CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY
In Nigeria, workplace diversity has been widely attributed to the demographic composition of a workforce, whether in the private or public sector. In empirical studies, diversity is usually measured using the compositional approach, otherwise known as Surface-level or demographic diversity which refers to the extent to which a unit is heterogeneous on characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, religion, age, functional background, and organizational tenure (Tsui and Gutek, 2000). Contemporary believe system is marked by a generalized sense that traditional work arrangements are inadequate to address the challenges organizations encounter in recent times. It appears that the shifts from an industrial to an information-based society and from a manufacturing to a service economy, coupled with the forces of globalization, have forced innovative changes on the work place arrangements. These tendencies have affected work not just in industrialized societies of the global north, but also in the developing countries such as Nigeria. Several conjecture on the best way to organize tasks and people as well as the solutions to organizational problems based on those hypothesis do not seem to make sense any more. A paradigmatic shift is taking place in contemporary time on how we think about contemporary organizations and their governance. The Nigeria Public Service is however not exempted from this modern organizational reality.
Diversity is a subjective phenomenon, created by group members themselves who on the basis of their different social identities categorize others as similar or dissimilar: “A group is diverse if it is composed of individuals who differ on a characteristic on which they base their own social identity”. Diversity could be defined as that which differentiates one group of people from another along primary and secondary dimensions. Primary dimensions of diversity, those exerting primary influences on our identities, are gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age and mental or physical abilities and characteristics (Odita and Egbule 2015).
Advances in technology and the advent of a global economy bring the people of the world closer together than ever before. Workforce diversity has important implications toward management practices and policies. Frequently, diversity is viewed in a limited fashion, primarily addressing issues of race, ethnicity, cultural or gender differences. With regard to this study, we used a very broad definition of diversity, to encompass most characteristics that individuals possess that seem to affect the way they think and do things.
There are many legally mandated actions that employers must take to minimize employment discrimination. In Nigeria, for example there is the Federal Character Law which stipulates that recruitments in Federal Government Agencies and Parastatals must reflect the Federal character. But many CEOs recruit to favour their own people to the detriments of other Nigerians from other places. This is unethical and tends to negatively affect the performance level of most organizations in Nigeria (Ogbo, Kifordu, and Wilfred, 2014). The most important issues of workforce diversity are to address the problems of discrimination in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, education background and culture.
The discriminatory attitude of some workforce, individual identity, lack of cooperation amongst workers has been extended by workers in same diverse organization beyond limits, which dampens morale with negative performance index. This is because departmental goals are pursued more at the expense of broad organizational goals and objectives. Corporate profitability dwindles because the core values of diversity are not properly harnessed (Salami, 2010).
When left un-managed, employee diversity is more likely to damage morale, increase employee turnover, and cause significant communication problems (Jehn et al., 1999), in Eugene et al., (2011).
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