructs are notable and understood on the same grounds by the researcher and the production managers.
This study carries two main constructs; efficiency management and energy intensity. These terms were extracted from existing research and their meanings were noted by respondents thus the construct validity of the study is much high. Finally, some of the data for this research were extracted from different prominent institutions in Ghana, for
example, the ministry of energy, energy commission and public utility and regulatory commission (PURC) and many more.
5 Summary and conclusions
This chapter presents the summary of the entire findings of this research. First of all, a brief light will be thrown in the objectives as well as the research questions of the study followed by conclusions and recommendation made out of the outcomes of the questionnaire.
The research objectives were;
To conduct an investigation into the present energy situation in VALCO and Aluworks and hence their energy consumption rate (electricity) both quarterly and annually and
To propose a tentative solution to help reach their production quota and the motivation needed to establish the usage of energy efficiency.
To establish the importance of energy efficiency management practices in the energy-intensive industry specifically in VALCO and Aluworks is one of a difficult task, having to take into consideration the current energy situation faced by entire country and businesses organization. Therefore to get the fact out from this research, a research question was established as a guide into the study;
How is energy efficiency managed in an energy-intensive industry-VALCO and Aluworks?
The research results show that almost all the production and manufacturing companies rely heavily on the hydroelectricity dam for their economic activities until recent loading shedding occur which has rendered most businesses vulnerable to inadequate electricity supply. Therefore with reference to the research question, VALCO is currently using
light crude oil as an alternative to support the hydroelectricity in their activities, whilst Aluworks also uses the same and diesel-fired power plant to processes part of the work.