Impact of Workplace Diversity Management on Employee Commitment in the Nigerian Public Sector ()
1. Introduction
Profit maximization is the aim of every organization, regardless of industry. The company must accomplish this in order to satisfy the wants of the customers who will then finance the enterprise or pay for the product and/or service. This can only be accomplished through the organization’s effective and efficient staff, who are required to keep current clients and draw in new ones through top-notch customer service. With the hope of improving service delivery to customers, many organizations’ management strategies center on finding and keeping talented employees with the appropriate skills, knowledge, and attitudes. This is true regardless of the employees’ educational, racial, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds. The recent rise in migration, particularly from poor to developed nations in search of better pastures, has greatly increased the diversity of the labour pool, allowing companies to pick and choose who to hire.
According to Ali et al. (2021) , dynamism and implementation of diversity management policies vary between nations and their public institutions because they are influenced by the historical legacies, labor market dynamics, and regulatory environments that are unique to each nation. The history of nations with the highest immigrant populations, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and India, reflects this. Understanding employer requirements and successful management of diversity depended heavily on the elimination of barriers to equitable employment, increased representation of diverse groups at all levels, age discrimination in employment, physical disabilities, genetic information, and leadership style.
While private organizations are not consciously diverse in their recruitment, and focus more on competence rather than background, the public sector can be said to be more deliberately diverse in their recruitment as it is required by law in the government of most countries. This is to avoid being viewed as a discriminatory government especially for countries that are multicultural. Poor implementation of Diversity Management policies is not uncommon in the public sector of Multicultural nations as the Top Management are viewed to be discriminatory in favour of employees whose background are like theirs. Furthermore, while organisations in western countries are well known for implementing diversity related mechanisms, they seem to focus more on retaining minorities which may fuel negative feelings in members of the majority group in the workplace (Mousa, 2020) . In general, organisations should be aware that the same diversity plan may not be successful in every organisation. This may be due to varying hierarchical structures which makes some leaders incapable of managing diversity and creating an inclusive atmosphere (Ngalo et al., 2023) .
This study focuses on workplace diversity management and employee commitment in the public sector of various nations, with a particular emphasis on Nigeria. A complex interaction between religion and corporate cultures is evident in civilizations with a high level of religious and cultural diversity, such as Nigeria. Incorrect hiring practices, including those based on race, religion, and politics, are used as criteria for filling open jobs in public institutions. Due to the lack of fairness, inclusion, equal opportunity, and effective policies and programs in place for the selection of suitable candidates prior to recruitment as well as for employee retention following recruitment, this practice disenfranchises candidates who may be qualified.
For this reason, public sector governance in the country has remained ineffective, unpopular, and counterproductive (Ndukwe et al., 2020) . This study adapts constructs of diversity management from scholars: Garcia-Rodriguez et al. (2020) , Alshaabani et al. (2021) and Mousa (2020) to review their impact on employee commitment. These constructs include fairness, Inclusion, equal opportunities, policies and programs, well-structured organisational structure, leadership style, tolerance, and operational procedures. This study reviews four constructs namely: Fairness, Inclusion, Equal opportunities and Policies and Programs and their impact on employee commitment.
This study is significant to the government and policymakers, who ensures that beyond having a diverse workforce, diversity management policies should be made and adhered to; for the employers of different sectors, it will aid them to enhance commitment from their diverse employees; and for the academics and researchers, the study will guide them to further explore on deficient areas, as effective management of diversity has the potential to deliver positive changes in the near future. The remaining sections of the review are divided into the literature review section; where the constructs of both the Independent and dependent variables are discussed, the methodology section, discussion of findings, and finally, the conclusion and recommendation sections.
1.1. Research Problem
Globalization may have had both positive and negative effects on recruitment and retention by organisations as the labour market is perceived as a single market. While a diverse labour force encourages creativity and innovation, the dominant culture and/or race, usually influences the minorities who let go of their identities. This has led to the existence of diversity management policies in many countries. These policies are however, poorly implemented in the Nigerian public sector as recruitments, appointments and promotions are still lopsided. This study examines the impact of the poor implementation of these policies on employee commitment.
1.2. Aim of Research
This study specifically seeks to:
• Examine the impact of fairness on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
• Examine the impact of inclusion on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
• Evaluate the impact of equal opportunity on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
• Evaluate the impact of policies and programs on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
1.3. Research Questions
• Does Inclusion influence the affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector?
• Does fairness influence the affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector?
• How does equal opportunity influence the affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector?
• To what extent does policies and programs influence the affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector?
2. Literature Review
2.1. Conceptual Review
Several Scholars have looked at research on employee commitment and workplace diversity management. Review of the diversity management concept and its proxies is provided in this section. It goes on to explore the idea of employee commitment and its proxy from several academic viewpoints.
On the one hand, Garcia-Rodriguez et al. (2020) see workplace diversity management as the degree to which every person in an organization receives the same treatment, regardless of demography or differences, which eventually increases inclusion. According to Garcia-Rodriguez et al. (2020) , workplace diversity management is important in the tourist and hospitality industry because there is a high representation of minorities performing these duties because they take into account the workforce’s ethnicity, culture, and gender. Workplace diversity management is a method used to enhance the performance of a heterogeneous workforce through inclusion, whereas diversity refers to the disparities in individual traits such as gender, age, color, and so forth that exist among employees in the same workgroup (Alshaabani et al., 2021) . Workplace diversity management, according to Batmomolin et al. (2022) , is the deliberate action performed by an organization to develop a diverse workforce made up of qualified and competent workers. According to Mousa (2020) , workplace diversity management refers to accepting individual career aspirations without seeing differences in religion, family status, race, ethnicity, and other related factors as obstacles. Diversity is defined as the coexistence of people affiliated with different social classes. Even if the firm may claim to have a relatively homogenous workforce, employees will almost always differ along the lines of social identity aspects such as gender, age, color, opinions, and values (Yadav & Lenka, 2020) . Diversity is all about differences and dissimilarities in persons.
Workplace diversity management is also perceived as the style of managing differences among the workforce (Ali et al., 2021) . The poor implementation of workplace diversity management policies in the Nigerian public sector such as lopsided application of policies like the quota system, catchment area and federal character principles have threatened the country’s corporate existence (Owolabi & Tijani-Adenle, 2022) . The constructs of workplace diversity management namely: inclusion, fairness, equal opportunities, policies, and programs used in this study were adopted from Garcia-Rodriguez et al. (2020) and Mousa (2020) in line with their respective studies on diversity management in the workplace.
Kuknor and Bhattacharya (2020) perceived “Inclusion” as people development and opined that it is a Human resource development initiative and the goal of leaders of organizations. The fair treatment of gender diverse employees and the participative decision-making process in the promotion of equitable employment are factors that encourage a climate for inclusion in organizations (Le et al., 2020) . Fairness is people’s perception about the outcomes of distributive justice (Chen et al., 2022) . It directly affects employee commitment as employees compare themselves with individuals with similar traits, qualifications, etc and if they perceive any form of imbalance or inequity, they are likely to be non-committal to the organization.
Equal Opportunities is often associated with the slogan “level playing ground” (Gargelwar, 2020) and can be justified as an enhancement of individual life chances. This is because an organization where equal opportunity exists, is associated with meritocracy. Policies and Programs Policy borders around thoughts and understanding of diverse tasks in an organization while program is perceived as activities in the organization that reflect inclusion such as recruitment, non-exclusion, leadership development (Majczyk, 2022) . Chakraborty and Chatterjee (2020) opined in their study that policies and programs by organizations such as gender diversity management policies and practices in India are not only implemented because the organisations are compelled by the laws of the land but also because of perceived economic benefit such as enhanced commitment.
Employee commitment, on the other hand, gauges a worker’s loyalty and attachment to the company. Employee commitment has been broken down by several scholars into the three categories of attachment, continuance, and normative. According to Haque et al. (2020) , these three elements are a representation of a worker’s psychological condition. According to the authors, continuation and normative commitment refer to keeping a job out of fear of losing it and out of obligation, respectively, but affective commitment is the sentimental attachment of a worker to the organization due to the passion or love of his work. According to Haque et al. (2020) , affective commitment refers to the extent to which workers feel psychologically connected to their organizations through sentiments like warmth, belongingness, liking, contentment, loyalty, and affection. Employees will generally have affective commitment to their organizations or employers if their individual careers align with the organizational goals (Yogalakshmi & Suganthi, 2018) .
Conceptual Framework
Figure 1 explains the relationships between workplace diversity management and employee commitment through its proxies of inclusion, fairness, equal opportunity, and policies and programs. Figure 1 also shows that employee commitment being measured by affective commitment is dependent on these four dimensions.
Figure 1 above shows the schematic theoretical constructs of workplace diversity management and their interrelationships with employee commitment.
2.2. Theoretical Background
There are several theories and Models which may be applied to this study. Some of them include social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986), similarity attraction theory (Byrne 1971), upper echelon theory (Hambrick and Mason 1984), Cultural diversity theory made up of 2 sub theories namely melting pot theory (Israel Zangwill 1908) and salad bowl theory (Carl Degler 1959), Thomas and Ely’s three perspectives (Thomas and Ely 1996 and 2001) and social categorisation theory (Melvin de Fleur 1970) and (Tajfel and Turner 1979) respectively. The above theories are focused on discrimination and groupings of people.
2.3. Previous Studies
Several scholars ( Garcia-Rodgriguez et al., 2020; Alshaabani et al., 2021; Batmomolin et al., 2022; Mousa, 2020; Le et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2022; Majczyk, 2022; Chakraborty & Chatterjee, 2020; Haque et al., 2020; Yogalakshmi & Suganthi, 2018; Triguero-Sánchez et al., 2022; Jaiswal et al., 2022; Podsiadlowski et al., 2013; Ganji et al., 2021; Kim & Park, 2017; Sharma et al., 2020) have looked into the effect of workplace diversity management on employee commitment. The results of their findings revealed either positive relationships, negative relationship or no impact and significance between the two variables.
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Figure 1. Schematic representation of variables.
Studies with positive relationship between workplace diversity management and employee commitment.
Garcia-Rodgriguez et al. (2020) conducted a study on “hospitality diversity management and job satisfaction: the mediating role of organizational commitment across individual differences”. A representative sample size of 458 was used across 238 establishments of 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels across Spain using a quantitative method of moderated mediation analysis. The findings showed that Employees’ attitudes towards diversity management have a beneficial and big impact on how satisfied someone is with their job.
Alshaabani et al. (2021) investigated the “Impact of Diversity Management on Employees’ Engagement: The Role of Organizational Trust and Job Insecurity”. A representative sample of 580 was used across Hungarian Companies in Marketing, IT and Management Consulting. The quantitative study adopted the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings revealed that, having a variety of people in the workplace has a positive effect on how engaged employees are and that the level of trust in an organization and how secure someone’s job really impacts the connection between them.
Batmomolin et al. (2022) in their study on “Impact of Diversity Management on Employees’ Engagement: The Role of Organizational Trust and Job Insecurity”, using a sample size of 115 workers in Indonesia, and the Structural equation modelling tool, found that diversity management has a positive effect on organizational trust, employee innovative behaviour, and employee engagement.
Chakraborty and Chatterjee (2020) explored on the “rationales of gender diversity management policies and practices in India: an exploratory empirical study in the Indian IT/ITeS industry”. A representative sample size of 190 workers across 1100 organizations in India was used with the Principal Content Analysis (PCA) tool. The research showed that having a variety of genders in a service organization can lead to better performance compared to a manufacturing one.
Haque et al. (2020) conducted a study on the relationship between Responsible leadership and the three-component model of organizational commitment. A purposive sampling technique was adopted to get 200 workers in Australia while adopting the social identity theory of leadership and the structural equation modelling tool. The study showed that Responsible Leadership (RL) significantly affects all three components of organizational commitment (affective, normative and continuance).
Yogalakshmi and Suganthi (2018) investigated the “impact of perceived organizational support and psychological empowerment on Affective Commitment: Mediation role of individual career self-management”. A sample size of 270 workers in India was used while the analysis was carried out with the structural equation modelling tool. The result supported the idea that how people perceive their organization’s support and how empowered they feel affects their ability to manage their own career. This was a big factor in how committed they felt.
Triguero-Sánchez et al. (2022) researched on “the effect of collectivism-based organisational culture on employee commitment in public organisations” using 214 organisations in Spain and adopting the social exchange theory. The analysis was done using the structural equation modelling tool and the findings revealed that collectivism in public organizations seems to encourage people to be more dedicated. The dedication shows in the willingness to stay with the organization and to be emotionally connected.
Jaiswal et al. (2022) delved into the “interplay of diversity, inclusion, and politics: impact on employee well-being”. A sample size of 617 workers in Indian organizations was analysed using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis tool. The findings revealed that employee wellbeing has a significant correlation with perceived surface diversity, inclusion, and perception of politics.
Podsiadlowski et al. (2013) conducted a study on “managing a culturally diverse workforce: diversity perspectives in organizations”. A sample of 29 workers was interviewed in an Austrian firm using the qualitative content analysis as the method of analysis. The findings showed that workers gain a deeper understanding of diversity management by looking at it from the five angles like emphasizing sameness, ignoring racial differences, being fair, having access, and making sure everyone has equal opportunities, rather than from three perspectives.
Ganji et al. (2021) investigated on “analysing the impact of diversity management on innovative behaviours through employee engagement and affective commitment”. A sample size of 225 out of an Iranian university staff population of 1896 were the respondents of a survey, using the structural equation modelling (SEM) analytical tool as the method of analysis. The findings showed that diversity management, employee engagement and affective commitment positively affect innovative behaviour.
Kim and Park (2017) researched on “diversity management and Fairness in public organisations”. An administrative survey of 376,000 employees in the United States was done called Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) using the OLS regression model as the analytical tool. The findings showed that diversity management has a positive relationship with organizational fairness.
Studies with negative relationship between workplace diversity management and employee commitment.
Le et al. (2020) conducted a quantitative study on “organizational justice and climate for inclusion”. A representative sample of 20 staff members of a University in Australia was analysed using the open coding technique and the study revealed that for a climate of inclusion, employees had more doubts about fairness than bosses did but both groups had similar outlook on certain aspects of work.
Chen et al. (2022) examined “Distributive Justice and Turnover Intention Among Medical Staff in Shenzhen, China: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Commitment and Work Engagement”. The research adopted the stratified random sampling method with a size of 500 employees and was analysed with SPSS tool. The findings revealed that the way justice was handled had an immediate and negative effect on how long physicians and nurses wanted to stay in their jobs.
Majczyk (2022) investigated “leadership development programs in the context of diversity management: evidence from Poland” using the purposive sampling method with a sample size of 26 employees while the data was analysed with the reflexive thematic analysis tool. The findings showed that organizations perceived as homogeneous have negative relationship with diversity and employee commitment.
Studies with no relationship between workplace diversity management and employee commitment.
Mousa (2020) researched on “Does Gender Diversity Affect Workplace Happiness for Academics? The Role of Diversity Management and Organizational Inclusion”. A representative sample of 320 academics in three public universities in Egypt was used and the hierarchical regression tool was adopted for analysis. The findings revealed no connection between gender diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and the scholars concluded that gender diversity, diversity management and organizational inclusion, can all have an impact on how happy people are in the workplace.
Sharma et al. (2020) investigated on “the impact of workforce racial diversity on the organizational corporate social responsibility performance: An institutional logics perspective”. The study used a sample of 204 employees across nine industries and spread across 21 countries and based its theory on the institutional logics perspective utilizing the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method of analysis as its analytical too. The findings showed that there was no impact between racial diversity and financial performance of a firm, rather it showed a connection between racial diversity and financial performance that looked like a U-shape when flipped upside down.
2.4. Literature Gap
Scope gap: There is a dearth of literature on workplace diversity management from the African continent and other multicultural nations like the United States rather, the reviewed studies covered more Asian and some European countries which have recently become homogenous like Poland and Hungary. Furthermore, the studies from various scholars focused more on private organizations in these countries such as IT, Marketing, Management Consultants, etc. The constructs adopted for this study may not be ideal for homogenous countries but may be applicable to both private and public organizations depending on the policy governing diversity management in the respective countries.
Theoretical gap: Most of the theories in the reviewed literature were those suitable for organizations or countries with more homogenous than diverse workforce such as social identity theory, social exchange theory, institutional theory, and resource-based theory. The researcher believes that theories such as cultural diversity theories, and Thomas and Ely’s three perspectives could have been adopted for a more diverse workforce.
Methodology gap: The sources of data for the studies reviewed were primary data which could be analysed using various techniques. This study however, observed that structural equation Modelling method (SEM) was utilized for most of these studies. Very few utilized regression analyses which the researcher has chosen for this study.
3. Research Methodology
3.1. Theoretical Framework
Having examined several theories, this study is hinged on two theories which are applicable to it. The researcher aligns the study with the “salad bowl” theory of cultural diversity and Thomas and Ely’s three paradigms of diversity. This study aligns with the salad bowl theory due to the multicultural setting in public agencies in Nigeria which the study focuses on. The salad bowl theory according to several authors (Jaiswal et al., 2022; Gale et al., 2021; Berray, 2019) assumes coexistence in separate identities; believes in ideology of multiculturalism; acknowledges ethnic, cultural, and racial differences rather than trivializing them. The downside of this theory, however, is the lack of loyalty to the common core values of the organization or nation. The lack of shared destiny and goals leads to weakening of the organization as employees are focused more on group interests and successes rather than organizational success.
Furthermore, the study also aligns with Thomas and Ely’s three paradigms of diversity because these three paradigms reflect the expectations of the Nigerian public sector settings by ensuring recruitment and retention of employees from minority groups, providing equal opportunity, and based on the first two perspectives, it is assumed integration and learning (the third perspective) will happen as the creators figured out. However, Podsiadlowski, Otten and van der Zee (2009) re-examined the Thomas and Ely’s three perspectives and updated it to five which are emphasizing sameness, not paying attention to race, being fair, getting access and chances to learn. Whereas emphasizing sameness indicates a rejection of diversity; not paying attention to race, being fair and getting access connote equal opportunity while integration and learning are the stages whereby the organization has gone beyond separating people into different groups and recognizes the skills of each person and how valuable they are to the organization. The researcher is justified by adopting the updated version of Thomas and Ely’s three perspectives to five perspectives by Podsiadlowski, Otten and van der Zee (2009) because these perspectives can be related to Nigeria as a multicultural nation.
3.2. Hypothesis Development
This study was guided by the following null hypotheses.
1) Ho1: Fairness has no significant impact on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
2) Ho2: Inclusion has no significant impact on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
3) Ho3: Equal opportunity has no significant impact on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
4) Ho4: Policies and programs have no significant impact on affective commitment of employees in the Nigerian public sector.
3.3. Research Design
The study used a quantitative approach and adopted a stratified random sampling technique. It utilized the descriptive survey design study on a public agency which was split into two due to an act passed by the Government. The responses can therefore be said to be a representative of two public agencies because they operate under similar laws in Nigeria. Self-administered questionnaires were electronically distributed to a sample of 39 employees on the middle management cadre out of 44 possible middle management employees across the respective departments of the Abuja office of the agency and who have spent a minimum of ten (10) years in employment. This type of survey was appropriate for the people it was meant for because, while these categories of employees are not part of top management who make policies, they would have a fair knowledge of the activities and history of their agencies. Feedback was received from online surveys of 31 employees. The study’s sample size remained 31 responses since it was not more than 400 and no formula was used to sample the population. Stratified random sampling was used to obtain accurate results because only officers on the middle management cadre in Abuja office that have spent a minimum of 10 years were the target population. The responses showed actual happenings since it was neither the top executives nor the newbies.
3.4. Sources and Method of Data Collection
This study surveyed 31 respondents of a public agency in Nigeria by the electronic distribution of self-administered questionnaires. The researcher made it easy to measure by employing closed-ended questions. The questionnaire was a 10-item survey apart from demographics, developed, validated, and adapted from studies aligned with Kim and Park (2017) and Ganji et al. (2021) to fit the strategic and cultural context of this research. This is because the style of governance in the Nigerian public sector differs in some aspects of fairness, inclusion, and equal opportunity. The questionnaire was divided into six sections. The first section asked about people’s background and the others addressed the specific objectives by asking respondents questions on the constructs of diversity management and employee commitment. A five likert item scale was implemented using ratios of 5:1 as follows: 5 = Strongly Agree, 4 = Agree, 3 = Neutral, 2 = Disagree, 1 = Strongly Disagree.
3.5. Validity and Reliability
The validity of this study was confirmed based on adoption of the questionnaire from several scholars on similar studies. Furthermore, the questions were validated by the Human Resources section of the agency and its distribution to employees. Table 1 below shows the Cronbach alpha ratings for the various constructs of Workplace diversity management and employee commitment which confirmed the study’s reliability.
Table 1 shows that the Alpha values were reliable as these coefficient values are acceptable in the Cronbach alpha table.
3.6. Model Specification
This study utilized the regression model analytical technique adapted from Sharma et al. (2020) in their study “investigating the impact of workforce racial diversity on the Organizational Corporate Social Responsibility Performance: An institutional logics perspective”, with little modification. The model is captured as follows:
(3.1)
where:
RD = Racial Diversity;
£ and ¥ = are a set of variables influencing performance.
Equation (3.1) is amended to suit this study and has the following equation below.
(3.2)
where
AC = Affective Commitment;
INC = Inclusion;
FAI = Fairness;
EP = Equal Opportunity;
PP = Policies and Programs;
β0 - β4 = Coefficients;
εt = Error Term.
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Table 1. Scale reliability of variables.
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
4. Data Analysis and Interpretation
Thirty-one (31) employees participated in the survey with respective distributions in the tables below: degree or more. Table 2 shows that male respondents are more than the female respondents which implies that there might be more male employees in the public agency in Abuja.
Table 3 below shows that married respondents are significantly more than single respondents. This reflects the category of targeted employees who have spent 10 years or more in the organization, probably in their middle age and are comfortable with family life.
Table 4 shows that younger respondents are significantly more than respondents from the older generations in the organization. This reflects that the public agency in Abuja has a young population of employees.
Table 5 shows that most respondents are from the minority ethnic group. This implies that the public agency in Abuja reflects diversity. Furthermore, a total of all employees from the minor ethnic groups is significantly more than number of employees from the respective major ethnic groups.
Table 6 shows that there were more Christian respondents than Moslem respondents. This may reflect the metropolitan nature of the public agency in Abuja metropolis and availability of respondents at the time of distribution of questionnaire because distribution of employees’ religion is expected to be balanced.
Table 7 shows that more respondents have a second degree or more as educational qualifications. This means that the public Agency in Abuja recognizes and encourages capacity building and self-development.
Table 8 shows an abstract of the questions distributed to the respondents. It aligns each question with the respective constructs (domain) and variables (category).
Table 9 shows the assessment of responses to the questions asked on the construct of Inclusion.
Table 9 shows that most of the people surveyed strongly agreed (61.29%) and agreed (29.03%) with the statement that every worker gets compensation and benefits regardless of ethnicity and gender. 6.45% strongly disagreed with the said statement while only 3.22% were undecided. This implies that compensation and benefits are linked to job roles and educational qualification rather than ethnic background. It was also noticed that most people surveyed, 6.45% and 48.39% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that there is a recruitment policy in place for diverse employment. 22.58% and 6.45% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while only 16.13% were undecided. This implies that the Government has a policy for its agencies on diverse recruitment. The table also shows that most of the people surveyed 12.90% and 45.16% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that promotion is dependent on performance regardless of ethnicity. 6.45% and 9.67% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while 25.80% were undecided. This implies that promotion is merit-based.
Table 10 shows the assessment of responses to the questions asked on the construct of Fairness.
It was noticed in Table 10 that most of the people surveyed strongly agreed (25.80%) and agreed (29.03%) that training, and development are need-based regardless of employees’ background. 6.45% strongly disagreed and 12.90% disagreed with the said statement while only 25.80% were undecided. This shows that a training policy exists for employees. The study also revealed that most people surveyed, 22.58% and 38.71% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that their Performance appraisal is an objective reflection of their performance. 6.45% disagreed, while only 32.25% were undecided. This implies that the performance appraisal system is not biased. Table 10 also shows that most people surveyed 3.23% and 38.71% strongly agreed and agreed that management is dedicated to having a team that reflects diversity of the whole country. 3.23% and 22.58% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while 32.25% were undecided. This shows that the organization is diverse in nature.
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Table 8. Abstract of questionnaire distributed to respondents.
Authors’ computation, (2023).
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
Table 11 shows the assessment of responses to the questions asked on the construct of equal opportunity.
Table 11 shows that most people surveyed strongly agreed (3.23%) and agreed (64.52%) to the statement that they participated in decision making in their
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Table 11. Assessment of equal opportunity.
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
department/unit/section. 3.23% strongly disagreed and 3.23% disagreed with the said statement while only 25.80% were undecided. This implies that the organization’s leadership is inclusive. Furthermore, the study noticed that most people surveyed, 6.45% and 61.29% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that they feel respected and valued; only 32.25% were undecided. This implies that the employees are comfortable with the organization. Table 11 also shows, most people surveyed 48.39% and 16.13% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that their organizations always delegate authority to everyone. 9.68% and 3.23% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while 22.58% were undecided. This implies that it is a learning organization.
Table 12 shows the assessment of responses to the questions asked on the construct of Policies and programs.
Table 12 shows that most people surveyed strongly agreed (38.71%) and agreed (19.35%) with the statement that the training policies and programmes frequently favour them. 9.68% strongly disagreed and 6.45% disagreed with the said statement while only 25.81% were undecided. This re-emphasizes that the training policies are need-based which may include orientation for new staff and redeployed staff, reskilling and upskilling for promoted staff where appropriate.
The study also noticed that most people surveyed, 48.39% and 16.12%, strongly agreed and agreed respectively that internal recruitment policies and programmes are usually designed to favour them. 19.35% and 6.45% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while only 12.90% were undecided. This implies that the staff career advancement is prioritized over external candidates. Table 12 also reveals most people surveyed, 38.71% and 12.90% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that compensation policies such as promotion are designed toward their growth in the organization. 12.9% and 16.12% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while 19.35% were undecided. This shows that the organization motivates its staff.
Table 13 shows the assessment of responses to the questions asked on the construct of affective commitment.
Table 13 shows that most people surveyed strongly agreed (25. 81%) and agreed (41.94%) to the statement they would be super excited to stay in their organization in the long run while only 32.25% were undecided. Furthermore, the
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Table 12. Assessment of policies and programmes.
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
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Table 13. Assessment of affective commitment.
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
table revealed that most people surveyed, 19.35% and 54.84% strongly agreed and agreed that they feel their organization is like a part of their family. 6.45% strongly disagreed and disagreed, while only 19.35% were undecided. The study also shows that most people surveyed 41.94% and 32.25% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that they identify closely with their organization in all activities. 19.35% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively, while 3.23% were undecided. The responses in Table 13 imply that employees are retained because of the passion they have for the organization, which reflects a high affective commitment and low attrition rate.
Table 14 is a descriptive statistics table which shows the result of the Regression analysis used in the study.
Descriptive Statistics
The results of descriptive statistics are shown in Table 14 which indicate the mean and standard deviation as well as the minimum and maximum value of the variables. The mean value of affective commitment (AC) is 3.51, inclusion (INC) is 3.25, the mean value of fairness (FAI) is 3.09, the mean value of equal opportunity (EP) is 2.74 and the mean value of policies and programmes (PP) is 3.06. The table also recorded the standard deviation of the variables.
Table 15 shows the R and R square respectively.
Source: Authors’ computation, (2023).
a. Predictors: (Constant), PP, EP, INC, FAI.
Table 15 shows that the R2 = 0.93 which indicates that only 93% of the constructs of workplace diversity management can be used to explain affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria but around 7% cannot be explained by the factors we looked at but by other factors; and that is referred to as the error term.
Table 16 shows the probability values of the constructs of inclusion, fairness, equal opportunity, and policies and programs and their impact on affective commitment when the constructs increase by one unit.
Table 16 shows that when Inclusion (IV) increases by one-unit, affective commitment (DV) increases by 92% by leaving other variables constant. Similarly, when fairness (IV) increases by one-unit, affective commitment (DV) increases by 57.2% by leaving other variables constant. Furthermore, when equal opportunity (IV) increases by one-unit, affective commitment (DV) decreases by 17.2% by leaving other variables constant. Similarly, when change in Policies and Programs (IV) increases by one-unit, affective commitment decreases by 44.3% by leaving other variables constant. The outcome of the regression model shows it is a good fit for the research because the f-statistics is significant at 5% level. The result also shows that inclusion and fairness both have positive and significant impacts on affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria. Thus, the study rejects the null hypothesis. Alternatively, it was noted that equal opportunity and policies and programs both have negative and insignificant impact on affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja. These impacts are insignificant because the P-values are above 5%, which means the study agrees with the null hypothesis for these two proxies.
a. Dependent variable: AC. Source: Authors’ computation, (2023). Decision rule: 5%.
4.1. Results and Findings
The research showed that workplace diversity management variables have both negative and positive impact on employee commitment variable in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria. Whereas the proxies of inclusion and fairness have positive and significant relationships with affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria, the constructs of equal opportunity and policies and programs have negative and insignificant relationships with affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria. The study is in line with the findings of Garcia-Rodgriguez et al. (2020) and Alshaabani et al. (2021) who found positive and significant effect relationship between the variables.
4.2. Discussion of Findings
The study shows that affective commitment of employees increases significantly (about 92%) due to a small increase in inclusion; similarly, affective commitment also increases significantly (about 57.2%) due to a small increase in fairness if other variables are constant. This implies that policies on the constructs of fairness and inclusion are favourable to employees in the Nigerian public agency in Abuja.
Alternatively, the study also shows that affective commitment decreases (about 17.2%) due to a small change in equal opportunity; similarly, affective commitment also decreases (about 44.3%) due to a small change in policies and programs if other variables remain constant. This means that policies on the constructs of equal opportunity and organizational policies and programs are not favourable to employees in the Nigerian public agency in Abuja.
5. Conclusion and Recommendations
The research showed that at workplace diversity management had both good and bad effects on employee commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria. It further revealed that both inclusion and fairness have positive and significant impacts on affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria. On the other hand, equal opportunity and policies and programs have negative and insignificant impacts on affective commitment in the public agency in Abuja, Nigeria. The study recommended that:
1) The Public agency in Abuja, Nigeria should continue to apply diversity management constructs of inclusion of all employees such as ensuring that objective promotion criteria are set to reflect a diverse workforce, since it enhances affective commitment of the employees in the organizations.
2) The Public agency in Abuja, Nigeria should maintain fairness in carrying diversity management policies in the organization by ensuring training and development is provided on a need basis irrespective of background such as ethnicity or religion as this enhances affective commitment of employees.
3) The Public agency in Abuja, Nigeria should re-strategize on equal opportunity principles by engaging and involving its diverse workforce on decision-making processes as well as in administering compensation, bonus, or incentives in the organization.
4) The Public agency in Abuja, Nigeria should re-emphasize on policies and programmes that will enhance affective commitment. Furthermore, it should adhere to the implementation of already existing policies by government on diversity. Such policies and programs on areas like training, capacity building, internal recruitment, bonuses, commission, and self-development of the employees should be encouraged and strengthened to elicit affective commitment from employees.