The Effect of Dispute Management and Cultural Diversity on Employee Performance
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
General Objective
To examine the effects of dispute management and cultural diversity management and employee performance in National Biosafety Authority, Nigeria.
Specific Objectives
The study was guided by the following objectives:
- To examine the effect of educational background management on employee performance in National Biosafety
- To examine the effect of gender diversity management on employee performance in National Biosafety
- To examine the effect of marital status management on employee performance in National Biosafety
- To examine the effect of age diversity management on employee performance in National Biosafety
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical Review
There are different theories of dispute management and cultural diversity management on employee performance in the workplace. This study will focus on the key theories related to the research topic. These will include the different theories on, stereotyping and prejudice, pluralism, multiculturalism and Equity theories.
Equity Theory
The equity theory was introduced Adams (1963) with the view that fairness and equity are very crucial elements of a motivated individual. This theory states that “individuals are driven by frankness, and if they identify inequalities in the input or output rations of themselves and their referent group, they will seek to adjust their input to reach their perceived equity” (Adams, 1963).
Yousef (1998)explains that the equity theory is a theory that centre’s on perceived fairness of an individual. An employee reflects on how much effort has expended and compares this to what has been got from it. This theory shows that employees strive to achieve equity between themselves and their co-workers. This equity will be achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs.
The equity theory is concerned with the perceptions people have about how they are treated as compared to with others. The theory posits that employees seek to maintain equity between the input they bring into a job (education, time, experience, commitment and effort) and the outcome they receive from it (promotion, recognition and increased pay) against the perceived inputs and outcomes of other employees.
An example is when employees compare the work they do to someone else that receives a higher salary than them. They may conclude that the person may be doing lesser work compared to them, while receiving a bigger compensation (Kandpal, 2015). In such a scenario, the person evaluates their own effort-to-compensation ratio to that of another person, and the end result is a loss in motivation. When compared to others, individuals want to get paid fairly according to the contributions in the organization. Since motivation has a direct influence on performance, the study shall try to understand if the staff at NBA feel that there is equality in their output in regard to their input.
Stereotyping and Prejudice Theory
Pitts(2009) defines stereotype as a fixed and over-generalized belief about a group of people. The author asserts that stereotypes helps people respond to situations because of sharing similar experiences. The main drawback with these stereotypes is that it makes people ignore differences and make generalizations about others that might not be true. Stereotyping in the workplace allows people to infer that an employee has a range of characteristics and abilities that members of his or her group are assumed to have. This inference leads to social categorization which forms the prejudice attitudes that cause people to form in-groups and out-groups.
Workplace prejudice and stereotyping can result to discrimination of a person or a group of people based on a certain range of characteristics. Such instances create a poor working atmosphere that may end up demoralizing the victim. Such effects can cause the victim to lose focus and morale which directly impacts on the productivity of the individual (Nayab, 2010). The individual may end up feeling unworthy, which can cause a loss in self-esteem and motivation. The productivity or performance of such a person is likely to drop. He further indicates that workplace prejudice and discrimination is a major cause of unemployment. People stay unemployed because of biasness in hiring companies or organizations. This biasness impacts on workplace diversity management which creates a ripple effect on performance.
Uwlax (2003) also introduced four theories describing the formation of prejudices among individuals. These were normative theory, scapegoating theory, exploitation theory, and authoritarian-personality theory. On normative theory, the author observes that one’s family, friends, and community will be responsible for the creation and reinforcement of prejudices. In the scapegoating theory, people formed prejudices based on their need to apportion blame on a minority group for personal shortcomings and misfortunes. Uwlax observes that the exploitation theory describes the prejudices formed by individuals as a result of conflicting economic interests. These conflicting interests cause people to justify actions that would discriminate against other ethnic groups with whom they are in competition. Finally, authoritarian-personality theory described the formation of harsh prejudices based on an individual’s personality of what is good or evil.
Levy(1997)introduced the stereotype embodiment theory (SET) to describe the process by which age stereotypes affect the health of older adults. This assertion was based on four main premises: that stereotypes become internalized across the lifespan; that stereotypes can operate unconsciously; that stereotypes can gain salience from self-relevance; and people could utilize multiple pathways in their stereotyping. Using these premises, Levy sought to explain why age stereotypes were internalized by older adults and how other types of self- stereotypes operated (such as ethnic stereotypes). The findings will be useful in depicting how these stereotypes, once activated in the individual’s sub-conscious, would eventually have an effect on his or her health.
Stereotyping and prejudice shall be investigated in this study at the NBA. As outlined above on the impacts of stereotyping, the study shall try to make a generalization of the influence of stereotyping and performance. Random sampling shall be expected to include respondents from initially known stereotyped groups along age, education or even gender lines which shall be used to infer conclusions.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The study adopted descriptive research design. This design was chosen to help describe employee performance in relation to dispute management and cultural diversity management by considering the case study at NBA. Robson (2002) points out that descriptive study portrays an accurate profile of persons, events or situation. The descriptive design helped to obtain information concerning the current state at NBA while describing, “what existed” with respect to different conditions or variables. Furthermore, the descriptive nature of the research provided detailed information about the research problem. This provided a general overview giving valuable pointers as to what variables were worth testing quantitatively. The independent variables that guided the research design were educational background, gender diversity, marital status and age diversity on employees’ performance. The study determined the dispute management and cultural diversity management and employee performance in National Biosafety Authority, Nigeria. Based on an association between the variables, a valid conclusion was derived to show a cause and effect.
Target Population
Population refers to the entire group of people, events, or things that the researcher wishes to investigate (Sekaran, 2003). The target population for this research was National Biosafety Authority and the respondents were employees/staff from all the departments. The respondents at NBA were made up of 6 senior and management staff, making up 15% of the staff, 8 supervisory management staff which is 21% of the staff and 24 general staff, about 63% of all the staff.
Since the population was small, a census study was adopted and the entire population of staff was considered for the study. According to (Cooper & Schindler, 2007) a census is feasible when the population is small and necessary when the elements are quite different from each other. Therefore, a census study was deemed appropriate for study since the sampling frame was small; thus all the 38 managerial, supervisory and general staff at the National Biosafety Authority were considered for the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
Demographic Results
Education Level
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Influence of education background on employee performance
Employees at NBA were educated with the highest qualification being at Masters level and the lowest at certificate level. Majority of staff possessed degrees, diplomas and certificates with only three having the Masters qualification
About 92% of employees had the perception that the level of education of an individual had a direct influence on their work output. They would further indicate that education was an important aspect in developing an individual’s skill set that would make them better at the workplace in terms of productivity.
A cumulative 52% of staff indicated that productivity of employees was enhanced by the level of education of an individual. A representation of 24% employees did not feel convinced that more educated employees would perform their jobs better than them. This could be attributed to them believing that experience also contributed more towards productivity than just education. On the other hand, when asked whether less educated employees had productivity equal to those of their more educated counterparts, 77% did not believe that their lesser educated colleagues could match their productivity. More educated employees believed that their work experience complemented with their higher level of education gave them a better competitive edge with regards to productivity.
About 76% of employees had the perception that trainings offered at the workplace improved their ability to achieve their goals, targets and thereby improving their productivity. This was a result of gaining additional skills that were job related, enabling them perform their duties more effectively. 8% of employees however did not believe that training at the workplace would bring an effect if the skills being trained were not being applied at the current position held by the employee, or department they were working at the time.
Better employee performance can be achieved when employees are allocated tasks or duties they have most knowledge or experience in. At NBA however, only 45% of employees believe that jobs are assigned according to employee skills, training or education. 32% did not think that allocation of tasks was based on individual’s skills or training. This is an indication that other factors were considered when majority of employees were allocated roles within the organization.
Only 36% of employees believed that skills attained in college did influence the quality of work at the workplace. 42% did not believe that skills attained in college enhanced their performance. Most of the employees did not necessarily have the skills directly related to the jobs they were holding or tasks they were working on. Therefore, the skills attained in college would be irrelevant in their current positions, and would not enhance performance.
On overall, 82% of staff had the perception that education did play an important role in influencing performance. The reported effect of education on performance varied from a small extent to a very great extent in different employees.
Regression analysis revealed that education had an influence on performance as shown by a beta value of 0.105 of the standardized coefficients. This contribution was however not significant to the performance of employees since the p-value was 0.51 which was greater than 0.05.
Conclusions
The study concluded that age, education and gender diversity at NBA were the primary contributors to employee performance. An age diverse workforce creates an atmosphere in which each generation brings in a variety of skill sets important in problem solving and meeting of objectives. Age groups of employees at NBA were diversified and therefore the organization reaps the benefits of that through improved performance. Gender equality brings about a balanced gender mix of employees that possess an assortment of expertise and abilities, and such diversified teams created improved output thereby improving the performance. Educated people perform certain tasks more easily and efficiently compared to illiterate or lesser educated. In this study however, education level portrayed a weak relationship with performance, mainly because most of the employees reported that they work in departments/ jobs that do not utilize the skills they learnt in higher learning institutions. Therefore, their level of education mayhave not been a key contributor to performance of staff. Marital status of employees did not seem to show a direct influence on performance.
Recommendations
The organization should make efforts on creating awareness and conducting trainings touching on workplace diversity since most of the staff did not think the organization has invested enough in sensitizing employees.
The organization should focus on assigning tasks to employees possessing relevant skills and trainings to enhance performance. Most of the employees confirmed that they were not assigned tasks that they had been trained on both at the workplace and in college. Therefore, performance at the organization would be enhanced if they were applying their skills and expertise.
The organization should organize team building activities to ensure that the staff who are unsure of the effect of age diversity on lack of bonding are engaged with staff of different age groups both at a professional and a social level.
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