INFLUENCE OF ETHNIC DIVERSITY ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY IN SELECTED COMMERCIAL BANKS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Ethnicity could be seen as an assembly of individuals who share common cultural traditions and customary practices and also provide their members with a self-conscious identity as a nation (Sayers, 2012). Ethnic diversity implies diversity in language, religions, races and cultures. There has been an increase in multicultural workforce in the organization for utilizing greater participation and synergy to improve and increase both employee satisfaction and business performance. A moderate level of ethnic diversity has no effect on team performance in terms of business outcomes, that is, sales, profit, and market share. However, the majority of team members are ethnically diverse, then more ethnic diversity has a positive impact on performance (Gupta, 2013). Following the raise of diversity in recent times, there has been a rise in work groups with the intention of making increased participation to enhance employee and organizational performance as a whole. However, in as much as the nature of the composition of employees was speedily getting more and more varied in terms of ethnicity, age, gender, education, etc., similar attention has been growing with respect to the effect of these diversities in academic institutions (Watzon, et al 2012).