THE INFLUENCE OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY ON ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the Study

Globalization and international immigration have resulted in a more diversified or diverse workforce makeup in recent years. Thus, workplace or organisational diversity has become a watchword for modern enterprises and an issue of great relevance for organisations, research, and researchers. It is especially critical for businesses attempting to aggressively position themselves for development and competitive advantage. According to Mwikali and Kyalo (2015), diversity is defined as the recognition, understanding, and acceptance of individual differences regardless of race, gender, age, class, ethnicity, physical ability, or race. Sexual orientation, spiritual practise, and so on. Workforce diversity refers to the range of demographic traits that make up a company's workforce, notably in terms of age, gender, colour, origin, ethnicity, culture, and handicap. The author goes on to say that the diversity in the organization's workforce is made up of people from various backgrounds who come together on the same platform to work towards a similar objective. Diversity, according to Gomez-Mejia and Palich (2017), generates a plethora of ideas for issue solving and strategy formulation. Different people bring three distinct viewpoints and provide a wide range of solutions to problems. As a result, it can be claimed that having a diverse workforce and managing it appropriately is a key aspect in boosting the organization's success.

Africa has also seen a shift in worker diversity and acceptance. According to Mwikali and Kyalo (2015), Nigeria has experienced a significant shift in the heterogeneity of its workforce. They point out that Nigerian organisations are diverse not just in terms of age and gender, but also in terms of ethnicity and nationality. Ekot (2017) finds the same in Egypt, adding that the workforce is multi-national and that many can speak Arabic as well as French, English, and German. Thus, Verma (2019) stated that having a diverse workforce necessitates managers identifying and managing the many attributes that exist among employees in the firm. In this sense, firms strive to diversify in order to achieve a competitive edge by being more creative, inventive, and receptive to constructive change. The changing character of the workforce has become a key crucial feature as well as a challenge for enterprises all around the world. People of many ethnicities, genders, locations, cultures, and so on are coming together to work on the same platform (Suhartini, 2015). The global workforce is becoming more diverse.

According to Swasto (2016), firms nowadays have a diversified workforce. Employee diversity may have an impact on many parts of the company. Such variances among individuals can make it difficult for firms to function properly, thus they must manage this variety among people to achieve effective results. Organizations must increase their degree of diversity and attract people from a broader pool in order to improve their outputs and deal with a varied marketplace. They must also take a diverse strategy to foster equitable employment and combat workplace discrimination. According to Subhash and Archana (2017), firms nowadays must deal with a varied client base as well as a diverse workforce base. As a result, firms must establish a diversity strategy to encourage equitable employment and combat workplace discrimination, and this strategy should be implemented at all levels of the company.

2. Statement of the Problem

With the growth organization has witnessed in the diversity of its workforce in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, educational background among others. The extent to which this diversity can account for the company’s growth and expansion is interesting and worth studying . Anjiri, (2018) observed when workforce diversity is not managed properly it will consequently lead to high rate of labour turnover, difficulty in communication, low productivity, destructive interpersonal conflicts, high level of inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. In less ethnic diverse Ekot (2017) assert that firms whereby only a particular set of ethnic group of employees are favoured while other groups are frustrated then there could be a possibility of poor communication, dwindling cooperation and cohesiveness. This will in turn lead to high turnover, frequent conflicts which would consequently hinder job satisfaction and performance.

Despite the existence of a lot of literature on the relationship between diversity and organizational performance, not much study has been done on how demographic diversity affects organizational performance. Furthermore, the few studies that have focused on the impact of demographic diversity on organizational performance, have not examined there impacts on non-financial aspects of organizational growth (Alghazo & Al Shaiban 2016). Consequently,understanding how diversity affects such performance attributes such as creativity and innovation, decision-making, the quality of services and products, intra-organizational communication and flow of information, management and leadership, corporate culture and reputation, team performance, employee productivity and job satisfaction as well as the organizational productivity is still problematic.

3. Objective of the Study

The broad objective of this study focused on the influence of workplace diversity on organizational productivity. Other specific objectives includes:

1. To investigate how age diversity influences the organizational productivity of Nigeria Bottling Company

2. To examine how gender diversity affects the productivity of Nigeria Bottling Company

3. To assess the impact of ethnic diversity on the productivity of Nigeria Bottling Company

4. Research Hypotheses

Ho1: Age diversity does not influence the organizational productivity of Nigeria Bottling Company.

Ho2: Gender diversity does not affects the productivity of Nigeria Bottling Company.

Ho3: Ethnic diversity on the productivity of Nigeria Bottling Company.

5. Significance of the Study

Findings of the study will enable Nigeria Bottling Company to recognize value associated with heterogeneity in age, gender and ethnic identities of the employees. The study will therefore provide awareness on how diversity is of strategic importance for AAR and give insight into how the Group’s management can utilize diversity to enhances organizational processes and attain optimum performance.

To employee, the study,will provide them with information regarding the importance of their age, gender and ethnic diversity to the enhancement of organizational performance. As such, it may help the employees embrace diversity and appreciate the importance of the multiple perspectives, ideas, experiences and knowledge that comes with diversity. It could help the employees appreciate diversity and exploit their differences to attain the organization’s goals

Empirically, the information provided in the study will contribute to the current body of literature focusing on the effects of diversity on organizational performance form an importance source of information for future studies. By focusing in the internal dimensions of diversity, specifically the demographic aspects, the study will inspire future research on the subject and facilitate future research on the subject. The study findings regarding the negative impacts of diversity on organizational performance will also lead to more research on the subject in a manner that may precipitate greater understanding of the relationship.

6. Scope of the Study

The study primarily centers on the effects of organizational diversity on organizational performance. It specifically examines how age diversity affects organizational performance, how gender diversity affects organizational performance and how ethnic diversity affects organizational performance. Therefore, the study focuses on the functional diversity that has an impact on organizational performance as opposed to nonfunctional diversity. Furthermore, the study was both a primary and a secondary study.The study is therefore limited to Nigeria Bottling Company.

7. Limitation of the Study

In the course of carrying out this study, the researcher experienced some constraints, which included time constraints, financial constraints, language barriers, and the attitude of the respondents. However, the researcher were able to manage these just to ensure the success of this study. Moreover, the case study method utilized in the study posed some challenges to the investigator including the possibility of biases and poor judgment of issues. However, the investigator relied on respect for the general principles of procedures, justice, fairness, objectivity in observation and recording, and weighing of evidence to overcome the challenges.

8. Definition of Terms

Following are definition of key terms and concepts that will be used in the course of the study.

Diversity: Diversity refers to the existence of a workforce in which individuals come from different socio-cultural and religious backgrounds

Age Diversity Refers to generational differences among individuals or employees in a corporation and the values and perspectives attached to each.

Gender Diversity: Gender diversity implies psychological disparities and experience that socially or culturally attached to being a male or a female within the organization.

Ethnic Diversity: Ethnic diversity refers to the heterogeneity in the mother religion, languages, cultures and races that exists among employees in a firm.

Heterogeneity: Heterogeneity refers to the degree or extent of basic human disparities in a given population in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, ethnicity, social class and religion among others

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