INFLUENCE OF AGE DIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILTY OF OIL AND GAS CORPORATION IN NIGERA

Abstract

In many parts of the world today, diversity is actively encouraged in the recruitment and selection in human resource management practices in organizations (Nishii, & Özbilgin, 2007; Osland & Turner, 2011). In a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural country such as Nigeria, the cultural dynamics and the need for diverse workforce management is ever more prominent as it helps to promote and harness the strength of workforce diversity and strengthen the organizations resolve concerning goals, one of which is corporate sustainability. Consequently, Kreitner & Kinicki (2004) have argued, that diversity is not solely about age, race, or gender, neither is it about heterosexual, gay, lesbian nor of being Catholic, Jewish, protestant or Muslim. They argued that diversity is a host of individuals’ differences and similarities that make groups unique in their own fields. This means that dealing with diversity entails a collective mix of potentials in differences and in similarities (Esty, Griffin &Hirsch, 1995). Age diversity has been found to be a vital and strategic capability that adds (if not creates) value to the firm especially in the face of competition (Darwin, 2014). One way in which age diversity brings value to the firm and increases a firm’s overall performance is by facilitating creativity and innovativeness. Creativity refers to the generation of novel ideas, which are both useful and appropriate while innovation is the intentional or voluntary
introduction, within a work team of novel ideas, procedures and processes that are new (Rietzchel & Zacher, 2015).