Ethnicity's Impact in Africa

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.0 Ethnicity in Nigeria

This chapter further explores ethnicity in Africa, capturing roles and the influence of vast and different ethnic groups on the economic, political, social, cultural, and beliefs system of the continent. Nigeria ultimately inherits the African culture and her own unique history, colonial experience, and ethnicity issues. The researcher will also briefly examine how these issues affect Nigeria’s development, cohesion, and the manifestation of these problems within the workplace. The justification for adopting this approach to investigate historical contexts is that the knowledge gained could help in understanding potential relations between ethnic diversity and performance indicators such as cohesion, creativity, increased interaction, improved engagement, well-thought strategy development process, and organisational commitment, and provide the necessary background and justification for the study’s adoption of a particular methodological approach.

1.1 A Brief History of Ethnicity in Nigeria

Nigeria is recognised as the third most ethnically and linguistically diverse country in the world, after Papua New Guinea and Indonesia (Dada, 2007). However, the groups share a common consciousness, and there is formation of inclusive and exclusive groups, which leads to prejudice and outright hostility and lack of unified allegiance (Kalu, 2004; Nnoli, 1988). This hostility bedevils the nation in the form of many conflicts, most of which are traceable to ethnic rivalries. Due to the depth of its historical and social antecedents, ethnicity in Nigeria has a complex nature, which is multi-faceted. Uniquely, Nigerians experience social diversity in conjunction with local inclusions that encompass strong ties to one's ethnic identification co-existing with merging of states and governments. It is argued that divided loyalty between clan and institutions of governance might precipitate frustration or conflict among individuals and ethnic groups.

1.2 Colonisation

Before colonialism, the various ethnic groups of Nigeria had their languages, culture, mode of governance and trade, and terms of relations with their neighbours. There were wars but overall, historians reported relative harmony among the people in the pre-colonial era. According to Nnoli (2011), ethnicity was entrenched by the British colonial masters as a way to perpetually manipulate emotions and development in the former colonies in order to establish dominance, and exercise control through shadowed means. The British colonialists sought to entrench order by amalgamating the various people and then carving up the area into administrative units for ease of governance, without considering the existing patterns of inter-group relations. Kalejaiye and Alliyu (2013) further argue that groups and group identification existed in the area that formed Nigeria, but that the idea and manifestations of ethnic groups as known today was birthed by colonialism. Additionally, Ali et al. (2015) argued that the brand of ethnic consciousness that arose due to colonialism helped the colonial masters to apply the ‘divide and rule’ technique, which further widened divisions among the ethnic groups. Ethnicity further blossomed in the urban areas during and after colonialism with the formation of ‘Town Unions.’ A union was made up of people of the same ethnic origin living in cities outside their homelands. Kalejaiye and Alliyu (2013) explain that the colonial urban settings further increased ethnic group consciousness. Another bothersome offshoot of the colonial experiment is the phenomenon of simplifying discourse in Nigeria by just concentrating on the three major ethnic groups. As a result, many scholars tend to concentrate only on the Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups of the north; the Yoruba of western Nigeria and the Igbo of the east. In truth, however, these areas are also home to numerous smaller ethnic groups that feel marginalised (Iruonagbe and Egharevba, 2015). The thorny and increasingly internationalised problems of the minority ethnic groups further expose the inadequacies of the colonial experiment and the attendant selective scholarship, whereby the minorities are neglected in sharing Nigeria’s resources as well as in political discourse (Osinubi & Osinubi, 2006).

1.3 Ethnic Diversity (The Nigerian Context)

As displayed in Figure 1, Nigeria is comprised of more than 250 ethnic groups in 6 geographical regions. Each group shares its own individual beliefs, traditional norms, values, characteristics, views, and religion.

There is an agreement that three major ethnic groups exist, with the others often listed as minorities (Mustapha, 2007). As displayed in Figure 2, the major ethnic groups are the Hausa-Fulani of the north, the Yoruba of the southwest, and the Igbo of the southeast.

Although Nigeria's independence in 1960 brought about creations of new states that reflected a sense of social identity, it is argued that the end of colonisation did not necessarily translate to unity (Osaghae, 1998). As observed by Skerry (2000), the objective reality still reflected a nation built along ethnic lines despite efforts to achieve national unity. Furthermore, Table 1, indicates the distribution of the dominant ethnic groups among the geographic subdivisions (Kalejaiye & Alliyu, 2013).

According to Jinadu (1994), the study of ethnic diversity in Nigeria has a chequered history, reflecting changes in the country's political status, fashions, and trends. Without doubt, different characterisation of the various ethnic groups exists. Mundt and Aborisade, (2004) posit that Nigerian ethnic groups have witnessed the holding of distinct and fixed ethnic frames: the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy, the Yoruba personality, and the Igbo entrepreneurial character. Brubaker, (2004) introduces the dimension that ethnicity is only not just a matter of shared personalities or cultural identity, but also a consequence of the interchange between self-identification and external characterisation. It would then be appropriate to state that the ancient roots of an individual do not necessarily mean that their ethnic identity is similar to that of their descendants, as in the case of the children of naturalised immigrants.

1.4 Creation of States

The creation of states would appear to have brought a legitimate relationship between state structure and social consciousness. To some extent, it has altered the way Nigerians see themselves, primarily as a result of what has been described as ‘the distributive imperative' of Nigeria's federalism (Edewor et al., 2014). Consequently, the creation of states and local governments after the 1967 civil war has become a veritable basis for ‘we' and ‘them' differentiation, even among the people from the same ethnic groups. Presently, Ethno-Regional thinking and grouping remain prominent and strong politically. For example, even though the former Northern region was reconstituted into 19 states in the present 36-state structure; the governors of these states, irrespective of party affiliation, meet regularly under the aegis of Northern Governors' Forum. The same goes for the six states of the old Western region and the five states into which the former Eastern region has been constituted. The rise in ethnicity and regionalism has also spawned para-military units in various parts of Nigeria. Alubo (2004) alludes that the primary motive is to defend the cultural, but more importantly, the economic interests of their ethnic group, if perceived to be under threat from individuals or group or even the government. The major militia groups, according to him, include the Arewa Consultative Forum in the North; O'dua People's Congress in the South West, the Bakassi Boys in the Eastern states and the Egbesu Boys in the Niger Delta. In most of northern Nigeria, there is also Yanbanga that has had a long history of maintaining security and law enforcement. The idea of giving preferences to ethnic consideration over the appropriate functioning of institutions seems to complicate local state of affairs (Osaghae, 1998). It is noted that in many cases violence arises among different ethnic groups of the same geographical community on matters of religion, language, and education. Controversy could still occur even on purely professional and technical matters in education, such as languages of instruction, the content of curricula, and the official recognition of degrees from various educational streams associated with various ethnic or religious groups (Berman, 2010). Egharevba, Abimbola & Suleiman (2014), Egharevba & Iruonagbe (2015), and Kertzer and Arel (2002), observe that the power struggle for ethnic identities and institutional recognition through official ethnicity classifications is fiercest at the local level, where such recognition results in socio-economic benefits, especially for monetary and political representation.

1.5 Ethnicity Struggle for Independence in Nigeria

Nationalism, in Africa, refers to the various struggles, consciousness and political awakening that ultimately resulted in independence from colonial rule. The main objective was to politically, economically, and socially reclaim African territory from the colonial masters. The movement was triggered and gained momentum after the Second World War, where African soldiers fought alongside the Allied Forces and discovered that the White people were not necessarily superior to them. The nationalist movement in Nigeria and other colonised African countries were also aided by anti-slavery and segregation struggles in the West. This period marked the emergence of nationalism or nationalist movements in Africa (Olasupo, Oladeji, and Ijeoma, 2017). Nevertheless, despite the widespread unity in the fight against foreign rule and racial discrimination, the nationalists were still divided along ethno-cultural lines (Falola & Aderinto, 2010). Omotoso and Oladeji (2017) argue that most of the nationalist struggles were aimed at dismantling the colonial structure and reconstructing them within the terms and aspirations of the indigenous people. With regard to political divisions under ethnic influence, the disunity of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria was very much evident in the events that unfolded during the nationalist struggles between 1948 and the granting of independence in 1960. The elite regional leaders rallied supporters for control of limited resources and political positions, resulting in hostility among the ethnic groups with lasting effects continuing through present day. It was evident that the fight for independence and self-determination was not enough to bind the people of Nigeria together, but rather increased ethnic tensions, civil wars, and secessions of some minority ethnic groups. This agitation along ethnic divides for a greater share of resources and more political relevance is yet to abate in Nigeria, with the ever-present agitation for resource control and self-determination, as supported by the instrumentalism paradigm (Negedu & Atabor, 2015; Omotoso & Oladeji, 2017). Additionally, as previously discussed, consequence of the forced co-habitation of the various ethnic groups in Nigeria has increased distrust among the different communities and ethnic groups at all levels of social, economic, and political systems leading to a glaring lack of cohesion. In the place of unity, the people of Nigeria dissipate energy mostly on ethnic rivalry, resource allocation and control, federal character and sharing formulae (Mbao & Osinibi, 2014; Mustapha, 2006). This has led to a situation where the federating units are continually agitating for self-determination and restructuring.

1.6 Work Force Effects

As previous discussed, the notion of an ‘indigene’ and quota system have recently taken on strong political overtones in Nigeria as a reaction to complaints of domination in education and employment by a few ethnic groups (Lenshie & Johnson, 2012; Musa & Manu, 2013). Nigeria now has a quota policy in many areas, such as university and unity schools’ admissions, hiring for civil service jobs, and membership of boards and government agencies. A number of places are reserved for the indigenes of the state, while certain positions cannot be held by non-indigenes in a particular state. Also, many state-owned universities often apply different school fees for indigenes of the state and settlers and indigenes are required to provide proof by way of applying for and tendering certificates of indigineship (Joshua, Loromeke, & Olanrewaju, 2014; Lenshie & Johnson, 2012; Nwagwu, 2016).

1.7 Electoral Politics and Government Composition

According to Ayatse and Akuva (2013), the long-run arrangements of overlapping inequalities have come to model individuals’ life-contingencies as well as their political perspicacity. There is a tremendous influence on the electoral politics on Nigeria, as well as the makeup of the federal governing body. Akuva (2010) argues that a correlation between ethnicity and the constellation of party creation is identifiable. Under circumstances of inequalities, scarcity, and the irregular access to political and economic resources, ethnicity in Nigeria has offered a conducive podium for political factions. Brubaker (2004) identified that since 1951, the formation of regions in Nigeria has also brought about parties that are strongly linked with the major ethnic groups. According to Adetiba and Rahim, (2012), the Nigerian electoral politics cannot be inferable to an ethnic census. Several other aspects, specifically class, historical apprehension, political patronage as well as forecasts of individual preference has been just a sign in several constituencies. In addition, according to Nnoli (2011), there is also a heightening eminence of religious demonstration, and the functions of political devices developed around distinguished individuals. Fafowora (2011) identifies that the basis of the Nigerian Cabinet was constructed on equality with regard to ethnic groups existing in the country; due to the development of states as well as the tendencies to foster the equality of states in the structure of the Cabinett (Akuva, 2010). As a result, all federal governments up to 1966 had an inherent Northern majority. Akinyele (2001) and Folarin (2014) identify a governmental norm in which civilian governments consist mostly of northern Hausa-Fulani interests as major partners, Hausa-Fulani-supporting military elites as senior partners, and eastern Igbo and western Yoruba interests as junior partners. Other minority ethnic groups remain in the picture to sponsor the major players (King, 2002). In practice, the allocation of the definite governmental power differs from the quantitative allocation of Cabinet portfolios (Ayatse & Akuva, 2013). Table 3 takes into consideration the dynamism of aegis as well as the political subtlety linked to various Cabinet portfolios, the vital, the less vital, and the in-between. The table indicates that there exists an over-representation of the northern ethnic groups in general, particularly the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, depicted in the very important portfolios and again, their below- designation in the less important portfolios. Contrarily, the southern ethnic groups, specifically the Igbo, and to a minor extent, the Yoruba, seem to be under-delineated in the less important portfolios.

Notably, significant portfolios include the Internal Affairs, Finance, Education, Federal Capital, Agriculture, Transport, Petroleum and Mines, Territory, Communication, Power, and Defence. The less Important portfolios entail Information, Sports and Social Development, Tourism, Labour and Productivity, Science and Technology as well as Women’s Affairs.

1.8 Ethnicity and Contemporary Educational Inequalities

The root of the educational inequalities can be traced from historical factors such as the misguided colonial educational policy in the northern part of Nigeria, varying levels of ethnic responsiveness to western education, and a significant gap that has grown between the southern and the northern regions of Nigeria since the early years of the 1900s (Joshua et al. 2014). The consistent educational inequality among states and regions is depicted in Table 3 below.

Disproportionate to their population share, the northern regions and states have fewer institutions and learners to put forward as candidates for administrative enlistment, as compared to the southern regions and states. As of 2000, the south has contributed 80% of young individuals to tertiary education despite the 47% population share. A direct consequence is the ethnic discrepancies in the staffing of governmental institutions, and in the administrative units of the regions. Moreover, these patterns of elite composition also carry connotations for inter-ethnic affiliations (Mustapha, 2007). Given ethnicity-fostered education inequalities among individuals, these factors would result in mutual suspicion, loss of confidence, counteractions, and nepotism (Kalu, 2004; Mustapha, 2005).

The disparities in educational acquisition are further mirrored in the regional workforce and professional growth. Despite previous efforts in the 1990s to subtend the educational breach among ethnicities and regions, Nzotta and Okereke (2009) identify that the majority of the ethnic groups and the southern sections of Nigeria progress yield more professionally trained individuals. According to Mustapha (2005), of all the 1,344 lawyers called to the Nigerian 1990 bar, only 14.6% were from the northern states. These trends were common to other professions such as doctorate, engineer, estate surveyor, architect, and accountancy. These educational inequalities also coincided with economic and social inequalities, with a large number of economic activities located in the southern cities. According to Kalu (2008), of the total number of registered businesses, 57% were found in the southern regions and states; only 16% were in the north. Naturally, as can be displayed in Table 5, unbalanced distribution of wealth followed: the north had a greater number of households with no access to electricity, a lower number of children attending schools, higher adult illiteracy, and a lower percentage of women and children accessing health care. Therefore, a displayed in Table 4, the northern level of poverty was recorded as 77%, in comparison to the 53% of the southern region and states of Nigeria (Mustapha, 2005).

In summary, these patterns of overlapping inequalities due to education access, or lack thereof, have come to shape the life opportunities of individuals; and have led to political mobilisation, nepotism, civil wars, institutional racism, and the underdevelopment of the country as a whole, despite its richness in resources (Negedu & Atabor, 2015).

1.9 Ethnic Conflicts and Violence in Nigeria

Most ethnic conflicts in Nigeria are mere struggles for supremacy and control of the country’s vast resources, especially oil reserves and fertile lands. Evidently, as previously discussed, the conflicts have roots in colonial policies that fuelled resource competitions, such as the introduction of indirect rule, segregation laws, religious policies, and the divide and rule strategy (Haldun & Opeyemi, 2016). Colonial policies in 1947 reinforced ethnic division and decreased chances of unification; for example, segregation limited movement of the Christian southerners to the Muslim dominated northern part, thereby creating separate settlements, and even limiting the purchase of land outside one’s own ethnic region. As a result, intense competition proliferated by colonial hatred and prejudice, widened the inter-region political and economic gaps (Olasupo et al., 2017). The lack of basic needs provided the elites with a reason to mobilise groups, employing ethnocentrism for competing goals (Blanton, Mason, & Athow, 2001). The period between 1952 and the collapse of the first republic featured the transformation of the three regions into rivals, with ethnic and sub-ethnic loyalties threatening the survival of both east and west, while the north was divided along religious lines. There was a high degree of corruption, nepotism, and tribalism: politicians used public funds to build and maintain patronage networks, with the elites scheming to attract federal resources to their regions with no regard for issues that could have united the country (Jacob, 2012). Not long after, the rivalry led to the collapse of the first republic with a coup, a counter-coup, and the 1967-1970 civil war when the mistreated eastern Igbos threatened to secede (Falode, 2011).Since then, Nigeria has witnessed numerous other episodes of religious and electoral violence, due to agitation for self-determination; such examples have results in kidnapping of the innocent, loss of lives and properties, and internal displacement.

1.10 Ethnic Diversity in the Nigerian Workplace

The potency of workforce diversity has largely been ignored or has received little consideration by corporate Nigeria. Adeleye, Atewologun and Matanmi (2014) write that there is widespread evidence that people continue to face inequities and restrictions in organisations even when an anti-discrimination clause in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution prohibits express discrimination on the grounds of community, ethnicity, place of origin, gender, religion, or political opinion. Governments have focused narrowly on ethnic and religious differences, and most of the legislation and efforts towards attaining ethnic diversity and equity have focused on the public sector, public education and political institutions. In contrast, private companies and organisations have been provided substantial autonomy on how they manage workforce diversity. As a result, most organisations only recently began to formalise processes, policies, and practices in place to manage equality, diversity, and inclusion (Bleijenbergh et al., 2010; Colgan, 2011; Oswick and Noon, 2014; Chiappetta et al., 2011). Nevertheless, local organisations with global vision are taking the initiative to address this challenge. As corporations in both developed and developing countries actively engage in globalisation, a push towards improved demographic diversity in the workforce arises (Nzotta and Okereke, 2009). Yet, in the context of Nigerian organisations, ethnic diversity is found as the reason for the loss of talented human resource (Obi, 2001); for pervasive nepotism exercised by those with hiring authority is sadly a cultural and ethnic norm (Timiyo, 2012). Thus, it can be inferred that ethnic prejudice and differentiation impedes the acquisition and progression of a talented workforce, as ethnically driven individuals will orient towards those of their ethnic group, rather than those competent and talented. Another issue that attends ethnic dominance in the workplace is prejudice. It is the practice of judgment based on ethnic background, social class, or vice versa (Timiyo, 2012). Omankhanlen and Ogaga-Oghene, (2011) liken multi-ethnicity to a double-edged sword. It can enhance creativity as well as lead to group disgruntlement. A few studies have indicated that several kinds of diversity are associated with superior innovation, better quality strategic decision-making, and organisational goals’ achievement (Talke et al., 2011; Østergaard et al., 2011; Bell et al., 2011; Noe et al., 2017). Other studies, however, reveal that numerous kinds of team and organisational diversity often lead to growing skirmishes, limit social consistency, and increase employee turnover (Edewor & Aluko, 2007; Groeneveld, 2011; Peretz et al., 2010).

1.11 Ethnic Minority and Federalism in Nigeria

There have been extensive intellectual discourses and studies on federalism in Nigeria, specifically with respect to minority agitations and the extensive marginalisation of the minority ethnic groups in question. In such a multi-ethnic society as depicted by Adeyeri (2012), the greatest fear is the subjugation, dominations, denial of rights, and marginalisation of minorities, which would often lead to upheavals against the majority groups. This is extensive in the case of Nigeria’s federalism. Agunyai, Ebirim and Odeyemi (2013) asserted that Nigeria’s federalism forms on the basis of marginalisation, where effectually each geo-political zone grows on a particular form of destitution. Marginalisation in this particular case is a state of relative destitution, caused by intentional disempowerment of individuals by a group or collective groups who would exert political power to manipulate the allotment of resources and other materials at the centre. It is important to note that this deprivation of governmental resources occurs in parallel with unfair and felonious exploitation of natural resources against minority groups, who lack the capacity to control the resources within their territory. For decades, according to Ibrahim (2000), there have been sharply imbalanced divisions of wealth in Nigeria with regards to health centres, electricity, infrastructures, as well as demolition of farmlands that belong to the south-south ethnic groups. By 1990, the south-south was the poorest region, characterised by environmental degradation, social and economic disruption, and high levels of poverty, despite owning vast resources. Politically, it appears that the south was deliberately put down, and has remained an object of political enunciation in the device called Nigeria federalism, claims Otite (2012). Agunyai, Ebirim, and Odeyemi (2013) affirmed that the inequalities in the distribution of status, power, resources, oppression and domination by the majority ethnic groups like Hausa and Yoruba, that collaborate with other larger ethnic groups in the north that make up the Nigerian military to repress the south-south region in their quest to control crude oil and other resources at the expense of gunpowder, have frustrated groups in the south-south (Akinyele, 2001). As a result, Agunyai, Ebirim, and Odeyemi (2013) identify that since the 1970s, the levels of struggle and mild renewal of agitations began to spread into various ethnic groups to communities in the 1980s. By the onset of the 1990s, the entire region of the south was ready for action with a blooming civil society, profound status mobilisation, and most importantly ethnic nationalism, youth mobilisation and community activism to inaugurate far-reaching, effective resistance. As a result, the minority ethnic groups from the south-south have identified themselves as represented in the federal government as Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan was elected to the Head Office of the President in the years 2010 to 2015. The minority and those from the southern part, who were long repressed and deprived of due resources, now scrupulously claim without justification the exclusive preserve of the presidency office and other most prestigious appointments. As the south-south are clamouring for resource administration, which for quite some time has eluded them, the majority groups now also experience the sense of injustice (Hembe, 2003). In the north, the Muslims and some Christian groups have in most instances identified as being marginalised away from the position of presidency. It is a clear depiction that federalism in Nigeria is riddled with defects in concept and in practice, as per Musa and Manu (2013). Agunyai, Ebirim and Odeyemi (2013) shows that the relationship between ethnic diversity and federalism in Nigeria is marked with struggles for resources, whether governmental or natural, and at certain times, by under-representation or domination of the minority ethnic groups in public affairs and institutions. It is a well-known fact that unrest by the minority groups, specifically from the north and south over federal distribution, resource administration, political marginalisation, compensation for environmental depravity, and disease by gas spreading from oil exploitation, seem to be the biggest confrontations to federalism in the country (Adeyeri 2012; Ekeh, 2004). It is therefore not surprising that several minority ethnic groups are in the vanguard of the calls for reconstruction of the Nigerian federation, now that they are empowered by recent political gains.

1.12 Managing Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Nigeria

Edewor et al. (2014) identify that for social order to exist and be sustained, there should be the presence of a normative consensus among the population, as social order depends on the shared identity among members that would lead to the generalisation of trust. This presence of uniformity is considered crucial, given that the occurrences of ethnic violence would inevitably undermine the sense of national belonging or the loyalty towards one's nation of the Perverse Manifestation of Civil Society (Ikelegbe, 2001; Lenshie & Johnson, 2012).

1.13 Summary

In summary, ethnic and cultural diversity in Nigeria can threaten any attempt to achieve social order. The attempts can be traced back even before independence in the year 1960 (Edewor et al., 2014). The merger of the northern and the southern regions of Nigeria date back to the year 1914 when Lord Fredrick Lugard attempted to manage cultural and ethnic diversity in the country. That first consolidation brought about the involuntary unification of historically and culturally diverse ethnic groups. Some of the ethnic groups were rivals and coincidental imperialism in the pre-colonial period. The constitution developed before achieving independence was moulded with concerns of managing ethnicity (Egwu, 2007). In order to manage ethnic diversity, Nigeria has impelemented republicanism, the regimentation of quota frameworks, the constraint of ethnic political confederacies, associational politicking, as well as the enactment of the federal character standard. These techniques have enjoyed the pundit backing of institutionalists who hypothesise that an association exists between the ethnic peace or conflict and the framework of the political systems. Given the background of Nigeria, it is clear that these autocratic methods to impose order and compliance could no longer be guarded in the wake of democratic revolutions. As the Nigeria government and respective stakeholders work towards forging ‘unity in diversity’ for national integration, as well as making assertive efforts to blur historical distinctness, the imposition of uniformity under Nigerian military rules has been successful on the surface. The more those kinds of schemes were attempted, the more acute discrepancies resulted, the more strife occurred; and the more issues were developed that posed barriers to unity, halting progress to stable development and peaceful coexistence within the diverse ethnicity. The achievement of national integration in a country that possesses a multi-cultural state like Nigeria has been challenging. These challenges arise due to the lack of an established public culture to comprise the shared values by all ethnic groups, and to entail the common ground on which the diverse ethnic groups gestate and acknowledge the state (Elbadawi & Sambanis, 2002). Largely within Nigeria, ethnic groups work to impose their particularistic definition of public culture over that of the federation. In addition, there have been limiting factors affecting ethnic management in Nigeria that are related to improperly implemented policies, distorted visions, and the lack of political resolution (Osaghae, 1991). Such attempts to progress and achieve a harmonious nation free of ethnicity as a barrier, have been challenged by the predatory class and politicians that have used ethnic groups to maintain powerful positions and root out resources, through the implementation of policies that divide the Nigerian people. Therefore, according to Imobighe (2003), for the attainment of communal benefits like political stability and democracy, and for the purpose of national integration, efforts have risen and fallen repeatedly since before independence. This study will examine the relationship between ethnic diversity and team performance in the context of Nigerian organisations. The specific objectives are:

To critically review and evaluate related literature on ethnicity, diversity, and team performance and their interactions as identified in the statement of the problem;

Explore the relationship between employee cultural values and organizational commitment;

To ascertain the relationship between employee group membership and group cohesion; and

To enquire the extent organizational climate relates to employee creativity and innovativeness.

CHAPTER TWO Literature Review

The indicator of ethnic diversity in the workforce and its impact on team performance is globally attracting research interest (Adetiba & Rahim, 2012; Ely & Thomas, 2001; Oerlemans & Peeters, 2009; Rohwerder, 2017). Several factors are responsible for the increasing diversity in cities, countries, and workplaces. For example, in African developing countries, terrorism, religious clashes, poverty, and droughts often lead to mass migration to the cities from rural areas (Osaghae, 1996). These same factors, coupled with corrupt governance, might result in poor management of resources, and contribute to migration to western nations (Nyambegera, 2002; Osaghae, 1998). In the European Union and the United States, there is a continuous flow of legal and illegal political refugees, ex-colonial immigrants, and highly skilled workers.

2.1 Chapter Overview

This chapter aims to provide an extensive overview of theory, conceptual frameworks, and empirical research obtained from existing literature about the identified indicators.

2.1.1 Ethnic Diversity Framework

According to Oerlemans and Peeters (2009), ethnic diversity can be conceptualized in three ways: as a multi-dimensional factor of diversity with the encompass of cultural differences between different ethnic groups, as a system to create social categorisation of diversity based on perceived ethnicities, and as an indicator that impacts the consequences of workgroups and organisations. Oerlemans and Peeters (2009) also contended that ethnically homogenous group would still be considered ‘ethnically diverse' if members held different beliefs about ethnic diversity. Based on these conceptualisations, Oerlemans (2009) identified three theoretical approaches to predict the consequences of ethnic diversity on work outcomes in organisations:

The cultural approach. This approach holds that ethnic diversity, in the form of differences in acculturation orientations and cultural values, may influence work outcomes, such as ethnic inter-group relations and employee wellbeing.

The social-psychological approach. This approach contends that diversity is formed through social categorisations of diversity and similar attractions, as related to determinants of inter-group relations.

The role of confounding contextual factors, such as the culture of an organisation or a particular belief about ethnical diversity which is shared among employees, and in turn affects team dynamics and work outcomes.

This theoretical foundation provides a robust platform upon which the present research can rely and develop its methodology. The current study builds on the theory of how ethnic diversity within an organisation can reveal cultural differences across ethnic groups and examines how team members identify that their workgroup is comprised of individuals from different social categories and ethnic groups. A consequence of perceiving social identity is that it can become the basis for social categorisation, the process of grouping people into socially constructed categories (Loyd et al., 2007). Furthermore, this study explores how shared perceptions of organisational work practices within an organisation differs from those of other organisation; and thereby affects the way in which people consciously and subconsciously think, perceive, feel, make decisions, and act (Hansen & Wernerfelt, 1989; Lok & Crawford, 2004; Schein, 1990). Specifically, the chapter will begin with an examination of the conceptual framework, defined by Jabareen (2009) as the synthesis of significant studies outlining an explanation of a given phenomenon, while mapping out the actions necessary to attain ideas, discussion, assertions, and perspectives of previous researchers concerning the study’s indicators. McGaghie et al. (2001) argued that a conceptual framework provides a stage for the researcher to present research questions, the aims, and objectives investigated.

Following this examination, the chapter will review theoretical and empirical frameworks for ethnicity, diversity, team performance, and performance indicators. Cultural, social, psychological, and contextual perspective theories will be discussed to establish potential consequences of ethnic diversity on work outcomes. The researcher will present an overview of empirical studies, as focused on the relationship between the decomposed indicators of ethnic diversity and work outcomes. Factors of ethnic diversity will include employees' cultural values, group membership, and organisational culture; while factors of different work outcomes will include performance outcomes, behavioural outcomes, and affective outcomes.

2.2 Conceptual Review

2.2.1 The concept of ethnicity

Social scientists differ in their understanding of the concept of ethnicity. Ford and Kelly (2005) convey that ethnicity is a complex social construct; while other scholars perceive ethnicity as the physical attributes associated with an ancestral origin. As a result, the term ‘ethnicity’ is often considered a synonym for ‘ethnic group’, ‘ethnic identity’, and ‘ethnic origin’ (Jary & Jary, 1991). Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik and Warner (2010) provide a broader definition and identify ethnicity as the affiliation of individuals who share a similar phenomenon. For example, The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) (2018) construe ethnicity as relating to a group based upon an ethnic foundation in the community; and as the composition of the distinctly identifiable factors of language, religion, culture, and transition. Another perspective upholds ethnicity as a phenomenon that only arises within a group of people who have different values and cultural perspectives; not only on a cultural basis but also on symbolic lifestyle perspectives, such as eating habits, languages, dressings and spiritual beliefs (Rampton, 2017). People et al. suggest that sociocultural characteristics are the basis for defining groups as ethnically distinct from one another, and as the means for establishing personal ethnic identity, at the exclusion of the relational context. More pragmatically, Ford and Harawa (2010) further suggest that ethnic identity, ethnic classification systems, and the groupings that compose each system and the implications of assignment to one or another ethnic category are place-, time- and context-specific. In line with this contingency approach, the researcher would instead conceptualise ethnicity from three dimensions: attributional, relational, and contextual. While cultural values appear traditional, the relational and contextual paradigms between individuals and groups and their organisations are contingent upon the operating environment. Presently, the debate about the appropriate concept of ethnic identity is still ongoing.

2.3 Ethnicity: The Primordialist and Instrumentalists Paradigms

Recently, the primordialism and instrumentalism paradigms have increasingly become the conceptual framework for thinking about ethnic identity (Kaufmann and Conversi, 2012). Theories that describe the effect of ethnicity on economic and political outcomes are driven by the primordial assumption that these identities are fixed; while theories of the formation of ethnic groups are driven by the instrumentalist assumption that ethnic identities can change over time (Bacova, 1998; Hempel, 2004; Kaufmann and Conversi, 2012; Young et al., 1986 ). Bacova (1998) argues that the content of the concept of national identity is determined by the way we construe "nation". In primordial terminology, the nation is primarily the "ethno-nation", which is a community that unites individuals through "the same blood and common fate" (Bacova, 1998). Conversely, the instrumental way of construing the nation stresses the "pragmatic and situational aspects of large communities" (Bacova, 1998). Thus, instrumentalism approaches the political understanding of the nation. The beliefs regarding the character of the nation prevailing within a particular community, determine the identification of the member of this community with the nation (Kaufmann and Conversi, 2012). This researcher explores these theories about ethnicity, then places them within the multi-dimensional context of cultural and socio-political development in ethnic diversity management discourse. Hence, their meanings, theoretical and empirical findings, criticisms, and usefulness are discussed.

2.3.2 Primordialism.

The primordialism argument postulates that ethnic identity is inherent and inscriptive, as membership is assigned at birth, and is thus difficult to change (Geertz, 1973; Weir, 2012; Williams, 2015). This theory also contends that humans have deep natural connections that connect us with other individuals, and produce natural divisions based on race, religion, language, culture, life values, or geographic location (Geertz, 1973; Weir, 2012; Williams, 2015; Young, et al., 1986). Fearon and Laitin (2000) further reinforced this argument by conveying that ethnic identity can best be defined from the angle of ancestry rules of group membership, typified by cultural traits and common historical mythologies. Bacova (1998), Kaufmann, and Conversi (2012) shared a belief that the community constitutes individuals united through common ancestry or phenomena ‘fate’. This contention depends on the idea of kinship, where members of an ethnic group feel they share characteristics, origins or sometimes even a blood relationship. This can be deduced from the inclinations of the Igbos of Nigeria, where they felt as descendants of the Jews (Harnischfeger, 2011). In summary, the primordial identity is a belief system that considers the identities of members of a group as significantly different from all other identities.

Relaxed perspective of primordalism.

However, some empirical studies have somewhat relaxed the primordial original concept of ethnic identity fixity. Although the primordial framework upholds ethnic diversity as innate characteristics, some studies have considered ethnic diversity as a parameter for social organising. For example, Seol (2008) perceived that the behaviour of an ethnic group can be demonstrated and gleaned through the results of useful emotional or arousal criterion. Through his study, Seol (2008) established that ethnic groups form, persist, and are related to the broader society, based not only on cultural heritage but also on situational or circumstantial premises.

Psychological dimension.

Despite some empirical findings, one particular feature of ethnicity often invoked by the primordialist paradigm is the psychological instrument. Young et al. (1986) asserted that primordialism seeks to identify and define the cultural and psychological dimensions of ethnicity. Hence, primordialism calls for emotional attachment and ethnic solidarity from members of the ethnic group and invariably provides a basis for their ethnic consciousness. As Seol (2008) conveys, "Absolute loyalty and solidarity characterise the ideal of primordialism to one's ethnic group and its goals. However, the level of this attachment and commitment to the group may differ from one ethnic group to another” (p. 336). Therefore, society is much more than a politically managed, authoritative, and indifferent relationship of people and gatherings. Instead, society is characterised by an affinity of individual attachment and moral obligation to individual groups and associated goals.

Social organisations.

Primordialism may have equally found its niche in both political and business environments. Bacova (1998) notes that the concept of absolute loyalty and solidarity to an ethnic group justifies the fact that primordial sentiments may not be ruled out in national political development as well as within organisations. For example, the primordial attachment has been found to be one of the favoured bases for fragmentation when hitherto independent political units Nigeria were ere-organised into their present political units (Oladipo, Olotu, & Suleiman, 2009; Pieterse, 1993). One can argue that this brings forward inclination that the primordial paradigm plays a substantial role in the socio-political and economic development of ethnically divided states. In other words, people can construct and deconstruct the socio-political and economic realities around them based on primordial sentiments. Additionally, individuals, as well as groups, may dogmatically follow their ethnic leaders even when the actions and inactions of such leaders may be self-centred and directed at boosting their socio-political status at the expense of the group's socio-political and economic growth. As a result, according to Conversi (2002) and Jakwa, (2017), members of a group or community tend to become emotionally caged and held captive to primordial sentiments and unable to respond proactively to the internal or external socio-political challenges confronting them. Nevertheless, despite these deficiencies, as asserted by Williams (2015), the primordialist theory is useful for explaining the emotive dimension of ethnic conflicts and offers insight into the passion-driven behaviour of ethnic groups. The power of ethnicity lies in its capacity to arouse passion and commitment (Cornell and Hartman, 1998:151), but numerous reports on wrongly taking advantage of the paradigm have ultimately led to violent conflicts. Scholars have also come to agree that primordialism is a significant construct for explaining the origin of ethnicity (Bayar, 2009; Hale, 2004), as the paradigm emphasises the salience of ethnic identity, solidarity, and the ways in which ethnic feelings can become a very potent instrument to galvanise ethnic interest and protecting individual identity. Further, other empirical studies (Heinze et al., 2009; Hempel, 2004; Jackson and Messick, 1965) have found that an ethnic group can be analysed by considering the primordial dimension and the circumstantial context. Therefore, from an instrumentalist perspective, it has been argued that ethnic groups have rational members who can still assert and maintain their identity as well as socio-political and economic interests.

2.3.3 Instrumentalism

Scholars claim this the categorisation of ethnicity is an essential instrumental element to accomplish socio-political and economic goals to restrict power and limited resources to select individuals (Adetiba and Rahim, 2012; Collier, 2002; Heinze et al, 2009; Hempel, 2004; Mousseau, 2001; Varshney, 2009). The instrumentalist theory upholds ethnicity as a paradigm created for practical utility (Seol, 2008), which is neither inherent nor “intrinsically valuable” (Varshney, 2009:282). Instrumentalism is the view that each entity is imbued with a set of qualities necessary for its identity and function. The paradigm hinges on the affiliation of individuals to the community, which is economically and politically beneficial to them (Varshney, 2009). Young et al. (1986) opine that the instrumentalist sees ethnicity as a vehicle for socio-political and economic competition; hence, it is politically contingent, situational, and circumstantial. In other words, it serves to prepare individuals in their quest to gain competitive advantage from their opponents. For instance, beyond the explanation of the role of elite manipulation in ethnic wars, the utility of this theory is also grounded by rational cost-benefit analysis explaining why some ethnically fragmented societies choose to fight or chose to cooperate rather than fight Greenhaus, Parasuraman and Wormley, 1990; Williams, 2015). Thus, ethnicity can undergo changes, which explains why ethnic communities may not be static. They change from time to time and are defined and structured to meet their socio-political and economic interests. Bacova (1998) describes ethnicity as a strategic tool of a specific municipal government, available for enforcing its goals and interests. To the instrumentalist, the construction of ethnicity is for a purpose, and that purpose may be social, political, and economic.

Radical instrumentalists

Researchers widely perceive radical instrumentalists to believe that the state does not present itself as an objective reality, but rather to be based on ethnic manipulation underlined by psychological theory (Hale, 2004; Williams, 2015). There appears to be a sharp difference between political leaders and their followers. In their game of wits, the political elites manipulate the ordinary members of the group (Hale, 2004; Williams, 2015). It is argued that this political class is seen as ambitious social engineers, who in an attempt to gain political control of the state will stir up the emotions of the masses. This argument suggests that the instrumentalists singled out the nationalists among those groups who have shown excellent abilities and therefore deserve to gain control of the reins of power.

Modern instrumentalism.

Explaining instrumentalism from the modernisation theory point of view, the instrumentalists believe that as long as people continue to interact as a result of modernisation, ethnicity may probably fade away due to manipulation (Elgert, & Krueger, 2012; Harrison, 2002; Hughes, 2008; Newman, Glendinning &). The dynamics of ethnicity as they affect political development is in essence due to the socio-political and economic differentiation in multi-ethnic states. That the instrumentalist sees a community as a means of achieving individual or group socio-political goals means that the state is a modern organisation. Apart from socio-political and economic interest, people still struggle over the maintenance of their cultures and identities, their socio-political and economic differences notwithstanding. Therefore, some ethnic expressions may just be predominantly intended to achieve ethnic and religious purposes and can lead to conflict, such as in the case of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war. The Igbos reacted to being killed by the Hausa-Fulani in Northern Nigeria and deserted their plum positions to go and fight for their fatherland (Osaghae, 1998). Thus, the explanation of ethnicity centred on politics and the economy is perceived to have underrated the psychological and emotional power of ethnic bindings (Osaghae, 1998). The instrumentalist theoretical perspective has also failed to recognise or believe that the leaders in the mobilised groups may also be interested in preserving and maintaining their cultural heritage instead of trading it for socio-political and economic gain. It is also important to note that the instrumentalist theory has failed to explain why ethnicity has become more of a basis for mobilisation than any other phenomenon. One can argue that it is a result of the dynamism of ethnicity where people in every ethnic group can be seen as social players having a multi-factorial social identity, (for example religion and social status). However, more importantly, ethnic identity, above all, has been found to defy hierarchical social structure and point people to their origin. This is the domain of primordialism. With little contradiction, this may coincide with the demands of every group, which has made the theory significantly useful for explaining the socio-political struggles between ethnic groups. One primary and significant difference between instrumentalism and primordialism is the basis of individual or group attachment to their community (Weir, 2012). To the instrumentalist, as depicted by studies, it is because of what, how, and when the attachment to their community and ethnic group is perceived as beneficial for political, social, or economic l advantages. In contrast, the primordialism paradigm perceived individuals as psychologically and emotionally attached to their community even though the relationship may be associated with elements of gain or loss. Scholars have widely cited such as examples of primordial ethnic relationship, pointing out that the political and economic benefits may be beneficial to only the political class. Therefore, both primordial and instrumental approaches are examples of an unnecessary polarisation of inherently complementary aspects of human life. Notably, this diversity is not limited to social interaction and engagement, rather it extends to the work environment.

2.4 Ethnic Diversity

It is not irrational to first consider ethnicity diversity within the context of evolution, dispersion of populations, and development of civilisations. Although a contentious topic, proponents of these theories and hypothesis have argued that unravelling origins and migratory movements are fundamental in order to understand ethnicity and genetic diversity in Africa and around the world (Reed & Tishkoff, 2006; Lewontin, 1982). For example, according to Carto et al. (2010) and Osborne et al. (2008), the migration out of Africa has resulted in dispersion and settlement of other populations in other parts of the continent. Campbell and Tishkoff (2008) propounded that such historical demographics, such as changes in population size, migration events, mutation, recombination, size, and admixture greatly influenced the variation in modern African populations and diversity. In this light, time factors and isolation caused primarily by geographical elements have generated diversity in humankind. Such factors have included climate condition, trading, ethnic wars, and early (pre-colonial) empires (Campbell & Tishkoff, 2008; Pool & Nielsen, 2007; Schiffels & Durbin, 2014). According to Cashdan (2001) and Nunn and Puga (2012) the reasons why regions near the equator have higher levels of ethnic diversity compared to other parts of the continent and globe, were deeply shaped by the climate conditions and availability of food to enable hunting and gathering, and in turn eliminate the need for interaction with others. Over time, this isolation led to the development of separate ethnic identities where different individuals lived independently and without any contact from others. As such, resource-based conflicts and the slave trade played a significant role in the emergence and development of groups who were brought together by a shared commonness with the need to fight against a common ‘enemy’. Nevertheless, ethnic diversity is perceived as a concept in modern societies that has transcended beyond the bound of basic survival necessity to become the subject of multi-dimensional definitions and interpretations with at least six identifiable strands: individual, sociological, psychological, anthropological, management, and corporate social responsibility. (Aspinall, 2009; Cross, Katz, Miller, & Seashore, 1994; Lewis and Peri, 2015; Putnam, 2007; Vertovec, 2007). Most conceptual and theoretical studies still define "ethnicity" as a personal demographic characteristic; while modern authors of management literature and organisational research recently started to consider ethnicity as a ‘relational’ demographic characteristic (Ford and Harawa, 2010; Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale, 1999; Oerlemans, 2009; Tsui, Egan, & O'Reilly, 1992; Williams & O'Reilly, 1998; Zagefka, 2009). To contextualise, relational demography involves comparing the demographic characteristics of an individual to the demographic characteristics of a social group. For example, regarding ethnicity, individuals may be very similar or dissimilar to the team in which they work. Deductively, ethnic diversity can also be researched from a team-level perspective as the presence of differences amongst members of a social unit (Jackson, Thoits, & Taylor, 1995). Furthermore, Jackson et al. (1995) compartmentalise the concept of diversity into surface-level and deep-level diversity. Surface-level diversity essentially refers to characteristics of people who are readily observable, such as ethnicity, age, and gender. In contrast, deep-level diversity refers to characteristics that are more psychological and difficult to observe, such as one's personality, attitudes, skills, and competencies. An alternative and very pragmatic school of thought suggests that diversity is about effective management of both demographic variations (age, gender, and ethnicity) and personal variation (that include personal values, skills, and abilities) in the workforce (Rijsman, 1997). In this view, it is theorised that diversity, when managed effectively, will engender social and economic benefits for individuals and organisations. Under this circumstance, diversity is expected to generate more creativity, multiple perspectives, and broader access to information networks that increase the quality of decision-making. Howbeit, other diversity researchers perceive diversity only as an affirmative instrument, and thereby implies that diversity is only about the inclusion of socially disadvantaged groups in the workforce (Ford & Harawa, 2010; Gershenson & Grossman, 2000; Zagefka, 2009). The disadvantage of affirmative action is that it at times celebrates mediocrity, when many ‘disadvantaged people' these days may only demand equal opportunity and not preferential treatment. In essence, to sustain an inclusive environment, ethnic minorities are perceived as socially disadvantaged groups that actively need to be included and provided with equal opportunities in the workforce. Therefore, there is no uniform and generally accepted definition of ethnic diversity. Instead, different perspectives exist, and some of the most used definitions are summarised in Table 5 below.

Although there are varying perspectives about the definition of ethnic diversity, these definitions appear to be limited. The effects of organisational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and organisational commitment were not incorporated in any of the definitions (Őnday, 2016). Also, the emphasis of these definitions is not on an employee as a member of a group or team, and evaluation of the employee’s performance based on their ability to function as an ‘organisational member effectively'. Rather, these definitions are grounded in the theory of ‘individualism', either from demographic characteristics (that include age, ethnic origin, and physical make-up), or psychological traits (that include skills, ability, and knowledge). On the contrary, many organisational functions consist of team-driven projects. In such situations, success or failure is shared among participating team members. Though individual skills and abilities may be critical, the synergy and greater productivity derives from team efforts when employees work as a social group which may be far more effective than disparate efforts, as there is a positive association between group cohesiveness and team performance (Ford & Harawa, 2010; Őnday, 2016; Zagefka, 2009) From all perspectives so far examined, it could be inferred that ethnic diversity affects any group that consists of individuals who vary on a trait upon which they construct their identity (Williams, 2015). Diversity can be further denoted as a primary or secondary factor that distinctly differentiates individuals of a particular group compared to others. Such primary surface-level denominators include age, sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and physical and mental capabilities. The secondary deep-level factors of diversity are not too apparent but provide a more gripping impression on individuals (Gberevbie, 2013). As such, the deep-level criterion comprises of educational background, territorial location, religion, mother tongue, family status, work ethics, work proficiency, professional experience, rank in the organisation, income, and the method of communication. There is, in fact, an inevitable tendency towards mentally creating a long list in an attempt to describe a range of diversity factors. Cox (1994) likens the phenomenon of diversity to an iceberg with infinite dimensions, and considered the most evident (top-level) features as age, gender, race, ethnicity, and disability, which belong to the smaller visible portion of the iceberg. These top-level factors are the sources of significant affirmative legislation on anti-discrimination all over the world. Nevertheless, Cox (1994) notes that the deep-level factors of religion, culture, personality traits, socio-economic, and political alignment are less noticeable and could be imputed to secondary factors. However, this classification remains unchallenged and largely depends on the circumstances of the evaluator.

2.5 Workplace Diversity

In the past, homogeneity was prominent in the workforce of most organisations; many employees shared similar ethnic backgrounds, most were male, and tended to work for the same employer throughout their working lives (Dike, 2013). In contrast, women's roles were consigned to home-making and child-bearing (Pahuja, 2016). Globalisation, coupled with accompanying demographic developments, has been reputed to have a significant impact on the composition of the workforce. Globalisation has recently triggered greater interaction amongst people from different cultures and backgrounds than before (Ashton, 2010). Now, managers are constantly confronted with teams and departments that are more diverse regarding gender, age, ethnicity, organisational tenure, functional background, educational background, and additional factors. Consequently, a growing number of companies, including the International Business Machines Corporations, Siemens, Shell, and British Petroleum have formulated diversity policies in order to manage an ever-growing diverse labour force (Dike, 2013). It therefore becomes more and more important to study why ethnic diversity sometimes relates positively, neutrally, or negatively to various work-related outcomes. The direction the pendulum swings depends essentially on how organisational managers manage some key indices of ethnicism, such as nepotism, discrimination, insensitivity, and unethical behaviours. In this respect, it is of grave importance that management understands and appreciates the possible consequences of ethnic-mindedness that may exacerbate employees’ relational conflict, turnover intentions, job burnout and counter-productive behaviours. Therefore, timely adoption of mediating roles of fairness, employee autonomy, management responsiveness/communication, and responsibility/leadership may engender desirable outcomes of group cohesion, creativity and innovativeness and organisational commitment (Subramaniam, 2013). This situation is schematically illustrated in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3 displays the relationship between ethnicity, ethnic diversity management, and team performance. The relationship is not linear but rather multi-layered. Embedded in ethnicity are potential insidious elements like nepotism, discrimination against non-ethnic members, insensitivity to the needs of non-ethnic members, and unethical behaviours in areas of bribery and corruption, and, sexual harassment, which some organisations contextually exhibit (Kanten & Ülker, 2013). If management styles are ethnically oriented, the negative outcomes may display evidence in relational conflict, employee turnover intentions, job burnout, and counter-productive behaviours, which could impede the achievement of team objectives. Therefore, managerial teams are advised to be pro-active in engaging mediating roles of fairness, employee autonomy, responsiveness, and responsibility, which may effectively manage ethnicity outcomes to achieve the desired team performance. An effectively managed ethnic diversity coalesces into group cohesion, employee creativity and innovativeness, employee well-being, and organisational commitment (Kanten & Ülker, 2013). The qualitative methodology will investigate, within the Nigerian context, this balance between the awareness of potential divisiveness due to ethnic diversity, which is inherent in ethnically diversified organisations, and management’s mediating role necessary to achieve team performance. Such policies have been formulated for the following reasons: (1) a moral duty to have a workforce that mirrors the demographics of a given society, (2) composition of a workforce that is diverse, in terms of demographics and personal characteristics, may stimulate creativity and provide organisations with a competitive advantage, and (3) A team with members from diverse backgrounds may result in a more local market-oriented oriented approach to better serve customers (Dike, 2013). A case is often made of organisational stakeholders that are becoming increasingly concerned about the positive and negative effects of business on their lives and society. Consequently, employees have begun to take both pre-emptive and punitive actions against employers. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the businesses to adopt sustainable self-regulation diverse management mechanisms (Salvioni, Gennari & Bosetti, 2016). It has been reported that corporations that embrace diversity management seem to be innovative and are likely to gain a competitive advantage (Odita & Egbule, 2015). Relatedly, multi-national organisations are known to hire workers from all over the country, while also providing an opportunity to foreigners. As a result, diversity management scholars believe that managers have the power to deliver success through diversity policies by leading efforts to champion such policy formulation, execution, and control (Boyt, Lusch, & Mejza 2005; Dike, 2013; Odita & Egbule, 2015; Salvioni et al., 2016). Interestingly, diversity is actively encouraged even in developing countries as a means of reducing discrimination in the workplace. (Aidla, 2013; Fudge, 2009; Warr, 1994). In Nigeria, for instance, there is a Federal Character Law (which is enshrined in Nigeria's constitution), which specifies that enrolments in federal government ministries, departments, and agencies must demonstrate federal character (Gberevbie, 2013). The law refers to the equitable representation of all sections of the country, especially in employment, by the government and its agencies. Ordinarily, some chief executives of government business may betray the law and prefer job seekers from their ethnic groups. Evidently, this attitude is profoundly unjust, immoral, and capable of engendering poor organisational performance and a lack of commitment to organisational objectives (Balassiano, 2012; Ogbo, Kifordu, & Ukpere, 2014; World Bank, 2012). As a result, present managers are encumbered with the obligation to not only perform a leadership role but to also address the unfulfilled needs of employees who are not only ethnically distinct, but who may have different values and belong to different culture groups. Therefore, diversity is a core issue of concern among leaders of both public and private sector organisations and is central to enhance and improve organisational resources and team performance. Effective diversity management in organisations is measures as accomplishment of the goal to be the company of choice, to deliver satisfactory customer service, and to achieve a competitive advantage (Dike, 2013). Within organisations, managers are considered role models, and are thereby required to lead by example. Additionally, beyond addressing the primary issues concerning discrimination in terms of age, gender and ethnicity, other crucial concerns in workforce diversity, managers must also resolve team member discrepancies due to the more sublime issues, such as religion, education, geographical location, income, and academic achievement, that although may not be noticeable during the first encounter may become increasingly apparent (Ashton, 2010).

2.5.1 Cultural changes.

Historically, diversity management and workforce diversity have become so critical that organisations have begun to incorporate needed cultural changes. Nevertheless, this understanding towards diversity has equally triggered fear and insecurity in the workforce, occasioned by a perception of a lack of skill in diversity management (Dike, 2013). Consequently, it is a challenge for managers to implement an organisation’s core values, which in-turn will engineer satisfactory performance outcomes. It is not intended that workforce diversity will create morale damage, enhance employee turnover figures, and instigate a substantial communication gap, or other similar difficulties (Salvioni et al., 2016). Apart from poor performance outcomes, other undesirable impacts of diversity, at the individual level, may include a lack of commitment. As a result, one solution may be the adoption of inclusive and collaborative policies in order to create a diverse workforce that effectively performs and fulfils objectives.

2.6 Work Teams

A ‘work team’ is denoted as a group of individuals working collaboratively in an environment on mutual tasks (McEwan et al., 2017). There seems to be some measure of inaccuracy to employ the terms ‘group’ and ‘team’ interchangeably. McEwan et al. (2017) attempt to categorise the key differences: ‘Group members’ may work independently and are not involved in the planning of their tasks; whereas ‘team members’ create their goals and work interdependently to accomplish a mutual purpose or goal. Group members are given their tasks; team members collaborate and use their talents and experience to achieve goals. A team is perceived as comprising of fewer people having matching talents who may contribute to a mutual objective and achieve goals with efficient performance and approach, and for that, they deem themselves mutually responsible (Awofeso, 2010). Conti and Kleiner (2003) observe that teams deliver increased participation, contests, involvement, and a goal-oriented mindset. They add that an organisation has a magnetic effect with teams that continues to attract and retain capable individuals (Coti & Kleiner, 2003). As a result, teams help build an adaptable and competent organisation, which is essential for profit making. The enthusiasm gained from the factor of profitability enables organisations to pursue and accomplish success in challenging and competitive business environments. Therefore, one can argue that teamwork may be an essential component of an effective diversity awareness management regime. There may be no coherence if individual team members are unable to integrate into the system entirely. Organisational integration is possible only when the organisational culture and climate are imbued with open communication and autonomous orientation by management. Therefore, teamwork is the collaboration within a certain number of individuals who are part of the team with the aim to finish the work assigned. The specific minimum and maximum number of individuals that constitute a team is not fixed, but on average, consists of eight to ten team members (Owoyemi, Elegbede, & Gbajumo-Sheriff, 2011). Similarly, the universal phenomenon of active teams typically comprises of less than ten members

2.6.1 Teamwork.

The importance of teamwork within organisations cannot be over-emphasised. Teamwork has a technical meaning in organisations, aside from its general usage. Woodcock (2017) argues very succinctly that history has provided some celebrated persons, but the transformation of ideas into a reality is often only achievable by a group. This is particular important if the team contains highfliers who may intimidate other members who feel they will be easily outperformed. For example, even in the multi-dimensional and complex medical field, great results can only be achieved by team dynamics of collaborative team members (Middleton, 2011). Individuals may achieve historic feats but great ideas are often realised by supportive team dynamics. With a substantial part of organisations becoming increasingly knowledge-based, management, has taken a cue to become highly collaborative. Additionally, Salas et al. (2005) suggest that continuous growth requires agreement about how the progress of teamwork dynamics will be measured and monitored, and by whom. The usefulness of teamwork has been found to cut across different types of organisations. Teamwork has been denoted as a significant element in the efficient administration of work as the majority of organisational actions are becoming intricate with the influence of technology. Therefore, it becomes imperative to assemble experts in different fields to collaborate in order to achieve product and service excellence. Thus, teamwork is a crucial concern for most organisations. Pfaff and Huddleston (2003) found that teamwork is essential for all kinds of organisations, both profit-making and non-profit making. It is a common tendency that members are provided an opportunity to enhance their set of skills, capabilities, and knowledge while working in teams (Owoyemi, Elegbede, & Gbajumo-Sheriff, 2011). In addition to other benefits, teams share knowledge through training, experience sharing, mentoring, and the acquisition of new organisational members. The performance achieved through working in teams delivers a higher level of productivity in comparison to the individual performance. Other merits of teamwork include growth, creativity and a higher level of compliance and operational control (Totterdill, Dhondt, & Milesome, 2002). New methods are created to further enhance the possibility for innovation, which in turn adds value to the products or the services offered. Additionally, new methods of work increase the engagement of workers through multi-skilling and the procurement of sophisticated competencies to resolve problems. Interactions of teams will support the labour market agglomeration that will assist in local and regional growth and progress (OECD, 2002). Teamwork also acts as an instrument of a new style of work management. Precisely, teamwork is a gauge to evaluate organisations and reveal its various aspects (Mulika, 2010). In a connected elaboration, Owoyemi, et al. (2011) propose that effective and competent managers are those who delegate tasks to the subordinates, either as a team or as a group, so that optimal outcomes could be obtained from the workforce. McEwan et al., (2017) also hold a view that teamwork is a long-term approach that tends to improve the performance levels of individuals and organisations.

2.6.2 Shared Team Leadership.

Another contentious issue mentioned by Salas, et al. (2005) is team leadership. Rather than singular leadership, it is their view that there is a need for the development of team leadership that moves towards an agreed goal or objective by shared leadership across the team. Wibowo and Deng (2015) also support the shared leadership concept, believing that it contributes to enhancing teamwork and increasing trust, whilst reducing internal rivalry and consequent implosion. In contrast, competition within a shared leadership model can create internal divisions based on group goals rather than the project objectives, as competitors look to create alliances within the team. (Carson, Tesluk, & Marrone, 2007; Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014; Mathieu et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2014; Wibowo & Deng, 2015). Furthermore, depending on the team dynamics, a singular leader may keep the team on track and can avoid the potential for internal competitions and sub-group rivalry (Fearon, 2004). Adaptability is another key factor for ethos and successful team dynamics, and it is important for teams to remain adaptable at all times. However, not all members will be adaptable and some members may fear changes in a pre-set plan when the reality of the business suggests otherwise (Salas et al., 2005). With this perspective, the current study posits that an environment-fit and a dynamic team provides all team members with the opportunity to gain professional development and improve their self-adaptability through sustained experience. In addition, the concept of team orientation and behaviour needs to be further explored. Team orientation connotes the spirit and synergy of the team when members are brought together to accomplish a project or objective. A team's entrepreneurial orientation enables collaboration, engagement, creativity, and innovation to solve problems and retain a philosophy of joint venture as opposed to individuality (Fatoki, 2014). Nawaz and Anjali (2018) observe that engaged group members usually adopt organisational citizenship behaviour, whereby they support and help each other regardless of opinions and thoughts. Such attitudes create a stronger level of trust as team members recognize that they will be supported by others if an outcome deviates from expectation (Nawaz & Anjali, 2018).

2.6.3 Trust.

Another unique characteristic of a team is trust which promotes citizenship behaviour. Porter et al. (2003) suggest that trust can often be personality-driven and is a considered need for many team members if they are to commit wholly to the team. Trust develops a safe zone for many involved members and acts a motivating factor to ‘think outside the box’ and potentially excel in the presence of support, despite any insecurities and fears of failure.

2.6.4 Team performance.

Team performance has become one of the most widely used tools to measure organisational success. On a general note, Toppo and Prusty (2012), defined performance as the record of outcomes produced on a specified job function or activity during a specified time period. However, there seems to be a distinction in definitions between an individual and team performances. In an individual context, performance can be defined as a deed, a public exhibition of skill; the level of achievement on the implementation of specific tasks; or the result of work accomplished by a person in connection with his position in the organisation (Folorunso, Adewale, & Abodunde, 2014; Wibowo, 2007). In contrast, team performance can be interpreted as the collective efficacy of the team or a group's shared belief in its joint capability to organise and execute the actions required to produce given levels of attainment or objective (McEwan, et al., 2017). Salas, et al. (2008) conveys that team performance can be viewed as a phenomenon resulting from a goal-directed process, in which members draw from their individual and shared resources to display task work processes and ultimately provide products and services.

2.6.5 Team members.

As discussed, the team provides an opportunity to different individuals to coordinate, enrich their capabilities, and deliver a productive response devoid of any conflict among the individuals (Jones et al., 2007). Every person of the team should have a unique skillset and unique role to play towards attaining the objectives of the group at large and share accountability of the results (Cohen & Bailey, 1997). Lazear (1998a, 1998b) asserts that a diverse team can generate productivity gains if three factors are present. First, team members must have different skills, abilities, or information. In this way, the team may gain from the complementarities among its members (Portes & DeWind, 2004). Second, the different skills, abilities or information of members must be relevant to one another. Little complementarity may occur if the skills of a team member are not relevant to a teammate’s production. Third, communication is necessary for team members to perform the relevant joint tasks and engage in knowledge transfer to enhance productivity. Toppo, and Prusty (2012) note that it is not enough to have a highly effective team; members of a highly effective team should complement each other's abilities and be able to build a relationship from the ground up. In the same vein, Vrabie (2014) is of the view that effective teams possess not only technical skills but also emotional intelligence and social sensitivity, which has been proven to be more important than the intelligence quotient of each team member. She argues that if individuals are socially aware, the whole group will produce better quality work. Effective teams are expected to produce results when they develop informal processes, special feelings, communicate proactively, strong leadership, and trust.

2.6.6 Team interactions.

Effective diversity management appears to hinge on the plank of effective team inter-dependence and interaction (Toppo and Prusty, 2012; Vrabie, 2014). The team interactions are not limited to the time it takes to finish the task, as before and after moments are also very important. For example, the continuance of interactions tends to offer the foundation for team cohesion, creativity, and organisational commitment (Glew, 2012). Each of these three team performance indicators can provide clear signals about the dynamics of the specific teams and the organisation at large. The interaction pattern of team members can be described as task inter-dependence or outcome inter-dependence (McEwan et al., 2017; Toppo and Prusty, 2012). McEwan et al. (2017) define task inter-dependence as the level in which group members interact and depend on one another to accomplish their task objectives. Task inter-dependency increases when work itself becomes more difficult and employees require a higher level of assistance from each other, such as shared technical knowledge (McEwan et al., 2017). The level of interdependence in a group may also hinge on the extent to which the attainment of a member's objective is dependent upon the efforts of other members of the group, and the extent of provision of group goals or received group feedback (Van der Vegt and Van de Vliert, 2001). Conversely, team outcome interdependency refers the team’s reward structure, and degree to which team members perceive how well other team members perform d (Glew, 2012). Team processes and performance is dependent on outcome interdependency and is based more on individual perceptions rather than team rewards (Glew, 2012). Further, a “Person-team fit" is conceptualised along two fundamental dimensions of team environment: interdependence and social interaction; and has an impact on satisfaction, commitment, trust, and performance (Glew, 2012).

2.6.7 Team cohesion.

Despite the vast number of studies that have been conducted, the definition and measurement of cohesion has remained inconsistent, resulting in challenges to compare findings across studies, and limiting the ability to advance science and practice (Salas et al., 2015). Evidently, the dynamic factor of cohesion is conceptualised from many perspectives: the extent to which members wish to stay in the team; a total field of forces causing members to remain in the group; the extent of attraction which the group retains for an individual or the level of yearning of the group's members to stay in the group; a magnetic force that draws and causes a member to remain in a group (Salas et al., 2015; Salas, Sims, and Burke, 2005). Carron, Bray, and Eys (2002) equate cohesion to a dynamic process that reflects a group tendency to unite and remain unified in the pursuit of its objectives and for the satisfaction of members' needs. It could, therefore, be implied that satisfying the economic, social, and psychological needs of members may be a key attraction for team cohesion. Conversely, individuals who feel no sense of cohesion with their team, irrespective of the rationale, are less motivated and less likely to partake in the "teaming" behaviours that enable the many positive effects of teams (Salas et al. 2015). It is imperative to note that different types of groups exist, which may affect both the degree and extent of the members' willingness and ability to cohere as a team. Høigaarda, Toftelanda and Ommundsenb (2006) emphasise the difference between project cohesion and social cohesion, which they established as essential for understanding cohesion and its implication for team performance. Specifically, Salas et al. (2015) defined task cohesion as a part of mutual commitment between members of a team to achieve a goal that entails the joint efforts of the group. A team with extraordinary task cohesion consists of members who designate a mutual goal and who are driven to synchronise their exertions as a team to accomplish that goal. Social cohesion, conversely, is the degree to which group members like one another, choose to devote their social time jointly, relish one another's company and experience, and fervently wish to be near to one another. Wherefore, Salas et al. (2015) advised practitioners and researchers to define cohesion with a task and social sub-dimensions, and to measure the term with behavioural and attitudinal operationalization. Salas et al. (2015) note that group cohesion allows group members to work together more efficiently and feel more positively about their work. Team building is a conscientious act that requires experience and general thinking. Salas et al. (2015) and Glew, (2012) have suggested eight ways to build a competent team: establishing a mission, searching for diversity, practising teamwork, optimising individual strengths, effectively communicating, providing feedback, asking for feedback, and celebrating success. A team may be readily assembled, but maintaining sustainability is the challenge. Without sustainability, the team may even disperse over time due to issues of individual differences. Furthermore, groupthink can be defined as conformity, as group cohesiveness overrides individual creativity or responsibility to individually reach an unchallenged and unanimous decision. Therefore, Salas et al. (2015) and Glew, (2012) further argue that for an effective team to subsist, the team must possess trust for one another, engage in unfiltered healthy conflict, commit to decisions and plans of action, hold one another accountable , and maintain a focus on the achievement of collective results. Some key factors have been identified to include similarities of attitudes and values among group members. The content of similarity may be ethnicity, gender or other more psychological traits. Nevertheless, group members find attraction and comfort in those shared similarities and values. The size of the group, difficulty in entry and management behaviour towards the group have also been alluded to as influencing group cohesiveness. Team communication and conformity to norms are other factors that are said to play significant roles in team cohesion. Across a team's path, member contacts and exchanges engender appropriate morals for individual conduct, which are cognitively recognised as a pattern of behaviour that others emulate (Carron, Shapcott and Burke, 2007). On the other hand, Carron et al. (2007)’s norm conformity perspective can be considered a process groups follow to control and normalise group members' conduct. Group norm is what embodies shared anticipation concerning each member's role in the team (Gastil, 2010). Even though such norms may not be written down or openly discussed, they frequently have a formidable and steady effect on group members' conduct (Hackman, 1976). He found that team norms have a substantial influence on how group members perceive and interact with one another and contribute to stabilising the group composition. The formation of group norms is typically an informal and gradual process. Group members over time learn what behaviours are acceptable and which are unacceptable. Empirical research has been conducted on cohesion (Jung and Sosik, 2002; Salas et al., 2015) with some mixed results. Cohesion, though subjective, has been researched as one of the organisational performance measurement (dependent) indicators. An investigation has confirmed a healthy association between team cohesion and a team's perception of its performance (Jung and Sosik, 2002). Some researchers believe cohesion can be used as a team's measurement parameter (Cota, Dion and Evans, 1993). Some disagree, nevertheless, insisting that the measurement is difficult given the team's environmental changes and dynamism (Salas et al., 2015). Apart from environmental dynamism, they aver that cohesion, at best, is an abstraction that barely lends itself to objective measurement, unlike an objective outcome, like an increase in sales. Nevertheless, meta-analytical research has found that cohesiveness and performance are related, but that some factors such as the type of team, moderate this relationship (Beal et al., 2004). However, Toppo and Prusty, (2012) and Vrabie, (2014) specify that cohesion indicates that there are no severe conflicts within the group or contrary opinions about the strategy needed to achieve goals. The issue of team cohesion is essential in the study of ethnic diversity, given the fact that the lack of it may jeopardise organisational effectiveness. As suggested by McLeod and Von Treuer, (2013), a certain level of personal, mutual liking among team members is needed for cohesion to be in place. Such bonding might either be enhanced or challenged by members' understandings of each other's ethnic backgrounds, which are in turn influenced by multiple factors, either positively or negatively. For example, individualism (the condition in which personal interests are accorded greater importance than the needs of groups) does not support collectivism (holding opposing concepts and values as those of individualism) (Wagner & Moch, 1986). Hofstede (1980, 2013c) had profiled diverse national cultural inclinations that have consequences for work-related values including individualism and collectivism. An essential attribute of a collectivistic society is that individuals willingly subordinate their interests to the goals of their collective, or in-group, those with whom a person works and identifies (Triandis et al., 1985). The term collectivism has been used interchangeably with cohesion and commitment, which is understandable, as they share some similarities such as the exploration of person and group relationship. Members of a collective culture have been known to be group-oriented and favourably disposed to be loyal members of a ‘family.' On the one hand, there are some other inherent variants of member behaviours that might affect the team cohesion either positively or negatively. Social loafing (the negative synergy which occurs when group performance is less than the sum of the individual efforts), according to Meyer, Schermuly and Kauffeld (2016), might hinder performance if there is little rapport within the team due to ethnic discord. On the contrary, stereotyping and trust may help to define a clear picture of how members of varied ethnicities might view their team mates and consequently, how willing they are to enforce or distort team cohesion.

2.6.8 Organisational commitment.

To understand organisational commitment, it is essential to understand the concept of organisational identity (Gioia, Schultz and Corley, 2000). Organisational identity is unlike organisational identification (commitment) because it does not require a history of interaction (He & Brown, 2013). Therefore, one has to identify with an organisation before commitment can occur. Identification is a dominant human tendency to tie one's identity to larger entities. Organisational identification reflects work satisfaction and commitment to the organisation; and consists of at least five potential benefits: enhanced self-concept, allowance to transcend one’s self, the provision of a meaningful life purposes, a sense of belonging that blurs the lines between person and entity, and enhanced aspirations that provide the impetus for one to maximise his potential. Agu (2015) suggested that when a person's self-concept and the perceived organisational climate are strong and similar, that person becomes more engaged and committed because the cognitive and emotive connection provides for self-expression and goal-oriented behaviour. Therefore, commitment is the behavioural measure of organisational identification (He & Brown, 2013), consisting of consideration for the robust psychological attribute of an individual's connection to the organisation or the comparative force of an individual's recognition with the organisation and (Maranto & Skelly, 2003). As argued by Agu (2015), identification is the human tendency to associate with a larger entity, which may be an organisation, movement, or group, because of a symbiotic relationship. Further, Maranto and Skelly, (2003) have delineated organisational obligation as comprising of three components: goal identification and organisational values, a desire to affiliate with the organisation, and a willingness to display effort on behalf of the organisation. Similarly, He and Brown (2013) defined organisational identification in three dimensions:

(1) A competent wish to stay with the particular organisation in the long run.

(2) An inclination to exert a higher degree of effort for the benefit of the organisation;

(3) A defined belief in and acceptability of the values and goals of the organisation

On the other hand, Meyer and Allen (1991) proposed a three-component model to describe the types of commitment due to the multi-dimensional nature of organisational commitment:

(1) Affective Commitment: Psychological attachment to the organisation.

(2) Continuance Commitment: Leaving an organisation at some cost

(3) Normative Commitment: Apparent compulsion to remain with the organisation.

In conclusion, commitment and its associated factors have the potential to influence organisational effectiveness and employees' well-being. Consequently, it could be argued that effective diversity management is anchored on the contexts of the employees, organisation, work community (teams/groups), management, and organisational culture. Arguably, when these are in accord, favourable organisational outcomes may be in sight.

2.7 Creativity

Broadly, creativity is conceptualised as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. According to Naiman (2014), creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the world in a new way to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Creativity involves idea generation, evaluation, and implementation. There is also a tendency to differentiate between creativity and innovation, where innovation is the implementation part of creativity (Anderson, Potočnik, & Zhou, 2012) Creativity (used synonymously with innovation) is likened to thinking ‘outside the box’, a higher level of reasoning, and the degree to which people may produce an extensive variety of opinions or reactions to a specific situation (Baer, 1993). According to Isaksen and Akkermans (2011), one can have creativity without innovation, but one cannot have innovation without creativity; as creativity must involve value addition and creation. For business organisations, Schumpeter (1934) makes it clear that creativity must not always be a revolutionary paradigm to encompass improvements of ‘old methods'. This study does not make a distinction between invention and innovation, as both are components of creativity and geared toward organisational effectiveness. Nevertheless, the researcher concurs with Burbiel's (2009) view that greater emphasis should be placed on effective management to ensure (i) motivation, (ii) interaction within work groups and between group leaders and members, and (iii) organisational culture and environment to achieve desirable work outcomes. Additionally, new knowledge creation is an essential aspect of a team's creative process (Ilgen, 1999). This process requires decent subjective variety and may be hinged on the degree to which each group differs according to a contrast in beliefs, learning style, and knowledge capacities, including convictions, inclinations, and viewpoints (Anderson et al., 2012). Anderson et al. (2012) argued that not all ideas are innovative. The litmus test for innovativeness is the degree to which an idea, a thought, or question varies from traditional practice as well as its environment fit. The key advantage of creativity in a team-based workplace commonly implies that these teams are not only composed of multiple members, but that each individual member contributes different types of information, experiences, and perspectives, which, if properly harnessed and integrated, can bring about synergy. One of the challenges that needs further investigation, is the underlying question of which factors and processes promote creativity in teams and allow team members to optimally use their information resources and diversity factors to achieve high levels of collective creativity; these factors may include employee autonomy, effective communication, and management support.

2.8 Theoretical Framework of Analysis

The theoretical framework for this research is based on a model presented by Peeters and Oerlemans (2009), appropriately referred to as Oerlemans's model. The model details ethnic diversity in a profound conceptual manner; and encapsulates the creative, innovative, and applicable paradigms of ethnic diversities for different working groups. According to Haney-Brown (2017), Oerlemans's model is beneficial because it presents integration in the workplace with positivity. Furthermore, the model also provides prominence to employees of ethnic minority groups. Based on this conceptualisation of ethnic diversity, three theoretical approaches are distinguished to predict consequences of ethnic diversity on work outcomes in organisations. The first is the cultural approach propounded by Berry (1997), Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder (2006), and Bourhis et al. (1997), which postulates that ethnic diversity results in different experiences for acculturation, orientation, and culture, and as such may influence work outcomes, such as ethnic inter-group relations and employee well-being. Second, the social-psychological approach, (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) proposes that ethnic diversity, through psychological processes of social categorisation and similarity-attraction, relates to detrimental inter-group relations in ethnically diverse teams. The third approach conveys that certain organisational culture or shared beliefs about ethnic diversity among employees are likely to control the relationship between ethnic diversity and work-outcomes for organisations (Ely & Thomas, 2001; Harquail & Cox, 1993).

2.9 The Cultural Approach

Culture is one of the prisms through which ethnic diversity can be perceived. Typically, culture is a human way of adapting to, and being shaped by circumstances, and transmission of values and lifestyle etiquettes to subsequent generations. Culture is not a single, monolithic, and unmovable entity; but rather a paradigm that resides in a myriad of artefacts and practices. Some aspects of culture, like language and fashion, are more noticeable than others, whereas some concepts manifest themselves in attitudes and gestures that – by being repeated, mainly unconsciously, each day – enables others to understand a sense of the values and beliefs of the members of a particular culture, their position in the world is, and how connected (or disconnected) each cultural group is relative to other cultural groups. In literature, there is a diverse definition of culture. For example, Beyer (1991) characterises culture as a rationale that connects behaviour to outcomes. As a social construct, culture is part of belonging to any given group, either in the community or an organisation setting as well as the outside world. Thus, "the major strength of cultural perspective as a whole is its recognition that: (a) culture plays an important role in shaping work-related values, attitudes, and behaviours of individual members of various societies; (b) cultural values and attitudes vary in degree from one society to another, and (c) different cultural groups behave differently because of the differences in their underlying values and attitudes (Tayeb, 1988, p.177). Cox (1993), states that cultural groups share certain norms, values, goal priorities, and have a similar sociocultural heritage. More recently, Spencer-Oatey (2012) emphasised that culture includes a particular communication style, specific rules, dress codes, a shared meaning, and a particular language. According to this view, it is not out of place to argue that people with homogeneous ethnicity share, at least to some extent, common cultures (Turner & West, 2013). In this regard, the increase in ethnic diversity within an organisation, injects cultural dissimilarities across ethnic groups of employees, which could influence work outcomes. Oerlermans and Peeters (2009) argue that the deep-level factor of cultural value may influence work outcomes, ethnic intergroup relations, and employee well-being. These differences, which include disparities in personality, attitudes, beliefs, values, and lifestyle, have shown that gains from diversity will arise if complementarities between groups and opportunities for learning are present.

2.9.1 Acculturation and assimilation.

The potential behaviour of immigrants can used to explain the model of acculturation as this model posits that immigrant groups may engage in any of the four acculturation strategies that are established on two dimensions, namely culture adaptation and culture maintenance. The mixture of these two dimensions yields four acculturation strategies: assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalisation. Assimilation is used to describe a complete adaptation of immigrants into the dominant culture in a society of settlement, without retaining one's own native culture. Integration alludes to adaptation to the dominant culture as well as maintaining one's own native culture (Berry et al., 2006). Separation is a phrase used to describe immigrants who maintain their own native culture, without adapting to the dominant culture. Finally, marginalisation is what occurs when immigrants do not maintain or adapt to any culture. Existing evidence shows that variations in acculturation orientations are significantly related to immigrants' psychological well-being. For example, it appears that the integration orientation leads to superior well-being, when in fact, marginalisation seems to be the least fruitful acculturation orientation across different acculturating groups (Berry et al., 2006; Phinney et al., 2001). Similarly, acculturation has been applied to the multi-cultural workplace as a valuable instrument for predicting work-related well-being among ethnic minority employees (Fitzsimmons, 2013). Furthermore, Bourhis et al. (1997) propose that the quality of inter-group correlation between ethnic groups depends on the degree of agreement in acculturation orientations between both groups. Building from the Interactive Acculturation Model (IAM) of Bourhis et al. (1997), conceptualises that accepted relative outcomes between members of immigrant and host community groups can be predicted when both groups share either integration or assimilation orientation; there is an emergence of problematic relational outcomes when the host community and the immigrant group experience both partial agreement and partial disagreement regarding their profile of acculturation orientations. As an example, the model prognosticates problematic inter-group associations to arise when immigrant groups prefer integration, whereas the host community group prefers immigrants to assimilate to the host society or vice versa. Lastly, conflictual inter-group association is anticipated when the host community group and the immigrant group experience full disagreement in acculturation orientations (e.g., assimilation versus segregation), or when either segregation or marginalisation (referred to as anomie and exclusion) are preferred by both groups. Bourhis et al. (1997) propose that the quality of inter-group relations includes verbal and non-verbal cross-cultural communications, inter-ethnic attitudes and stereotypes, inter-group tension, acculturative stress, and discrimination. The IAM model might be a useful tool to predict the quality of intergroup relations across ethnic majority and ethnic minority groups of employees in ethnically diverse organisations.

2.9.2 Cultural values.

It is important to point out that ethnically diverse groups differ systematically regarding the cultural values they adhere to. Hofstede (1983) and Hofstede (2011) distinguish among four cultural value domains:

Individualism-collectivism: The individualism-collectivism dimension, in particular, relates to the attitudes and behaviours that are likely to influence work outcomes. This dimension refers to whether one's identity is defined by personal choices and achievements or by the character of the collective group(s) to which one belongs. In general, people from collectivistic (mostly non-Western) cultures are considered as more willing to sacrifice personal needs and to support their social group than people from individualistic (mostly Western) countries. Thus, compared to people from individualistic cultures, people from collectivistic cultures may be more co-operative and more willing to perform duties in order to achieve group goals (Ahlawat, 2017).

Power distance: The amount of respect and deference between those in superior and subordinate positions;

Uncertainty avoidance: A focus on planning and the creation of stability as a way of dealing with life's uncertainties; and

Masculinity-Femininity: The relative emphasis on achievement or on interpersonal harmony – a distinction that characterises gender differences in values across many national cultures.

Women are said to be more inclined to interpersonal harmony, relative to the more masculine emphasis on achievement. In the context of entrepreneurship, researchers suggest an entrepreneurial orientation outcome for an organisational culture, characterized by low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, masculine in nature, and individualistic (Hayton, George & Zahra, 2002; Kusumawardhani, 2013). Recently, due to an increasing rate of ethnic diversity in workplaces, Hofstede (2013c) introduced two additional cultural dimensions namely: Long-Term Orientation and Indulgence/Restraint – in an attempt to accommodate emerging cultures. Long-Term Orientation is based on Confucian dynamism and describes societies' time horizon. In countries with a high long-term orientation score, delivering according to social obligations and avoiding ‘loss of face' are considered very important. Employees imbued with this cultural orientation are likely to engage in a co-operative and obedient relationship. The Indulgence/Restraint dimension is related to gratification versus control of basic human desires. A society that scores high on indulgence enables somewhat free enjoyment of basic and natural human desires related to life and enjoyment. A high score for restraint indicates a society that controls gratification of needs and regulates it by utilising strict societal norms.

Characterising Nigeria on a scale of 100 as the highest value, Hofstede (2010) rated Nigeria as follows:

The implications of the ratings are explained below:

Indulgence. One challenge that confronts humanity, in the past and the present, is the degree to which small children are socialised. Without socialisation, we do not become human (Hofstede, 2013c). This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called "Indulgence", and relatively strong control is called "Restraint". Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained. With a very high score of 84, the Nigerian culture is considered to be one of Indulgence. People in societies classified by a high score in Indulgence generally exhibit a willingness to realise their impulses and desires concerning enjoying life and having fun. They possess a positive attitude and tend towards optimism. In addition, they place a higher degree of importance on leisure time, act as they please and spend money as they wish (Hofstede, 2009). As is standard, this categorisation is for a national culture. Other sub-cultures in Nigeria exhibit variants of this collective psyche (Onu, 2017).

Power distance. Nigeria scores high on this dimension with a score of 80 meaning people are generally accepting of a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and require no further rationale. Hierarchy in an organisation is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities and centralisation is popular; subordinates expect to be told what to do, and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat. This may have implications for employee autonomy, which has been indicated as necessary for employee creativity.

Masculinity, Nigeria scores 60 on this dimension and is thus considered a Masculine society. In Masculine countries, people live in order to work; managers are expected to be decisive and assertive; and societal emphasis is focused on equity, competition, and performance; and conflicts are resolved by aggressive fighting.

Uncertainty avoidance. Nigeria received a median score of 55 on this dimension, which does not show a clear preference.

Individualism. Nigeria scored 30 for individualism and is considered a collectivistic society. This collectivism is demonstrated by a close long-term commitment to the member’s 'group', such as immediate family or extended family relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is important and overrides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of his or her group. In collectivist societies, offence leads to shame and the opportunity for us to perceive the offender from a negative perspective. Employer-employee relationships are perceived in moral terms, like a family connection), hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee's in-group, and management involves the management of groups. Due to the level of fraud and criminality in Nigeria's organisations, it is doubtful if this rating is still valid (Ogbo, Kifordu, & Ukpere, 2014).

Long-term orientation. Nigeria scores very low (13) on this dimension, meaning that its culture is normative instead of pragmatic. People in such societies are deeply concerned with establishing the absolute truth; they are normative in their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.

Although organisational cultures differ across companies, it is conceivable that many organisational cultures may some similarities with the national culture of a particular society. Therefore, immigrant employees who are raised in a culture that is distinctly different to an organisational culture, may have more difficulty adapting to the culture than native employees who share a cultural background that is more similar to the organisational culture. Differences in language use, intonations, communication styles, and non-verbal aspects across cultures may also complicate inter-cultural contact between ethnically diverse employees (Maznevski, 1994).

2.10 The Social-Psychological Approach

In addition to the arguments presented by Oerlermans and Peeters (2009), the theoretical exploration of diversity in the workplace draws on the theories of social comparison (Festinger, 1954), social identity (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), intergroup contact (Allport et al, 1954; Pettigrew, 1998), mental models (Senge, 1990), and the cultural mosaic which is comprised of chaos, systems, and network theories (Chao & Moon, 2005).

2.10.1 Social identity theory.

Social identity has been cited as one of the most relevant constructs when understanding inter-group relations (Sohrabi, Gholipour, & Amiri, 2011). Social identity theory (Feitosa, Salas, & Salazar, 2012; Tajfel et al., 1971) posits that people derive self-esteem and a sense of belonging from identifying themselves with social groups and from favourably comparing the group to which they belong with other groups. Tajfe et al. (1971) demonstrated that people are eager to identify themselves with a social group (called in-group), even when group membership is based on inconsequential criteria (such as the letter A or B). When people identify with a certain in-group (e.g., group A), they tend to favour this in-group over other out-groups to which they do not belong (e.g., group B). These initial findings of Tajfel et al. (1971) are confirmed in other studies (Tanghe, Wisse, & van der Flier, 2010). Social identity theory also suggests that being a member of a particular group occurs through categorisation and affective components associated with group membership (Tajfel, 1978). Social identification in a group provides individuals with a certain level of comfort that can lead to positive outcomes when interacting with fellow group members; for instance, agreement and information sharing. It is observed that people are likely to identify with their ethnic group because it provides them with a sense of belonging. Ethnicity connects individuals to a group of closely related people who share a common culture (Spencer-Oatey, 2012). Additionally, as previously discussed, people will favour their own ethnic in-group over other ethnic out-groups.

2.10.2 Social categorisation theory.

Social categorisation theory (Turner, Hogg, & Oakes, 1987) further builds on the assumptions made in social identity theory, by suggesting that the degree to which individuals identify with a social group depends on the specific context (Turner et al., 1987). Social categorisation emphasises that individuals only identify with their in-group when differences between members of the in-group are smaller than the differences between the in-group and other out-groups. Importantly, identification with a social group leads to behaviour that is different to that originating from one's identity, as it is oriented towards the interests of the group as a whole. One situation in which individuals identify with their in-group is when differences in status between individuals of the in-group are smaller than the differences in status between the in-group and the out-groups, such as in the case of minority status. Indicators of status differences include power, socio-economic position, judicial status, a numerical majority, and dominant culture. It is often the case that immigrant groups have a lower status measured by such factors as numerical minority, minority culture, lower functional levels, and higher unemployment rate compared to the national group of a country. Tajfel and Turner (2004) predict that high-status groups may exaggerate the differences between themselves and low-status groups, which lead to polarisation. In addition, under such circumstances, low-status group members are expected to adapt to the values and norms of the high-status group.

2.10.3 Similarity and attraction paradigm.

Aside from the social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978) and social categorisation perspective (Turner, 1982), the similarity and attraction paradigm (Byrne, 1971) is also built on the rationale that individuals are more attracted to similar others, which consequently leads to more positive feelings towards in-group members. People feel more attracted, communicate more, integrate more, and more favourably evaluate those who share their attributes due to the perceived predictability of outcomes (Brewer, 2002; Feitosa et al. 2012). A great variety of physical, social, or other attributes can be used as a basis for expecting similarity in attitudes, beliefs, or personality. In conclusion, social identity theory and social categorisation theory, as well as the similarity-attraction paradigm, predict that ethnic diversity may hold negative consequences for organisations. Based on these three theories, ethnic diversity in work teams may lead to psychological processes such as in-group liking, in-group attraction, and in-group favouritism. Consequently, these psychological processes may affect the behaviour of individuals; for example, ethnically similar people may favour employees belonging to their own ethnic in-group over employees belonging to ethnic out-groups. In ethnically heterogeneous work units, this may lead to some adverse outcomes such as fewer co-operations, less communication, more conflict, and less cohesiveness. Additionally, differences in ethnic background between the individual and the team may not only affect team functioning but also have adverse personal outcomes. When an employee differs in ethnicity from the rest of a work unit, he or she may experience less organisational commitment, more turnover intention, and less job satisfaction than employees of ethnically similar teams. However, other positive oriented perspectives may exist, as ethnic solidarity could result in greater ownership buy-in, group cohesion, and organisational commitment.

2.10.4 Information and decision-making theory.

A perspective that predicts positive outcomes of diversity is known as the information and decision-making theory (Wittenbaum & Stasser, 1996). This theory avers that the quality of decision-making depends on the unique and useful information a person possesses, and the openness of the group to discuss these new insights. Unfortunately, individuals are more likely to base their decisions on shared information collectively held by other group members (Feitosa et al., 2012). In this way, unique information is withheld, which reduces the probability of group members engaging in innovative debates that create unique and high-quality ideas or solutions. Decision-making theorists argue that diversity can have positive effects on group performance because diversity increases variation regarding information, abilities, and skills (Fitzsimmons, 2013). Most organisational psychologists (Jackson, Joshi, & Erhardt, 2003; Fitzsimmons, 2013) posit that diversity in task-related characteristics leads to better team performance. Task-related characteristics refer to those characteristics of individuals that are necessary for performing a specific task, such as particular skills, abilities, experience, and competencies. Whether or not the information and the decision-making processes are of higher quality when work units are ethnically diverse, may thus depend on the task a team has to perform. For example, an ethnically diverse team of teachers may be better qualified to teach ethnically diverse students than an ethnically homogeneous team of teachers. In this instance, it is expected that ethnic diversity of a team of teachers would increase the information, knowledge, skills, and abilities that are available for performance enhancements. In other cases, ethnic diversity may not be such a relevant characteristic for performance outcomes, for instance in production units on an operational level, where a routine labour-intensive job is concerned. Oerlermans and Peeters (2009) posits that on a contextual level, a particular organisational culture or climate may impact the manner in which ethnic diversity relates to work-outcomes. For instance, Cox and Blake (1991) distinguish between three types of organisations: monolithic, plural, and multicultural. In Monolithic organisations, initiatives towards ethnic diversity are limited to the inclusion of ethnic minority employees. Research shows that this type of "affirmative action" has adverse side effects concerning less acceptance, more stress reactions, and lower self-esteem among the personnel recruited in this manner (Heilman, 1994; Heilman, Block, & Lucas, 1992; Heilman, Rivero, & Brett, 1991). Plural organisations are characterised by a more pro-active recruitment and promotion of ethnic minority employees. However, ethnic minorities are ultimately expected to assimilate to the dominant organisational culture. In multicultural organisations, differences are appreciated and used for organisational and personal gain alike. Cox and Blake (1991) argue that only the multicultural option leads to organisational benefits such as reduced turnover and absenteeism, recruiting the best personnel, more cultural insight, and sensitivity, while marketing products and services and increasing creativity and innovation. Similar to the multicultural option proposed by Cox and Blake (1991), Harquail and Cox (1993, p. 694) claim that ‘tolerance for ambiguity', ‘valuing cultural diversity' and ‘low-prescription culture' are essential aspects in an organisational culture that will lead to beneficial work-outcomes. When tolerance for ambiguity is high, organisations exert less pressure on employees to assimilate towards the organisational culture. Consequently, socio-cultural differences would be viewed as normal and potentially useful rather than dysfunctional. Furthermore, when cultural diversity is valued, it is more likely that cross-cultural exchange takes place between employees as compared to organisations that impose pressure on employees to conform to a single system of existing organisational norms and values (Cox & Blake, 1991). Additionally, a low prescription culture acknowledges a wide range of work-styles, as ideas that deviate from the norm are seriously discussed, and employees have considerable latitude to create their approaches towards their work. Similarly, Ely and Thomas (2001) have developed three diversity perspectives, upon which predictions can be made regarding how cultural diversity in workgroups relates to organisational benefits. The authors argue that the integration-and-learning perspective can help facilitate open discussions about different views and perspective held that are explicitly linked to cultural experiences of employees. It encourages employees to express themselves as members of their cultural identity groups, which enhances opportunities for cross-cultural learning and workgroup creativity. The second is the access and legitimacy perspective that is based on the recognition that the organisation's markets and constituencies are culturally diverse. The authors, however, warn that such a belief may lead to racial segregation along functional levels. As such, an access and legitimacy perspective on ethnic diversity is likely to increase inter-racial and inter-functional tensions and inhibit productive learning. The third is the discrimination-and-fairness perspective and is characterised by a belief in a culturally diverse workforce as a means to ensure justice and the fair treatment of all members of society. This viewpoint emphasises creating equality and equal opportunity for all employees. However, it does not focus on valuing ethnic diversity or cross-cultural learning. As such, organisations or workgroups that uphold such a perspective are not likely to benefit from ethnic diversity concerning higher creativity and performance. Instead, Ely and Thomas (2001) argue that a discrimination-and-fairness perspective leads to discussions about fairness that may strain inter-racial relations.

2.11 Cultural Mosaic Theory

Chao and Moon (2005) defined cultural mosaic theory as a way to measure how cultural factors influence work performances using the instrument of trust. Trust is a fundamental component of human relations (Ullah, 2012). In turbulent and indeterminate circumstances, trust fills in as an instrument that empowers hierarchical individuals to undertake more elevated amounts of hazard and build their ability to collaborate on a dyadic gathering and authoritative level. In any case, the advancement of trust can be fundamentally impeded or even hindered in new social settings, and between parties that originate from various social foundations. In essence, it takes time to build trust. The cultural mosaic perspective helps to vitalise the customs of the country and produce a vibrant effect on society. Trust, fundamentally, operates on the premise of looking before you leap. It is a process, not an event, which begins and progresses incrementally, or otherwise, as relationships are established, and as experiences are gained. Trust is built over time, contingent upon previous experiences of a relationship as mutually beneficial. The suggested four ingredients of trust include: shared values, integrity (honesty and consistency), mutuality (working as a team), and commitment (loyalty) (Ullah, 2012). On the other hand, trust is diminished if previous relational experiences bring regret and disappointments (Chao and Moon, 2005). When established, trust tends to motivate both the trustor and the trustee to reach agreements for the sake of each other and perhaps for the overall interest of the organisation.

2.12 Empirical Review of Analysis

Jackson, Joshi, and Erhardt (2003) distil four different types of outcome indicators that are often studied in diversity research. The outcomes are quantitative, behavioural, affective, and mediating indicators. Most studies have examined ethnic diversity in the context of team performance (Hoogendoorn & van Praag, 2012; Patrick & Kumar, 2012). Such team performance indices include evaluations of team tasks and ratings of perceived team effectiveness. Their objective measures of team performance include sales revenue, customer satisfaction, and sales productivity. The second area of ethnic diversity research focused on examining behavioural outcomes, encompassing communications, the use of information, and conflict and co-operation in teams. Third, a few studies examined the association between diversity and its affective outcomes. Affective (emotive) outcomes include organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and identification with the job, team, or the organisation as a whole. Fourth, the relationship between ethnic diversity and performance could be mediated by behavioural or attitudinal processes.

2.13 Performance outcomes.

Some empirical studies reveal positive, negative, and mixed relationships between ethnic diversity and performance outcomes. Nevertheless, it has been stated that group diversity to performance relationship is circumstantial. Dwertmann, Nishii, and van Knippenberg (2016, p.1140) find that ‘over 30 years of research on the group diversity-to-performance relationship has demonstrated that the value in diversity tends to emerge only under select conditions. Wright et al. (2014, p. 61) found that ‘effective team collaboration depends on the diversity of team members and on how well they understand and communicate with one another and, crucially, on how the team is organised and led’. Urwin et al. (2013) found that studies testing the proposition that increased diversity in teams or groups lead to improved business outcomes, with a particular focus on problem-solving, are able to overcome some of the methodological limitations of research at the organisational level, as they have been carried out in situations where there is more control over environmental factors through experimental or quasi-experimental studies. On a positive note, Oerlemans and Peeters, (2009) showed that ethnically diverse groups produced ideas that were of higher quality compared to ethnically homogeneous groups. However, when Kochan et al. (2003) compared field studies on the relationship between ethnic diversity and performance outcomes, the results are more mixed. Kochan et al. (2003) tested the arguments regarding the “business case” for diversity and observed few positive or negative direct effects of diversity on performance. Relatively, different aspects of the organisational context and some group processes moderated diversity-performance relationships. This suggests a more nuanced view of the “business case” for diversity may be appropriate. Similarly, Ely (2004) reported no significant relationships between ethnic diversity and objective measures of performance such as sales revenue, customer satisfaction, and productivity. This is contrary to what van Dijk et al. (2012, p.39) describe as conventional wisdom, ‘demographic dimensions of diversity (for instance age, gender, ethnicity) are primarily linked to the negative performance effects of diversity; whereas job-related dimensions of diversity that encompasses such factors as functional background, tenure) are primarily linked to its positive performance effects'. ' In conclusion, Guillaume et al. (2013, p.130) finds that the conditions under which workgroup diversity at work have a positive effect on group processes, effectiveness and innovation as well as on individual and organisational outcomes are still unclear.

2.14 Behavioural outcomes.

Guillaume et al. (2013) and van Dijk et al. (2012) show that ethnic diversity is negatively associated with behavioural outcomes. Laurence and Bentley (2016) performed the first longitudinal test of the impact of diversity, applying fixed-effects modelling methods to three waves of panel data from the British Household Panel Survey, spanning 18 years. Using an indicator of affective attachment, the findings suggest that changes in community diversity do lead to changes in attitudes towards the community. Nevertheless, this effect differs if the change in diversity stems from a community increasing in diversity around individuals who do not move (stayers) or individuals moving into more or less diverse communities (movers). Increasing diversity undermines attitudes among stayers — individuals who move from a diverse to a homogeneous community report improved attitudes. However, there is little effect among individuals who move from a homogeneous to a diverse community. This article provides strong evidence that the effect of community diversity is probably causal, but that prior preferences at the individual level for or against out-group neighbours may condition diversity’s impact. Finally, in their qualitative study, Ely and Thomas (2001) demonstrate that the effects of ethnic diversity in organisations on workgroup functioning depend on the diverse perspectives that are held by its members. In particular, an integration-and-learning perspective enhanced work-group functioning through cross-cultural learning and exploration of diverse views on work-processes. In contrast, a discrimination-and-fairness perspective inhibited work-group functioning because of a lack of cross-cultural learning and the inability of ethnic minority employees to bring relevant skills and insights to bear on work-processes. The access-and-legitimacy perspective had an intermediate effect on work-group functioning. On the one hand, it enhanced work-group functioning through an increased representation of ethnic minority employees, but limited work-group functioning through a lack of cross-cultural learning as a consequence of racially segregated functions.

2.15 Affective Outcomes

Guillaume et al. (2013) found meta-analysis research, indicating that racial diversity possessed a negative effect for the minority in positions skewed towards the majority race, but a positive effect in more equally balanced occupations and work teams. ‘In a similar vein, Rohwerder (2017) shows that employees are more committed towards the team when working with ethnically similar colleagues as opposed to working in ethnically diverse teams. Similarly, Van der Zee, Atsma and Brodbeck (2004) show that cultural diversity in teams relates negatively to commitment, but only under the condition that work-group members identify strongly with their cultural background. Additionally, they reported a negative main effect of cultural diversity in work-groups on members' subjective well-being. Recently, studies conducted by Greenhaus et al. (1990) have investigated a possible mediating role of behavioural or affective processes on the relationship between ethnic diversity and performance. For instance, Watson et al. (1993) found a lagged effect of ethnic diversity in work groups on performance over time. This suggested that ethnically diverse work-groups might need more time to deal with behavioural or affective processes in teams, such as cultural differences, communication problems, or less cohesiveness. In a similar study, Watson et al. (2002) demonstrated that the leadership style in culturally diverse teams was more relation oriented, whilst in homogeneous teams, the leadership style was more task-oriented across time, which in the end led to ethnically diverse teams out-performing ethnically homogeneous teams. Thus, different leadership styles might benefit or hamper behavioural or attitudinal processes in ethnically diverse versus ethnically homogeneous teams, with implications for effective performance. Furthermore, Greenhaus et al. (1990) empirically showed that the relationship between ethnic diversity (white versus black managers) and performance evaluations was partly mediated by the fact that black managers perceived less job discretion and less acceptance from their supervisors compared to white managers. Supplemental studies have not found support for the assumed mediating effect of behavioural processes on performance outcomes. For instance, Pelled et al. (1999) failed to find a direct effect of ethnic diversity in teams on performance, and as such found no mediation effect of different types of conflicts. The relevance and potential relationship between ethnic diversity and performance in teams have motivated several studies, including this one. The plethora of studies examining the relationship between diversity and team performance that have been conducted over the past few decades have often produced mixed, contradictory results (Stahl et al., 2010). Hundreds of primary studies on work teams have been conducted, several meta-analyses performed, and numerous reviews of the literature published. Increases in communication costs reduce the gains achievable from skill diversity. Nevertheless, Hoogendoorn & Praag (2012) noted that the downside of laboratory studies is that their resemblance to real-world situations may be limited.

2.16 Chapter Summary

Diversity management recognises and values heterogeneity in organisations intending to improve organisational performance (Urwin et al., 2013). The context in which a firm operates and how diversity is managed is crucial to determine if diversity will bring about business benefits or not (Urwin et al., 2013). For effect, Eagly (2016) suggests that valuing diversity is only a first step toward establishing conditions under which positive outcomes for group performance can manifest. Eagly (2016) finds that positive effects of diversity appear to be dependent on group members developing a diversity mind-set, which encompasses knowledge regarding how diversity can have positive or negative effects on team processes and performances. Other studies suggest that diversity can only become an asset in an inclusive culture and climate, where workgroups create norms that foster personal ties and the exchange of ideas across identity groups, thereby removing negative interpersonal conflicts (Eagly, 2016; Dwertmann, Nishii, & van Knippenberg, 2016). In the absence of these conditions, majority group members often dominate discussions and fail to share their leadership and decision-making power, which can ‘weaken the potential contributions of diverse group members, who may, in turn, become discontent or discouraged and reduce their effort and cooperation’ (Eagly, 2016, p. 210). Due to the uniqueness of each company, a single strategy cannot be adopted to ensure the benefits of equality and diversity, although such approaches need to be individualized and embedded in business strategy and not treated as an ad-hoc addition (Urwin et al., 2013; Wright et al., 2014). As a result, organisations are continually moving from best practices to customised practices, in acknowledgement of the fact that diversity requirements are contingent upon a range of organisational idiosyncrasies.

CHAPTER THREE Methodology

3.1 Research Methodology and Strategy

Research methodology and research strategy can collectively be considered as both the systematic and the theoretical analysis of the significant methods that can be attached to the field of study, which include research philosophy, strategy/design, choice, population, sampling, time horizon, and techniques (Saunders et al. 2009). To visualise the process, Saunders et al. (2009) present the overall research methodology in the form of an ‘onion'. They imagine the thoughts and ideas regarding the research problem as lying in the centre of the onion, of which several layers need to be peeled away before the central position can be approached. These layers represent crucial aspects to be considered for selection of a study’s research methodology. For example, a suitable research strategy needs to be selected based on research questions and objectives, existing knowledge about the subject area to be researched, the amount of resources and time available, and the philosophical leanings of the researcher. Adopting a different approach, Yin (2003) recommends that a particular research strategy should be selected based on three factors: the research question, how much control the investigator can exert over actual behavioural events, and the intensity of focus on contemporary or historical events. Both Yin (2003b) and Saunders et al. (2009) acknowledge the fact that careful consideration is required to select the most appropriate method. As previously mentioned, the discussion in this chapter is limited to research methodology and its application to this particular doctoral research study (Blaikie, 2010). Several research strategies with particular characteristics already exist and were analysed by the researcher. Such resources provide insight about some of the common business and management strategies by analysing data collected from surveys, case studies, experiments, action research studies, ethnographies, archival research grounded theories, cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, and participative enquiries, (Collis and Hussey, 2009; Saunders et al., 2009).

3.2 Scope of the Study

This research study will examine the relationship between ethnic diversity and team performance in the context of Nigerian organisations. It covers three independent and dependent indicators, and is carried out in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Qualitative research design with interpretative paradigm is adopted. The research adopts two phases of one-on-one in-depth semi structured interviews. The semi-structured interview questions centres on the independent and dependent indicators with consideration to mediate the effects on behavioural and affective outcomes on team performance. The theoretical framework of analysis of the study involves three perspectives: cultural, socio-psychological, and organisational context.

3.3 Research Aim and Objectives

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between ethnic diversity and team performance in the context of Nigerian organisations.

The objectives include:

To critically review and evaluate related literature on ethnicity, diversity, and team performance and their interactions as identified in the statement of the problem.

To explore the relationship between employee cultural values and organizational commitment

To ascertain the relationship between employee group membership and group cohesion.

To enquire the extent organizational climate relates to employee creativity and innovativeness

To appraise the acquired data capturing ethnic diversity and organizational team performance then make recommendation on the same within Nigeria context

Additionally, this research seeks to address the following specific research questions:

Do employee cultural values relate to their organisational commitment?

Can employee cultural group membership affect group cohesion?

To what extent does organisational culture relate to employee creativity and innovativeness?

3.4 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy entails ideas about how to gather and analyse data regarding specific phenomenon (Saunders, et al., 2009; Yin, 2013). This philosophical awareness guides researchers through the challenges to select relevant strategies required to conduct research. There are several major questions for researchers to consider, such as how to conduct the research, indicators to examine, and more importantly, why the study is important (Wedawatta, Ingirige, & Amaratunga, 2011). The answers to those questions may influence the methods employed for gathering, analysing, interpreting, and describing the research data (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). Developing a philosophical perspective requires the researcher to make several core assumptions about the nature of society and science (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). Each research paradigm involves certain assumptions, strategies, and methods. The quality, generalizability, and limitation are evaluated according to a unique set of criteria. A researcher is expected to carefully select the working paradigm, understand the nature of the paradigm and study, and document considerations and decisions (De Vos, et al., 2011).

3.4.1 Ontological stance.

Ontological and epistemological stances describe how the philosophical position of a researcher dictates the nature of reality, and how knowledge is analysed and gathered based on this position. Ontology and epistemology reflect our perceptions, beliefs, assumptions and the nature of reality and truth, and therefore further underpin the chosen methodology (Saunders et al., 2009). These stances are part of a series of choices that the researcher considers and demonstrates the logical pathways that connect this perspective with the original research problem (Blaikie, 2000). Similarly, Bryman (2001) explains that ontology involves the nature of social entities and ways in which these relate to significant positions, ranging from interpretivism (social constructionism) to positivism. Positivism is based on an objective and neutral belief in universal laws and insistence, while social phenomena are independent or separate from the actors within them (Smith and Eatough, 2006). In contrast, social constructionism is viewed as an alternative ontological position, whereby social phenomena and their meanings are continually being changed and revised through social interactions (Perren and Ram, 2004). This study concurs with the constructionist, interpretive stance on culture; that culture is a shared collection of customs and values to which people are expected to conform (Bryman, 2001).

3.4.2 Epistemological stance.

The epistemological stance reflects what we can know about the world and how we can know it. In other words, epistemology focuses on what constitutes acceptable knowledge as well as the relationships between the researcher and the subject of research (Crowther and Lancaster, 2005). As the present research is focused on the study of inter-cultural relationships based on perceived reality, an interpretivist epistemology will be adopted (Campbell, 2011). Interpretivism is based on a life-world ontology that holds that all observation is both theory and value-laden; and investigation of the social world is not, and cannot be, the pursuit of a detached, objective truth (Leitch, Hill, & Neergaard, 2010). The interpretive component acknowledges the reality of subjectivity and relativism that may be in existence in the researcher, but more especially in the participants, when social concepts such as ethnicity and team performance are analysed (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Notably, the interpretivist viewpoint is that our knowledge of reality is a social construction shaped by human actors (Blaikie 1993). The ontological assumptions of social constructionism and interpretivism are that multiple people, all of whom interpret events differently, see social reality under different lenses, resulting in multiple perspectives of an incident.

3.5 Research Design

As displayed in Figure 5, the research design is a “blueprint” for how the hypothesis will be investigated by controlling for confounding indicators (Burns & Grove, 2003, p.195; Polit et al. 2001). The research design implies or relies on the selected research paradigm and guides the research strategy, research methods, and sampling techniques (Creswell, 2009). In this study, the data was generated from two main qualitative phases: Phase 1, an in-depth, qualitative, semi-structured interview; and Phase 2, a qualitative interview that further explored the themes addressed in Phase 1, such as the relationship between ethnic diversity and communication, leadership, creativity, and the overall team relationship. As a qualitative research strategy was adopted for this research project, semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection according to the following conceptual framework to address the research questions and to achieve the respective aim.

3.6 Qualitative Approach

Qualitative approaches involve the detailed exploration and analysis of a particular topic (Griffiths, 2009), while quantitative approaches are concerned with measures, indicators, and correlations. Qualitative methodologies include open, exploratory questions in contrast to closed-ended hypotheses, unlimited and emergent descriptions rather than pre-determined choices or rating scales (Elliot & Timulak, 2005). As a result, qualitative approaches are particularly useful when the topic of research is complex, novel, or under-researched, as the open-ended questions facilitate the possibility of discovering unexpected and unprecedented findings, rather than confirming and predicting the expected outcome of the hypothesis (Griffiths, 2009).

3.7 Rationale for Selecting Research Approach

At the beginning of this project, the objective was to conduct mixed method research. Mixed method is a term increasingly used in social science to describe the class of research where the researcher combines qualitative and quantitative research techniques, approaches, concepts, or language into a single fluid study (Jonson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). As displayed in Figure 5, the intention is to combine the exploratory power of qualitative research and its ability to help create a contextual framework, with the structured and analytical power of a quantitative study. However, through the one-on-one in-depth interviews, the researcher found that the use of mixed method might be unsuitable for this type of study. Firstly, the concept of mixed method was not compatible with the research study philosophy (interpretivist paradigm), with which the researcher sought to obtain unstructured information from culturally diverse people based on their perceptions of life contingent in their work environment. Stam (2006) argues that should quantification be incorporated in the interpretive tradition of qualitative research, researchers would risk adopting certain biases of post-positivism as the interpretive tradition has no clear approach to statistical measurement. Bhattacherjee (2012) further emphasizes this argument and believes that employing an interpretive paradigm in qualitative research is the more productive way to study social order. By interviewing other participants and reconciling differences among their responses using their subjective perspectives, the researcher can obtain a subjective interpretation about the participant’s behaviours and motivations. Within the interpretive paradigm, human beings construct meanings in unique ways that are dependent on context, experiences, and the frames of reference of the world they are striving to interpret (Crotty, 1998). As a result, researchers are in a unique position to interpret, put into context, and create meaning of experiences shared by participants (Cohen, Ledford, & Spreitzer, 1996). On the contrary, the domain of positivism that statistically “forces” a fit between the individual and their behavioural outcomes misses the contextual uniqueness of the experiences shared by respondents. It is thus supported that unstructured answers from participants were the suitable form of data for this particular research. Van Esch and Van Esch (2013) also convey a compelling argument that social science research involves cognitive and subjective contexts that barely lend themselves to concrete and physical measures. The values held by the researcher, the questions asked of the participants and the generated and interpreted findings, enable a value-bound research study (Van Esch & Van Esch, 2013). To that extent, the interpretivist paradigm best fits this current social research as communication and interpretation are considered cognitive and interactive processes that can be tacit and subconscious, whilst occurring within a specific context (Van Esch & Van Esch, 2013). Therefore, if reduced to quantitative measures, such processes would not be capable of maintaining their embedded and essential features. Lastly, qualitative research is grounded on aims to produce holistic understandings of rich, contextual, generally unstructured, non-numerical data as the researcher engages in conversations with the research participants in a natural setting (Mason, 2010; Creswell, 2009). Taking into consideration the evidence-based arguments described, the novelty of the current research topic, and the complexity of the topic under investigation, the researcher proceeded with a qualitative-only methodology. It is noteworthy that in qualitative-only research, hypotheses are not tested (Sprague, 2012). Instead, thematic analysis was selected to examine the qualitative research findings.

3.8 Thematic Analysis Methodology

Thematic analysis is a type of qualitative research method that can be adopted against a wide range of epistemologies and research questions; and provides a protocol for identifying, examining, compiling, describing, and reporting themes found within a data set (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Braun and Clarke, (2006), King (2004) and Novell et al. (2017) have claimed that thematic analysis should be regarded as a method in its own right. In contrary, Holloway and Todres, (2003) and Ryan and Bernard, (2000) have declared that as thematic analysis is a component of many qualitative methods, it is more so a tool used to assist researchers in analysis. Despite the conflicting perspectives, many researchers have found that a rigorous thematic analysis can produce trustworthy and insightful findings (Novell, et al., 2017; Braun and Clarke, 2006). The data analysis process in qualitative research involves working with data, organising, breaking down, synthesising, searching for patterns, discovering what is important and what is to be learned, and deciding what others will be told (Bogdan and Biklen, 1982). Qualitative studies tend to produce large, often unstructured amounts of data, therefore resulting in challenging analysis (Turner, 1983). This complexity of the data offers the researcher the opportunity to develop an idiographic understanding of participants - and what it means to them, within their social reality, to live with a particular condition or involvement with a particular situation (Bryman, 1988). The following research methods were considered and compared to select the optimum research method for the present study. First, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was reviewed, which rests on the theory that the meanings an individual ascribes to events are of central concern but are only accessible through an interpretative process (Biggerstaff and Thomson, 2008). IPA seeks patterns in the data, but is theoretically bounded, and is wedded to a phenomenological epistemology (Smith et al., 1999; Smith & Osborn, 2003), which provides experience primacy (Holloway & Todres, 2003) and is about understanding people’s everyday experience of reality in great detail, to gain an understanding of the phenomenon in question (McLeod, 2001). However, IPA was not utilised in this study due to its relatively small sample size and other possible issues, which may affect generalisability and validity. Moreover, Biggerstaff and Thomson (2008) warn of the limits in usefulness of descriptive information as a source of data that can stand on its own. Second, grounded theory was considered, which interrogates real-world realities and analyses the data despite no preconceived hypothesis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) until it is generated during data collection (Strauss & Corbin 1994). It too was ruled out: Hodkinson (2008) posits that the lack of explicit hypotheses from the start ignores the fact that all researchers bring values and subjectivities to their research, which cannot be eliminated. This study concurs with this argument, as it also does with Thomas & James’ (2006) critique that on a practical level, some aspects of grounded theory are difficult to follow as prescribed, and that the superimposition of method and ultimate production of theory implies a dismissal of the direct validity and import of people's accounts. After evaluation, the researcher selected thematic analysis as the appropriate conceptual framework to. The researcher intended to build upon the theoretical positions of Braun and Clarke (2006), who consider thematic analysis as a method used for “identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within the data” (Braun and Clarke 2006: 77). Braunand Clarke (2006) considered thematic analysis as a powerful mechanism to provide insightful analysis to address particular research questions. Compared to other theoretical frameworks that seek to describe patterns across qualitative data, such as thematic discourse analysis, thematic decomposition analysis, IPA, and grounded theory, thematic analysis is agnostic towards any pre-existing theoretical framework, so it can be used within different theoretical frameworks (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Moreover, thematic analysis avoids classic pitfalls of other frameworks, For example, other theoretical frameworks and their associated methods may lead to disregard or misinterpretations of the meanings of imposed interpretations of unintended expressions unaware to participants. Such an approach complemented the research by facilitating an investigation of interview data based on inductively coding; and verifying if the data were consistent with the research questions and provided sufficient information for the conclusion of the study.

3.9 Criteria of Quality

The criteria for assessing qualitative research are well established in the literature. Silverman (1993) notes the “need to reject the assumption that, in qualitative research, anything goes.” (Silverman, 1993, p.158) To establish rigour in qualitative research, the key is “trustworthiness” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 73). This includes credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability, which addresses concerns relating to truth, internal validity, applicability, external validity, consistency, and so on. Trustworthiness must cover the research design, data gathering, data analysis, accuracy, and adequacy of the inquiry (Holloway & Wheeler, 2002). The criteria for trustworthiness in qualitative research are closely tied to the paradigmatic underpinnings of the particular discipline in which an investigation is conducted. Moreover, Wallendorf & Belk (1989) introduced a fifth construct: integrity concerns. In qualitative research, whether the questionnaire is unstructured or semi-structured, instruments are not usually tested for reliability and validity - as is the case in quantitative structured questionnaires (Whitehead, 2014). One of the reasons for this is that each study's qualitative questionnaires are often 'unique' to a particular study, and not designed to be generalizable to other studies. Therefore, the use of standardized questionnaires for two different qualitative studies may not be advisable (McLeod, 2001). Instead of imitating tests for validity and reliability applicable to quantitative studies, qualitative studies rather seek to address trustworthiness (Guba, 1981). Consequently, qualitative research uses Lincoln and Guba's (1985) Evaluative Criteria. They put forward that the reliability of a study is crucial to evaluating its worth. Reliability involves defining:

Credibility - confidence in the 'truth' and validity of the findings

Transferability/ Applicability - showing that the findings are relevant in other situations

Dependability - showing that the findings are consistent and could be repeated

Confirmability - the respondents and not researcher’s bias, motivation, or interest moulds a degree of neutrality, namely the scope of the findings.

In conformity with the evaluative criteria, qualitative researchers may certainly employ pilot studies or member-checking procedures to seek an objective opinion as to how questions could be made easier to understand, how to avoid bias or leading questions and/or avoid any potential ambiguity. This is more related to the study's overall 'trustworthiness' though - and not its validity of reliability. Similar to the idea of reliability, dependability refers to whether the results of the study are consistent over time and across researchers (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Miles and Huberman, 1994). As will be conveyed, this research also met Morse and Richard's (2002) generic criteria of instrument trustworthiness by asking the right questions, ensuring an appropriate design, creating trustworthy data, verifying completeness, and building solid theories. The interview questions were products of reviewing related literature and empirical works (Polit & Hungler, 2004).

3.10 Area and Population of Investigation

This study examined employees of multi-national alcoholic beverages manufacturing and distributing company in Lagos, Nigeria. The study’s population is the diverse team of 1,500 employees who work for this Nigerian branch of a global leader in alcohol.

3.11 Sampling and Selection of Participants

After the University Research Ethics Committee granted in February of 2012, the researcher utilized a purposive sampling method to select participants for this study. Purposeful sampling is a technique widely used in qualitative research for the identification and selection of information-rich cases for the most effective use of limited resources (Palinkas, et al.2015). This sampling method involves identifying and selecting individuals or groups of individuals with experience working in a diverse team that are especially knowledgeable about or experienced in a phenomenon of interest (Cresswell & Plano Clark, 2011; Lee, Hart, Watson, & Rapley, 2014). These assumptions were founded, as the research established a good ethnic diversity mix concerning experienced participants at the chosen research location (Guest, Namey, & McKenna, 2016). The researcher contacted the Nigerian branch of a global alcohol leader in Lagos. Upon receiving approval of the project by the company’s management, the researcher sent out invitation letters to the employees. The participant information sheet was used to introduce the research, discuss its objectives and its benefit to participants and society. Solicitation to participate was on a voluntary basis and confidentiality of information was assured. In a cross-cultural study, Hagaman and Wutich (2016) calculated that 16 or fewer interviews was sufficient to establish common themes from populations with relatively homogeneous groups. As a result, 26 participants, 15 participants for each phase of the project, with 4 who participated in both phases, were selected. The urban setting of Lagos enabled the research to recruit 26 participants from diverse ethnic origins who had experience working with team members from similar and different ethnic backgrounds. Participants were selected if they had at least two years of experience with the company to factor for job experience. There was no age restriction in this study; however, data on participants’ ages were collected for generational context and for future research purposes. The researcher also selected participants who could communicate fluently in the English language who would be able to effectively express and share their experiences in English.

3.12 Data Collection Method

The researcher conducted extensive empirical research examination and literature review to guide the broad themes of the study. Topics and key terms of the research included: ethnicity, ethnic diversity management, organisational culture and climate, group dynamics in organisations, and the relationship between ethnic diversity and organisational effectiveness. Utilizing the themes obtained from the literature review, the researcher hosted two phases of interview sessions. First, between July-August 2012, the researcher hosted one-hour, semi-structured, one-on-one in-depth interviews with the participants. The researcher interviewed participants during their off-work time slots; some interviews did continue into working time. The researcher found interviews to be particularly useful for this phase of research to obtain the story behind participant experiences. The interviews also provided the researcher with opportunities to further explore themes identified during the interview process, as well as elements that required further explanation, for instance, meaning of a good team and consideration of team performance. Using the general themes collected in the first round of interviews about ethnicity and work outcomes, the interviewer conducted a set of 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews with more specific themes. Four participants participated in both rounds, while an additional 11 participants were recruited for the during February-May 2018 phase. The second set of interviews, consisting of about 18 questions, enabled the interviewer to reconfirm and further explorer themes identified during the first interview round, and develop additional themes consistent with the research questions. The interviews were recorded on a cassette recorder, in addition to notes taken during the interview. The notes were created to enable further exploration of significant or important statements made during the interview. Following the interviews, the data was electronically recorded and was subsequently transcribed, and thematically analysed.

3.13 Interview Instrumental Interface

Marshall and Rossman (1999) suggest that in-depth interviews allow the participants to interact with the respondents to enable greater flexibility, range and therefore the capacity to elicit further information from the participant. Kumar (2005) views interviews as the most suitable approach for studying complex and sensitive areas as the interviewer has the opportunity to prepare a participant before asking sensitive questions and facilitates the opportunity to explain complex questions in person. Mason (2002) describes that some nuances are highlighted in qualitative interviews that may otherwise have been ignored and maintains that through such nuances we can explore, "the texture and weave of everyday life; the understandings, experiences, and imaginings of research participants; how social processes, institutions, discourses or relationships work and the significance of the meanings that they generate" (pg. 1). This scholarly evidence supported the decision for the study to be conducted through interviews. The interviews provided a platform to collect individual perspectives and opinions regarding the indicators of team diversity that encompass performance, interaction, values, and beliefs (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). Ethnic diversity, the independent indicator, was decomposed into culture, religion, employees' culture, team/group interaction, and organisational culture. On the other hand, organisational performance, the dependent indicator, was decomposed into team cohesion, creativity/innovativeness, communication, leadership, skill sharing, and organisational commitment.

3.14 The In-Depth Interviews

As displayed in Table 6, the in-depth interviews focused on 15 broad themes: five components of performance outcomes and ten components of ethnic diversity. Different research questions were created to target the different themes, but an overlap and interface may be found between and among the themes. For example, team creativity achieved through team cohesion achieves the same purpose as creativity arising from organisational culture that encourages employee autonomy. Also, while all of the research questions are addressed, it would appear as though ethnic diversity and team relationship received more questions to address organisational commitment and team cohesion, relative to organisational culture and creativity. The approach as mentioned was to provide a higher-level discussion before moving into the more delicate aspects of the discussion that examine the macro-level of different areas within the workplace and ethnic diversity. As displayed in Figure 6, Table 6, and the Appendix Tables, these interviews explored the participants’ experiences regarding the interrelation of these two factors, and the identification and exploration of potential relationships of ethnic diversity and team performance related to individual experiences within the Nigerian context. The questions centred on ethnic diversity, in conjunction with team cohesion, creativity, innovativeness, and organisational commitment. Examining Table 6 with greater attention, it provides a crosswalk between each of the two main themes and their related subthemes (listed in column 1): 1) components of performance outcomes; and 2) components of ethnic diversity. Then in column two, the targeted research questions are identified at the team factor level that improves or facilities performance outcomes and ethnic diversity. In sum, Table 6 provides a preview of the Chapter 4 findings and Chapter 6 discussion.

3.15 Research Participants

The respondents were questioned about their preferences, age group, gender, and ethnicity. As displayed in Table 7, there were seven females and eight males from across eight ethnic groups. The three dominant ethnic groups-Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba had a disproportionate number of participants of 3, 3, and four respectively; while the other minor ethnic groups had one each. In essence, this highlights the ethnic diversity of the participants in this study, hence establishing legitimacy to the collective findings and inferences derived from the data gathered. This is sufficiently representative. Pseudonyms were used for their names to maintain confidentiality, while their ages varied among youths and adults.

3.16 Exploratory Interviews

For contrast, as displayed in Table 8 and the Appendix Tables, the exploratory interviews centred on the themes of ethnic diversity and performance outcomes. For example, the non-identifying demographic and ethnocentric questions examined the relationship between ethnic diversity and communication, leadership, and overall team relationship.

3.17 Transcribing for Thematic Analysis

Thematic analysis involves uncovering and understanding the experiences of participants. By using data to describe the meaning and significance of the phenomenon. Bailey (2008) supported by Gibbs (2018) illustrated that in analysing qualitative findings, the research must transcribe the collected video or audio data into written form. Notably, transcribing further entails judging the data and information to gather what to include and what to omit, and distinguishing some sentences and phrases, such as ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I don’t, no’. The researcher adopted the framework outlined in Table 9 in order to adhere to the phases of thematic analysis for establishment of trustworthiness.

3.17.1 Phase 1: Familiarization with the data.

As discussed, the researcher initiated the study by reviewing literature for an understanding about themes and scholarly evidence. After conducting the interviews, the researcher transcribed the data, reviewed notes obtain during the interview, and noted initial ideas in the field diary. In this study, every interview was recorded using a digital voice recorder and interviews were transcribed verbatim. First, the transcribed notes were read carefully to familiarise the researcher with their content, in conjunction with review of the field diaries and notes created during the interviews. On a second reading, patterned responses were identified and noted. This included creating a list of repetitive words or concepts to help identify emerging themes. Therefore, the researcher utilized a “bottom up” or inductive approach, as specific observations were created according to the transcripts without any preconceived notions. This study holds a view that repeated words, phases, or ideas within participants responses indicate the opinion and views commonly shared by the involved groups. Furthermore, the argument behind this strategy to seek common and repeated words, phases, and ideas was that burning issues shared by the group (participants in this case) were founded on a deeper problem that needs further exploration.

3.17.2 Phase 2: Systematically code.

Following the transcription, the researcher used an explicit and iterative process to systematically code every two or three lines of text with handles that identified key terms, concepts, and reflections. The applied codes represented keywords, which were used to categorise or organize text, an essential part of the qualitative research. In this case, mind maps that offered a visual representation on key words and ideas helped to sort out codes that collectively formed themes and sub-themes. As displayed in Appendix Table 1, organising the data into categories and classes allowed the researcher to manage and sort the data into a cohesive framework from the perspective of the overall study, rather than from participants’ isolated points of view. As suggested by Gale et al. (2013), the process of grouping data into clusters around similar or related ideas, enabled the researcher to closely and explicitly link the raw data (the participants’ opinions and perspectives towards ethnicity in their work environment). Finally, the data was put through a verification process that involved re-checking the transcripts and codes to verify or modify conclusions reached earlier.

3.17.3 Phase 3: Identification of themes.

The research received a platform to perceive language as an element of ethnic difference that challenges communication and subsequently the flow of instructions. Collectively, developing the analytical framework by categorisation of data helped to sort answers to the pre-formulated questions, and probing gaps in already collected data. As a result, the themes identified were strongly linked to the data that were specifically collected for this research. In an attempt to cover all the aspects of the research and to avoid missing any indicators or binding theme, the researcher coded anything that was perceived relevant, while ensuring that it was captured from different perspectives. For instance, capturing behaviour of different cultures with varying languages and ways of life can be particularly challenging, and one might miss considerably important information if more than one angle is not considered.

3.17.4 Phase 4: Review themes.

Elements such as general perspectives (as substantive things), emotions (encompassed within love, frustration, and sorrow shared or differed by different communities and societies), and values that include components underpinning participants’ views, and statements (such as views of authority and interaction) were collectively considered during coding and subsequent theme development. Using the thematic map, the researcher altered and modified the analysis as new concepts emerged from the data. Codes became the foundation for the themes that were used by the researcher, and enabled the researcher to identify reoccurring themes, in order to identify expected themes as well as unanticipated phenomena and areas. Accordingly, sub-themes which emerged through the coding process were also assigned a specific code. Thereby, an iterative and inductive research process grounded in trustworthy establishment of thematic analysis was adopted; as the research themes were defined and refined according to the emerging data. By listening to the recorded data, the researcher was able further analyse the initial engagement, and progressively establish the scope with follow-up questions and probing methods implemented in the subsequent interviews. Similarly, the researcher modified and strategized new ideas, reconsidered mistakes and missed opportunities, and further examine areas that were not initially probed during the initial interviews.

3.17.5 Phase 5: Analyse and organise themes.

Once the data was transcribed, coded, and analysed, the researcher utilized an interpretive procedure to manually analyse and organize the data into similar and contrasting potential themes. Development of themes involved systematically outlining patterns to generate a full description of collected data, and subsequently extracting information capable of shedding light on indicators being investigated. As such, transcription of the recorded data considered the content of the data to be of higher importance than the conventions of dialogue, gestures, and intonation of participants, which was particularly difficult to read and interpret for meaningful information. Largely, studies such as Thompson, Vinson & Vigliocco (2010) and Thompson, Vinson & Vigliocco (2009) have demonstrated that intonations and sign languages vary widely and are not universally hardwired brain reactions across cultures, ethnicities, or societies. Sign language or facial expression might be similarly expressed, but the meanings behind the symbols are different. For instance, a participant of one ethnic background may inform his/her side meaning disagreement with the assertion or question asked, but another of a different background may react the same to indicate agreement. Such lack of consistent and common expressions and languages (sign language) forced the researcher to adopt an approach that focused on verbal communication. Although there may have been some nonverbal responses that had crucial information for the research, fear of body language and gesture misrepresentation distorting the entire research and findings led to the use of strictly recorded verbal data (verbatim). Upon analysing the data, several recurring patterns were noted and a few emerging themes were captured. It was almost impossible to create written records about the full complex nature of human interactions encountered during interviewing and interacting with participants. It is worth noting that the entire process offered a good opportunity for the researcher to become more familiar with the data in a deeper sense through contextual and reflective notes recorded during the interview. Also, due to the fact that the reasoning and decision-making process of a person is largely grounded on one’s respective backgrounds, including one’s cultural, religious, regional, socio-economic, and political surroundings, it is rare for a diverse group of individuals from different backgrounds to hold similar perspectives (Krueger & Casey, 2015). Conducting the interviews enabled the study to capture heterogeneous factors influencing team performance in ethnically diverse teams. Factors such as ease of participants to interact with and the ability to explain to the interviewer and others in the workplace were a key indicator because it meant people had different backgrounds and upbringings that considerably altered their behaviour and engagement with others. As stated by Thomas and Magilvy (2011), adopting line-by-line coding offers a platform for the researcher to cultivate holistic perspective of the recorded interview data (what was said), particularly the elements that ordinarily may be invisible, not fitting the current ‘theme’, or not clearly expressed. Broadly, developing themes that led to answering research questions and outlining relationships between ethnicity and team outcomes from interview responses can be challenging. The study involved reconciliation, examination, an explanation of any anomalies, especially considering that the research focused on investigating perspectives, values, and beliefs. These internal mindsets varied from participant-to-participant and participant-to-researcher. Therefore, before analysing the specific questions asked to participants, the interviewer asked questions about the broad themes of ethnicity and performance outcomes centred on creativity, diversity, and leadership.

3.17.6 Phase 6: Producing the report.

The final opportunity for analysis involved the selection and extraction of vivid and compelling examples. The preparation of the report facilitated the opportunity for the research to conduct a final analysis about the selected extracts, describe, and provide an understanding about the research methods and findings obtained from the current study and literature review. It followed by producing a scholarly report of the analysis to further enhance an understanding about the interaction of ethnicity, team performance, and organisational commitment within multi-disciplinary and ethnically diverse teams of a major alcohol distribution in Nigeria.

3.18 Chapter Summary

This chapter provided a detailed account about the paradigm and philosophy for the selection of the strategized research methodology, data collection, and analytical approach. As described, this study’s research is explorative and descriptive, and has adopted a qualitative approach to examine the impact of ethnic diversity on team performance and organisational commitment in Nigeria. The next three chapters will present an analysis of the findings.

CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND INITIAL ANALYSIS

4.0 Introduction

The chapter will provide a thematic analysis about the findings obtained through an interview and questions regarding ethnic diversity, team performance, and organizational commitment of Nigerian colleagues at a major alcohol distributor in Lagos. The approach will be to reflect upon the findings with evidence derived from the interviews and consideration of the literature review. Moreover, this analysis chapter will provide a detailed debate to support the research and to form a more solid foundation on which to build the research conclusion. The aspect of the team performance will remain an area of focus that becomes mutually supportive to the stated research objective. In this angle, team performance acts as grounds for establishing an evidence-based and conclusive inference on the influence ethnicity on team outcomes within Nigerian organisations. As Lyon, Lumpkin and Dess (2000) suggest, perceptual measures provide more precise information in social research.

4.1 Analysis of Interviews

As the transcriptions in the Appendix convey, the interview questions were open-ended, interviewees were free to digress into other related areas result in additional themes. Therefore, in contrast to structured interviews that lack variation and opportunity to probe for further elaboration, the structure of the semi-structured interviews used in this study enabled the researcher to further explore select concepts by asking follow-up questions about factors, such as, religion and values of team interaction and involvement. The interview framework also enabled the researcher to channel the direction of research to align with responses in pursuit of a more detailed explanations of an idea or response about a tangential topic. This divergence enabled the researcher to discover additional information important to the participants that may not have been previously considered or may have emerged differently from predetermined questions. For instance, how team members reacted to other members publicly expressed beliefs and religious affiliation, particularly those who held different beliefs from those held by the majority of employees. As a result, the participants were able to provide rich responses with in-depth insight about their values, perspectives, beliefs, and attitudes. The interviewees provided noteworthy quotes. Although the concept of diversity in the workplace and its influence on outcome has been investigated extensively, little is known within Nigeria’s organisational setting that captures the link between creativity and team cohesion and religion. Therefore, the use of semi-structured interview was most appropriate to explore this little know phenomena. Furthermore, the research required detailed insight from participants on such issues and topics as beliefs and culture, which in most cases are deemed sensitive and divisive. Investigating these factors provided an understanding of the relationship between cultural and ethnic diversity and outcomes as determinants in organisational climate, culture, team interactions, skills held and transferability.

4.2 Thematic Analysis

The research utilised thematic analysis to establish and extract fundamental themes from the research findings. The research proceeds by classifying the response from interviewees in phase 1 and phase 2 into three broad themes, which include diversity, leadership and creativity. The researcher created thematic maps to identify the themes and subthemes. For example, Figure 7 displays the saliency and frequency of themes identified by the exploratory interviews. The most salient themes included communication (13), team leadership (11), and religion (10); while the least salient themes included functional diversity (8) Team conflict (7), and trust (6). Communication was associated with friendship, team leadership was associated with respect, religion was associated with favouritism, conflict was associated with dissatisfaction, and trust was associated with motivation. Other themes established from the findings were categorised as supporting themes, such as: ethnic diversity, team cohesion, organisational culture, religion, team conflict, team interaction, and communication.

In developing nations and culturally diverse societies, there are great differences of opinions due to individual backgrounds and discrepancies of beliefs among the different groups. Moreover, in a multicultural and multi-faith society characterized by a wide range of spiritual beliefs, religious, norms, values, languages, and behaviour define ways in which different individuals perceive the scope of social life. As a result, capturing views from such a diverse group as the Nigeria population with its social dynamics, enabled the researcher to obtain diverse perspectives from different individuals, cultural backgrounds, and religious views.

4.3 Outcomes of Diversity

The interviewees recognised the role of diversity within their teams. The factors of diversity discussed during the interviews included: culture, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and age.

4.4 Diverse Perspectives and Creativity

The interviewees viewed diversity, ethnic and otherwise, as a positive feature. Creativity was found to be a recurring theme, as all interviewees unanimously agreed that diversity had a positive impact on team creativity. Participant B stated, “The creative process that was of value had to do with being innovative, and artistically improvising where and when necessary. The creativity has helped the company understand the gap between employee and client and is working towards filling it in order to achieve a better work output” (Appendix, Table 10.2, row 11). The team dynamics facilitated the opportunity for diverse team members with different areas of expertise to creatively brainstorm, share insights and outlooks, learn from a variety of perspectives, and implement ideas together. As participant F surmised,

“Different experiences would lead to a different way of thinking and idea contribution.” Similarly, as Echo mentioned, ‘…because people in the team were from different ethnicity, we had different ideas and perspective on how to carry out this task.’

4.5 Team Cohesion and Performance

The team members also recognized how different strengths and skillsets enabled each team member to fulfil a unique role and to contribute in their unique way, which enabled the team to progress and to achieve results that are even more successful. For example, interviewee B stated,

“…diversity in my team is the strength of the team, with different people suited for different roles.”

In addition, participant C summarised his appreciation of workplace diversity,

Yes, diversity really works well in the team setting because employees are brought in from different places and during the work process, assistance could be called in from anyone who is able to relate or interpret to an individual who needs extra explanation on the issue at hand (Appendix, Table 10.1. row 5).

As participants C, A, and others mentioned, ethnic diversity brought awareness and insights into other cultures which helped in many situations, such as client interactions, as the team members were able to creatively utilise their team member’s different languages and cultures to understand, establish relationships with, and effectively communicate with clients. An example of this is from participant C who spoke about diversity helping with serving clients, “The best part is the language diversity. It helps in communicating with the customers because not all of them are learned. I have a colleague who is fluent in Igbo, Hausa and Idoma. She comes in handy a lot” (Appendix, Table 10.1. row 5).

4.6 Team Dynamics

However, due to the majority belief about the positive outcomes of diversity, interviewee G conceded that it was easier to develop a relationship with likeminded team members of the same ethnicity due to shared attributes and perspectives, due to the need to not ‘…unlearn, and learn so much’. However, in workplaces where people do come from different groups, participant B noted, “Not everyone gets along well with people from a different ethnic group, but when it comes to the job, they have to put aside the differences to work together” (Appendix, Table 10.2. row 23).

Similarly, participant C argued that although diversity in workplace leads to better and stronger teams through cohesion and enables diverse ideas and points of view, friction could arise, leading to conflict, “especially if the team is not equally diverse”. Participant F stated:

I believe ethnic diversity affects the totality of the team, the creativity, the communication and the attitude of the members of the group. There is potential for clashes if a team member is communicating an idea based on their background, which might be unfamiliar to those from a different group. I also believe there can be togetherness in an ethnically diverse team based on member’s ability to accept diversity, the maturity level of the members, the leadership and the social exposure of team members (Appendix, Table 10.5, row 20).

Only one interviewee mentioned challenges due to ethnic or religious favouritism and a need to display a power show. Participant C explained:

“Any difficulty in reaching an agreement has almost always come from power show, religious or ethnic favouritism ((Appendix, Table 10.1 row 13).”

Furthermore, when asked why it could be potentially difficult to reach an agreement on implementing ideas, most of the interviewees identified that it was due to either differences in opinion or lack of research. Interviewee L detailed that as an idea develops, more people become involved and are often not on the same page. This can lead to difficulties in making decisions as every member wishes to have their opinions acknowledged, but they may not consider discussions of previous brainstorming sessions. Additionally, in their personal attitudes concerning diversity, some interviewees admitted that they were aware of some ethnic stereotypes. Participant C referenced, “Nigerians are known for stereotypes and superstition, which are not confirmed by any means” (Appendix, Table 10.1.25). Participant G pointed out that there are conflicts between Nigerians and other nationalities, “Managerial roles are rarely earned by Nigerians, predominantly occupied by foreigners (Indians)” (Appendix, Table 10.4 row. 32). One interviewee in particular lamented how these stereotypes existed, while the other interviewees were indifferent to the ethnic stereotypes. The indifference of the majority of the interviewees implied that for most of the interviewees, the ethnic differences were not of a concerning factor important to these interviewees, and as a result these team members are ideal members to be part of ethnically diverse teams. These accepting team members also created a strong team dynamic, which enabled the team embers to socialise, engage, and develop a personal connection with team members of diverse backgrounds. The multiplicity of languages related to ethnic groups in Nigeria has the potential to impede the development of positive team dynamics. Participant A noted, “The fact that we are open-minded and willing to work helped us get along. Nevertheless, we had a few hiccups with language the barrier” (Appendix, Table 10.3, row 9).

4.7 Leadership Support Creates Organisational Commitment

While the interviewees implied that diversity contributed to the positive experiences they have had so far, they considered leadership as the main reason for organisational commitment, and an establishment of an effective and motivated team. Participant G stated, “…success was driven largely by the ability of the leadership to channels these seeming differences towards the team’s objectives. Thus, rather than pulling the team apart, it became a source of strength.” While participant E mentioned how a good team is dependent on leadership that can set the team’s direction and pace, which helps to create a good team. The respondents mentioned how great leadership enables differences within the team to be channelled towards a positive and constructive direction to strengthen the team cohesion and engagement. The findings also indicated that a supportive environment has good organisation, co-operation, supports interaction, engagement, and cohesion, and creates a good team dynamicity. Leaders play a core role in the effectiveness of approaches, such as, member integration, involvement, and engagement as well as reducing stigmas among the team members. Importantly, a team leader creates a working environment oriented to creative thinking, cohesive team effort, open communication, and trust coupled with being a role model and resolving dysfunctional behaviour. For example, participant F commented that good leadership can, ‘harmonise’ the team to bring members together. In an ethically and culturally diverse environment, leaders recognise input and the perspective of individual team member accomplishments and exceptional performance, and encourage creativity and risk-taking. Participant I linked good quality leadership to a creative work environment with a safe space where ideas can be floated without apprehension. Therefore, good leadership supports team bonding and promotes communication and collaboration of ides by creating open discussion and interaction forums that creates platforms, during which team members may openly share their opinions and ideas. The participants also described how team members of such a team would, on their own accord, go above what was asked of them, whereas in their previous experience of working in a team with a poor-quality dynamic, they would only perform the bare minimum of what was asked of them. For example, participant A related how she felt that under bad leadership, there was a lack of motivation to work hard because there was no incentive to do so. She also felt that leadership failed to discipline and penalise team members who were unwilling to discipline those who displayed a poor work ethic, such as selfishness and laziness. Additionally, a couple of the interviewees also mentioned favouritism based on ethnicity. This preferential treatment from leadership was seen as unaccommodating and therefore affected how committed they were to the organisation. Therefore, good leadership who promotes diversity is key to creating a good work environment and a team of motivated and hardworking individuals. Furthermore, the grounds of any good team is a good understanding among team members, which is fostered by approaches set by leaders to accommodate the difference in ideologies, including objectives held and views towards structures and ideas forwarded. As such, the uniqueness and dynamics of the team, as channelled by the leader, can cultivate either positive influence or negative depending on integration and strategies implemented to accommodate this diversity.

4.8 Implementation Strategies

The interviews felt the organisation should support, emphasize, and nurture diversity. In order to accommodate the diversity in workplace, the organisation tried to strategize implementing several approaches aimed to address the topic. Participant C talked about an initial training, “We have general diversity training on how to work together as a team. Respect people of different gender and ethnicity” (Appendix, Table 10.1, row 28). Some strategies include positive attitudes, perspectives, and behaviours of leadership, and corporate missions and values. Participant F recalled, “We were taught to be accommodating of other people and focus more on what we are employed for and not pry into our colleague’s personal lives” (Appendix, Table 10.5, row 91). There was variance about the amount of diversity training offered to each employee. Some interviewees had more aggressive training– one interviewee also mentioned how the company sent out refresher emails to remind everyone of the importance of a diverse culture, whereas one interviewee did not have any training at all. Participant B explained, “Apart from the diversity awareness training, we get updates either via email, or a refresher as needed” (Appendix, Table 10.2, row 30). These findings convey a lack of cohesion by the company. Generally, the interviewees felt that there was a good attempt by the company to represent different ethnicities, but there was not always equal representation due to geopolitical reasons. Participant D noted that the company was “…allocating recruitment slots to ethnic minorities to ensure that suitably qualified persons from those areas are represented in the workplace” (Appendix, Table 10.6, row, 3). By further understanding the importance of different opinions and views, there may be enhanced implementation of well-thought, rounded, and inclusive strategies. Teams would also be able to obtain a further understanding about consumer or end user demographics and align the company’s culture with the demographic compositions of the targeted end-users and consumers.

4.9 Chapter Summary

Nevertheless, most of the participants perceived the possibility to have a good team with shared or common goals and ideologies despite difference in ethnic or cultural backgrounds. In conclusion, ethnic diversity did affect the team’s creativity, organisational commitment, and cohesion to create a good team performance. However, the analysis also shows that good leadership and a strong work environment contributed to team performance. Generally, ethnic diversity is shown to have a positive and useful effect on team creativity. However, it should be noted that it was not ethnic diversity alone that helped produce this effect, but it was also due to diversities in experience and skill sets.

CHAPTER FIVE Discussion

The discussion approach follows the direction and advice of social scientist Strauss (1987) and the findings of Dewey (2012) who examined the modern-day applications of social research approaches entwined with modern day philosophy. As such, this study conducted a qualitative analysis to examine sensitive ethnicity issues in Nigeria. Compared to more structured methods, the quantitative analysis approach is more open to academic scrutiny as sensitive topics can often result in inflamed outcomes that may be tainted by an individual’s ethics or personal opinions. This aspect is, and will always remain, a challenge for qualitative research and data analysis.

5.1 Ethical Considerations for This Study

The researcher acknowledged that other topics and methods may remove the personal aspects from the research outcomes. This research study was intended to approach, tackle, and discuss a topic that was identified as a taboo social concern that needed further research and discussion. The researcher argues that modern-day social science studies should be encouraged to tackle more detailed and challenging social issues that could create friction within contemporary society. This study is unique as other studies have not been able to reach the required depth due to data provided by the sample group. Glaser (1965) argues that difficult topics may result in research of sample groups that only provides a very soft surface overview, due to concern of disagreement from others. The current study possesses the potential for backlashes to occur both within and externally to the research sample group (Glaser 1965). This is one aspect of social research that is delicate and was considered during the conducting of interviews and analysis of the data. Furthermore, although the researcher envisioned very little potential risk to participants in this study, this study recognised the possible difficulties associated with a subject, such as ethnicity, beliefs, culture, and religion. Building on the assertion by Munhall (1988) and Walker (2007) on ethical consideration in conducting qualitative research, it might be difficult for participants to discuss possible unpleasant experiences, and the researcher approached and dealt with such situations with sensitivity, providing appropriate pace, and most of all confidentiality. Recruited respondents were sent the ethics consent policy. This meant that participants took part throughout the research at their own free will and were able to stop participating whenever it became inconvenient for them to do so. Participants were never asked to provide identifiable information about themselves or others. The researcher ensured that the data collected was kept securely and that any publication would not directly or indirectly lead to the breach of confidentiality and anonymity (Kaiser, 2009; Petrova et al., 2016). The results and findings would be made available to the participants after the completion of the study.

5.2 Emotional Responses

This type of research can also be compared as less exact as compared to the alternative as it is based on emotionally challenged responses by both the researchers and the research groups (Nagel, 1986; Qu, and Dumay, 2011). This theory is not discounted by this thesis, but the researcher counters that this chapter is a structured output that allows the reader to formulate his opinions as well as review the conclusions offered. Therefore, a valuable outcome will be produced, designed to assist and support a social issue as identified at the early stages of this research study. The quality aspect of this thesis does present a dilemma due to open variations brought by differing perspective that may not actually be valid or fair.

5.3 Reflexivity

The research includes qualitative components that are subjected to individualism and subjectivity during the analysis process. Based on argument held by Peredaryenko & Krauss (2013) and Miyazaki & Taylor (2008) concerning researcher’s biasness and perception while conducting a researcher, the researcher is aware of his potential effect throughout the progress of the research, and of the possible influences that his perspectives might exert on the outcomes of the research. As a Nigerian native, the researcher is familiar with the ethical, cultural, environmental, and social contexts in which elements of ethnicity deeply penetrate the participants’ workplace. Due to the researcher’s understanding about such contextual factors, the researcher was able to relate to the participants and create more supportive and considerate dynamics for the interviewees to freely express their perspectives. In some cases, it might be comprehensible that the participants' experiences triggered either sympathy or scepticism from the researcher. Though there was an attempt to provide a more effective and impartial analysis, and strived to plan the study, conduct the interviews, collect data, and report about the findings without relying on contextual knowledge, the researcher acknowledges the possibility of cultural presumptions and the premise that knowledge cannot be separated from the knower (Steedman, 1991; Peredaryenko, and Krauss, 2013). Nevertheless, the beliefs held are that the concerns do not reduce the credibility of the research. Rather, the research study serves to highlight the inter-personal attributes of the subjects and recognises the fact that ethnicity is an anthropological matter, characterised by polylith societies with rich cultures, such as the case of Nigeria.

5.4 Team Dynamics

As accordant with the literature review, the current research has found that there is some degree of segregation within some teams, and in turn, the segregation places a heavier burden on others who have to address the gaps (Tajfel, 1978). According to Scott and Webber (2008), the presence of a dynamic leader should, in theory, prevent these loafing outcomes from occurring by implemented evidence-based best practice allocation of tasks and work. This would support the earlier theories by Ferrante, Green and Forster (2006) who argued that a strong leader has been observed to have reduced the presence of any social loafing. According to Leadership must be cautious to attain a balance between task allocations and generation of an unhealthy competitive environment (Hitt, and Duane, 2002; Parker, 2014). This output from the sample group leans heavily to support the theories by Salas et al. (2007) who discussed the requirements for effective teamwork. Leaders must work to achieve less competitive environments

5.5 Overview of Associations

Ideally, this study was grounded on the need to understand the relation between ethnic diversity and team performance with a strong conviction that these indicators and linking concepts have been researched extensively before. Therefore, this chapter links the existing data, discussion, inferences, and assertion relating to the research topic and outlined questions through analysis of theoretical concepts (cultural approach, social psychological, and contextual approach), ethnic paradigms, and researched studies on team performance and ethnicity to collected and analysed primary data.

5.6 Diversity

Due to the abstract nature of diversity, the definition will differ by factors, scholars, disciplines, and context. Generally, ‘diversity’ can be defined as the state or quality of having multiple forms, ideas and types. This research study captured the essence of social diversity emanating cultural difference as well as beliefs held within community and working environment. Building from the primordialism perspective, diversity grounded on ethnic groups is traceable to birth, meaning one is the product of innate cultural, beliefs, and norms, coupled with personality traits (Ashton, 2010; Cox, 1994; Oerleman, 2009). The essence of diversity is founded on team members possessing different beliefs, traditions, norms, religions, locations, personality traits, linguistic compositions, ages, and cultures. According to Baer (1993) diversity in a team and workplace could also involve talents, skills, and experiences. The blend of individuals with a variety of talents, beliefs, values, and experience is the most adopted approach in the current work environment due to the efficiency it offers to the eventual team performance and realisation of team objectives. Nevertheless, diversity is as demonstrated by the findings and analysis of previous studies, organisations have increasingly encouraged optimisation of performance and resource usage. One major area shared by both the findings and existing literature is the influence of incorporating diverse views, values, and culture during policies formulation and implementation processes where it ultimately leads to organisational success (Shore et al., 2009; Herring, 2009; Sabharwal, 2014; McMahon, 2010). The findings clarify that the multiple ethnic groups within Nigeria, all of which have different cultural practices as well as religious beliefs that further enhance the level of diversity, are an attributing factor to a team’s creativity and there is a general belief that if teams were less diverse, they would not possess much in terms of creativity. Eventually with no creativity, the levels of commitment to the team declines, disrupting cohesion and therefore performance. Therefore, diversity is a major component of the successful functioning of a team and enhanced understanding of one’s target market or customers. The findings appear to suggest that as an aggregate, the organisations embrace diversity but there are some organisations that require additional diversity in order to progress. The remark about not being diverse enough feeds strongly into this conclusion but is based upon only two participants who offered this example. This is balanced by arguing that divisions can often develop in non-diverse groups and teams from the same ethnic background as a by-product of social inclusion or exclusion (Carter, 2003; Oxoby, 2009; Summers, and Volet, 2008). The research therefore agrees that most of the sample group felt included and comfortable within a diverse team but there were some examples where segregation was still present. The options for Nigerians to progress were touched upon and two interviewees argued that the larger ethnic group was gaining preferential treatment. This would of course link into the social inclusion aspect discussed by Carter (2003) and agree that this is still a seemingly unfortunate reality within some organisations. Notably, different organisations handle diversity in a workforce or team through effective leadership that capitalises on managing and nurturing individual beliefs, views, missions and values through emphasising the understanding and acceptance that people hold different views and perspectives based on ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation, age and gender (Brislin, 2008; Paludi, 2012; Patrick, and Kumar, 2012). These diverse classes each individually influence a team’s performance by affecting the three performance indicators: creativity, cohesion, and commitment. As such, the discussion framework includes the relation of the existing literature on the impact of ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity to the performance indicators and thus team performance with the findings of Phases 1 and Phase 2 regarding the impact of these diversities to team performances within Nigeria.

5.6.1 Cultural Diversity

Culture is another factor of diversity within teams and organisations with the potential to influence its performance. Most cultures are defined across different ethnic groups and, therefore, to speak of ethnicity is to define the boundaries of culture. Culture can also be analysed on a wider aspect and scale that involves multiple ethnic groups and is defined by geographical boundaries or any other constraints other than ethnicity (Kottak, 2015; Stahl et al., 2010; Stahl et al., 2010). Kokt (2003) premises the awareness of the distinctive element that differentiates diverse cultures within a team is crucial in order to be able to foster cohesion and commitment, as well as creativity, and ultimately impact performance. The differences are the indicators of different behaviours of individuals within the team and therefore influence the interactions among the team members. Building from Shin et al. (2012) and Kearney & Gebert (2009) assertion, through acceptance and appreciation of different behaviour from individuals and recognising the tie to their cultural background and experiences, teammates may develop stronger and closer bond and working relations, which influence their cohesion and eventual performance. Nevertheless, factors drawn by social-psychological approaches harbour theories such as social identity and cultural mosaic, limit interaction, engagement, commitment, and among different employee (Saunders, 2012; Lott, 2009; Simon, 2008). Multi-cultural teams, according to Misoc (2017), are more innovative due to the wide supply of new ideas from different cultural perspectives. The researcher led the respondents to disclose information about their organisation’s culture, some of whom agreed to be part of multicultural teams and how the development of a common culture through cultural awareness greatly impacted the cohesion between the team members; as they were be able to work together more closely and openly and, as such, openly exchange ideas and perspectives in a manner that would enhance their creativity within the team and organisations. Cultural awareness, acceptance, and tolerance are an important factor in the eventual performance of culturally diversified teams. Just like in religion and ethnicity, acceptance of variety in terms of values within a team and by all the team members is crucial in the development of a work environment that is conducive. This is eventually responsible for enhancing team cohesion creativity and engagement, and as such impact performance significantly. According to Thomas (1999) and Froese & Peltokorpi (2011) the cultural diversity of a group does not influence a group’s performance on its own but rather its combination with the socio-cultural norms of the group as well as the relative cultural distance from each other. These indicators need to be moderated and effectively managed to realise improved team performance. This again brings to the fore the function and importance of leadership in moderating diversity within a team set up.

5.6.2 Religious Diversity

Religion as in the case of Nigeria is often combined with ethnic groups. Ethnic groups are defined by ascriptive differences, whether the indicium is colour, appearance, language, religion, some other indicator of common origin, or some combination thereof’ (Horowitz 1985: 17) Stewart (2009) argues that people have multiple identities, among which both religion and ethnicity are often important components. A study under Centre for Research on inequality, Human Security, and Ethnicity (CRISE) conducted by Stewart (2011) showed that ethnicity was perceived to be one of their three most important identities by between 16 per cent (Guatemala) and 50 per cent (Malaysia) of people in the seven countries in which we conducted surveys; if we add ethnicity and place of origin, we find the ratio varies between 41 per cent and 87 per cent (same countries). Religion was perceived as a more pervasive identity, however, being among the three most important aspects of identity for 78 per cent of people in Nigeria and 76 per cent in Malaysia and Ghana, while the lowest proportion was Bolivia at 30%. In every country, many people cited religion and ethnicity as important aspects of their identity, ranging from 12 per cent of respondents in Ghana to 37 per cent in Malaysia. Stewart (2009) further postulates that there is a strong tendency, for historic reasons, for religious and ethnic affiliations to overlap in many countries – for example, in Nigeria, Northern Hausa-Fulani are also Muslims, while Southern ethnic groups are mainly Christian. In Malaysia there is a near one-to-one correspondence between being Malay and being Muslim, although some Indians are also Muslim; in the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs are predominately Eastern Orthodox Christians, the Croats Catholics, and the Bosnians Muslims. Where there is such an overlap, it may not be clear whether people are mobilised primarily according to their religion or their ethnicity – this is the case, for example in the conflicts in central Maluku, Indonesia, the central belt in Nigeria and the former Yugoslavia and the long civil war in Sri Lanka. In central Nigeria, religion has been the framing identity in recent conflicts (broadly coinciding with ethnic distinctions), with religious leadership and religious symbols attacked (Vande, 2012; Chris, 2009; Nwogu, 2010). While there are political and economic motives, fear of the introduction of sharia law has given Christians a powerful reinforcing motive, both sides being encouraged by ideas and finance from outside (with Pentecostals influenced (broadly) by American Baptist churches and ‘salafi’ ideas taken from Islamic reform movements (Higazi, 2009; Last, 2007). This portion of the literature illustrates the importance of religious practice in the workplace. It highlights a fundamental human need to seek purpose and meaning in life including the workplace. There is a controversy concerning the relationship between spirituality and religion (See (Kinjierski and Skrypnek, 2004). With Mitroff & Denton (1999a,b) arguing that spirituality and religion are two distinct constructs and that although spirituality in the workplace is a completely justified and appropriate issue of discussion, religion in the workplace is a divisive factor and ultimately out of bounds. However, Hicks (2003, 2002) takes the stance that religiosity is an integral aspect of spirituality, and that discussion about spirituality in the workplace unavoidably implies discussion about religiousness at work. This study agrees with the following definition: Workplace spirituality has been defined as "a framework of organizational values evidenced in the culture that promote employees' experience of transcendence through the work process, facilitating their sense of being connected to others in a way that provides feelings of completeness and joy" (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003). The growth of interest in this phenomenon is also due to the relevance of subjective factors in organisational settings, such as individual quest for higher purpose, personal meaning, and transcendent values (Klenke, 2005). Neal (2000) argues that the increase in desired work experience has shifted from a career to earn a living to a vocation through which employees can express themselves and make a positive difference in the world. Team players and members of an organisation can also be highly diversified in terms of their religious beliefs and affiliations. In addition, while this may have no connection whatsoever to the purpose of a team or their eventual objectives, it has the potential to affect the eventual performance of the team in the realisation of their goals. Syed et al. (2017) point out that religious diversity, depending on one’s view point, has the potential to significantly benefit a team and its performance, especially when efficiently managed. While the management of religious affiliations and beliefs may prove quite challenging from the human resource or leadership standpoint of an organisation or team respectively, acceptance and tolerance of different individuals’ religious views is crucial in establishment of a conducive working environment. (Gebert et al., 2014; Ghumman et al., 2013; Kelly, 2008). Such environments central in fostering team cohesion, creativity, and commitment and thereby impacting on performance Religion, however, has been effectively relegated as a secondary consideration during performance evaluation of a team. A majority of the respondents highlighted religion as a factor that is actively considered in hushed tones among team members but often diminishes in the round table discussion of the entire group. As such, it is a factor that is both existent and invincible when considering the impact of diversity in team performance.

The research analysis further premised that the concept of religion is a sensitive topic in work places and as such, team members effectively avoid any discussion around it. The lack of discussion regarding religion or the preference by team players to avoid discussions concerning religion, indicate the desire to maintain a peaceful work environment and cohesion among the team members for eventual effective performance. However, this also indicates a deep-rooted problem within organisations with regard to religious diversity. Furthermore, while the respondents in the research study highlight that religion, as an aspect of diversity, had no impact on the team performance due to the avoidance of the team members to indulge religion, it still shaped the way team members thought and perceived their colleagues. Notably, employees working in religiously diverse organisations and teams may be prone to increased interpersonal conflicts, arguments, and misunderstandings due to their different religious affiliations (Ghumman et al., 2013; Syed, and Pio, 2010; Gröschl, and Bendl, 2015). The research findings highlighted that religion, in addition to the avoidance of its discussion in workplaces, can impact a team players engagement in different activities; for instance, engaging clients or other team members whose religious affiliations are different to their own. As pointed by Ruan (2008) and Miller & Ewest (2013), while avoiding discussions around religion significantly minimises the occurrence of conflict among team players, it also limits the level of engagement of some team players on a plain and honest field that will greatly influence their ability to work together. This limits the development of a cohesive team and may lead to the development of sub facets within the team based on religious affiliations. The lack of discussion on religion because of its diversity within a team due to the fear of conflict in itself, is detrimental to the team’s performance. This is due to the lack of acceptance, tolerance, and appreciation in the diversity among the team members, which limits team engagement and consequently influences cohesion. As such, religious indicators are highly detrimental to a team’s cohesion if not properly handled, and this may have a significant impact on the team’s performance.

5.7 Other Diversity Indicators

Other than ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity, teams also experience diversity in terms of sexual orientation, gender, age, and disabilities, especially with increased calls for equality by social activists globally. Each of these indicators has the potential to impact team cohesion, creativity and commitment and therefore impact on team performance.

5.7.1 Gender

A variety of studies has been conducted concerning the impact of gender diversity within a workplace, a team, or an organisation, specifically with its impact to team performance. Several studies found positive effects of gender diversity on productivity and novelty in innovation (Díaz-García et al., 2013; Pearsall et al., 2008; Agnete et al., 2013). A study conducted by Hoogendoorn, Oosterbeek and Praag (2013) found that business teams comprised of an equal gender mix (50% female; 50% male) tended to report higher sales and profits. In a study on research and development team, researchers found the diversity in gender fosters novel solutions that can lead to radical innovation (Diaz-Garcia et al., 2015). In their overview of studies, Bae and Skaggs (2017) point out that while some studies claim that fostering gender diversity positively influences an organisation’s outcome, other studies point out the direct opposite. However, some studies find there is no significant impact of gender diversity in a team’s performance or workplace productivity (Schneid et al., 2015; Triana et al., 2013; Bear, and Woolley, 2011). While there may not be scientific evidence supporting the impact of gender diversity in eventual team performance, one of the respondents in the first phase of the interview highlighted that gender indeed affects workplace conditions and team dynamics. In a comment that might be considered as stereotyping, the respondent highlighted that females have nagged during a few breakout sessions, and in turn this effect the performance of the organisation. Gender may or may not have significant influence on the performance of a team or organisation based on the perspective with which it is considered. As a stereotype where women are generally considered less productive than men, especially due to the consideration that they indulge in numerous checks, breaks, and washroom timeouts, gender diversification may actually influence team performance by slowing down the commitment of the team, particularly if the woman is on the leadership role. Nevertheless, gender diversity may also influence the groups’ creativity, especially if the objectives lean towards social change due to the sharp difference between the male and female perspectives, notably with matters that concern socialisation and social issues.

5.7.2 Age.

Age is another factor that is likely to impact team performance; however, its impact and influence on the team is dependent on the nature of the team’s objectives. In studying library personnel, Tella, Ayeni, and Popoola (2007) found no difference by age in a person’s commitment to work. However, Darwin (2014) noted that diversity in the age of different employees or team members is among the strategic capabilities that add value to a team or organisation and thereby enhance its overall performance. George and de Akaige (2017) agreed that age diversity is an advantage for an organization with older employees transferring organization culture, values, and work ethics to younger ones. Diversity of age promotes the spread of the level of experience in a particular field or different fields, and thus impacts on different levels of creativity within a team. According to Wegge et al. (2008), Schneid et al. (2016), and Kunze et al. (2011), a team with older and younger members is likely to pose increased experience in certain concepts, and therefore enhance overall performance compared to a team with only younger members. Subsequently, a team with only older members may lack efficiency due to the limitation of technical expertise in cooperation, which based on the recent emergence, only the younger generations display competency. Moreover, diversity in terms of sexual orientation and consideration for disability, despite not directly influencing a team’s performance, highlight the neutrality and elevates the reputation of an organisation, which may influence the cohesion and commitment of members to the team or organisation.

5.8 Impact of Diversity on Team Cohesion

Given the widespread stereotypes regarding ethnic diversity and the compartmentalisation of individuals within ethnic groups, even in work places and within a team, ethnicity influences the level of cohesion of a team. According to Zheng and Wei (2014), the overall impact of ethnic diversity on group performance is inconclusive based on the available literature. While ethnic diversity can potentially and significantly dampen group cohesion and thus lower performance, the impact of ethnicity diversity depends on how it is handled, and the leadership structures available within the team or organization to enhance acceptance and accommodation of diversity among team players (Singh et al., 2013; Onodugo and Agbeze, 2018; Van Knippenberg et al., 2011). The social identity theory posits that people long for a sense of belonging to a group. Social categorisation leads to people sharing common beliefs, perspectives, ideas, and importantly culture to feel as belonging to a common group, while having a tendency to favour members of the group and side-lining others (Tanghe et al., 2010). Within the second phase of the research, as the findings indicate, despite there being ethnic diversity within teams, the diversity is limited due to dominance of particular groups. These dominant groups sometimes engage in activities that belittle other groups. However, this has not led to any conflicts due to understanding the impact of ethical diversity. This understanding and accommodation of other ethnic groups including their reciprocated acceptance and accommodation further suggests that in principle, the presence of ethnic diversity does promote and create an enjoyable team environment. Eventually, the team develops a kind of organisation specific culture that advocates for tolerance and acceptance of the ethnic diversity between them that enhances their cohesion. The findings are in line with the Hofstede (2010) rating of Nigeria on individualism where it scores 30%, meaning the community regards collective work that includes working together in as team as compared to working independently. As such, the relation among employees and between employer and employee is perceived at a higher degree, with engagement and pooling of resource for common good prioritised from personal ambition and goals.

5.9 Size of the Team

This study also finds team size a significant factor influencing a team with respect to diversity. The participants suggest that smaller collaborative teams, regardless of ethnic backgrounds, do produce more effective outcomes than larger teams. The presence of less engaging team members in smaller teams is not attributed to ethnic background, but rather individual enthusiasm and conduct (Schumm, 2016). In contrast, team members of larger teams may group together on the basis of cultural similarities. While in a small team, members can get to effectively know one another and appreciate each other’s ethnic background and therefore forge ways to co-exist, big groups result in the development of co-ethnic teams. If people from specific ethnic backgrounds do not engage then there could be potential for other teams’ members to associate the cultural background of an individual with their personal motivations or workplace conduct. This occurrence can lead to a potential for cultural labelling and exclusion within organisations and possibly ethnic stereotyping occurring at the workplace level. This is argued as a reality by the researcher as the group did remark on set ethnic groups throughout the interviews and these examples can potentially increase this sentiment. The examples are listed within this chapter to offer some evidence to support this aspect. The transference of individual aspects would not occur within a team-based organisation, and the resulting outcomes are argued as being an unbalanced team. Individual performance also has a greater impact on the overall team performance of smaller teams. In accordance with the literature review, there is evidence that the team members of bigger teams may become aware of the subdivisions within groups, and as a result, contribute less efforts. The individuals considered as courting would drag down the ability of the team to operate efficiently. This builds on the discussions by Bandura (1997) arguing that the entire group needs to have the same-shared values. The experiences by the sample group may of course be argued as specific to bad team experiences, but they are nonetheless real experiences. Based on the Carron et al. (2007) assertion, the option to compare experiences shows that most people have a selection of different experiences of working within good or bad teams. This could hint that the organisational culture may influence how teams are formed and operate as discussed within the literature review. Kozlowski and Ilgen (2006) highlighted that organisational design and culture can have a direct influence of the team ethos and approach. Collectively, the effect that the findings on diversity have on a team cohesiveness are in line with those conducted by Toppo & Prusty (2012) and Salas, et al. (2015), which agree that with the right structure and strategy, diversity can have a positive effect on team collaboration and engagement. However, it is imperative for the team members to trust and sense belongingness as fostered by social identity and cultural mosaic theories.

5.10 Impact of Diversity on Creativity

A group of ethnically diverse individuals increase the range of perspectives, ideas, and knowledge available for use within a group, and as such have the potential to influence creativity significantly, and eventually group performance. According to Premuzic (2017), having a widely diversified team does not automatically translate to a highly creative and resourceful team, rather, the impact is created through regular sharing of knowledge perspectives and ideas, as well as supplementing and complementing each other’s skills and competencies. The findings indicate that the difference in the level of creativity was basically due to the different skill sets held by different team players, rather than their ethnic background. However, in line with a wide literary base, the different ethnic groups bring different experiences, which in themselves have the potential to impact creativity and problem-solving capabilities. The findings also derive from the pragmatic school of diversity, as proper management of diverse views, personality traits, and beliefs can be perceived as beneficial to respective individuals in terms of career growth, productivity, and active participation, as based on the employees’ commitment and creativity. McLeod, Lobel, and Cox (1996) note that while developing team diversity with a wide range of ethnic groups confers an advantage to create a wide range of creative ideas, these benefits are eroded in the process of the selection of which idea to implement. This is due to the aspect that diversity also hinders consensus. As such, while ethnic diversity effectively influences the team’s creativity, it is disrupted by the inherent social conflicts and decision-making deficits that is created within far fewer homogenous teams.

5.11 Team and Organisational Commitment

Employee’s commitment and identity to an organisation bears connectedness to something bigger than oneself, reflecting on self-concept, belongingness, raising inspirations, maximising individual and team potential, and a sense of going beyond one’s comfort zone (He & Brown, 2013; Mael & Ashforth, 2001). The commitment of an individual to a team is highly dependent on their unique role within the team, as well as the amount of contribution they are permitted to provide to the team. In essence, individuals will be more committed to a team if it is efficient and if they are satisfied with their own contributions. Brennan (2015) points out that there is an increasing body of evidence about how highly diversified teams of varying ethnic and racial composition produce better results and performance. This is majorly attached to the inclusive organisation culture that enables the appreciation and acceptance of the diversity in terms of ethnicity. Organisations and teams with varying ethnic groups appreciate the divergent opinions and perspectives of different individuals, thereby enhancing and improving the working environment through an inclusive organisation culture. This affects the team cohesion that in turn inspires sharing of ideas, knowledge and perspective, further sparking creativity. Through the development of an inclusive organisation culture, individuals are more likely to develop an appreciation of their duties and projects, work environment, and individual contributions to the team that they work with. This satisfaction in turn inspires commitment, which effectively enhances individual performance, and subsequently the team performance. According to the findings, this attachment to the organisation can be categorised into psychological-based continuance, and compulsion to remain with an organisation because of a working relation and association with other members, as well as the organisations culture (Brown, 2013). As such, while diversity within a team in terms of ethnicity may stir stereotyping and discrimination of some ethnic groups over others, if handled carefully, ethnic diversity could influence all the three performance indicators positively and thereby greatly impact the performance of a team. Therefore, a team’s leadership is the most crucial factor in the shaping of the impact of ethnic diversity within a team.

5.11.1 Team Commitment

Religious diversity can greatly lead to discrimination of team members who may be inferior in numbers with regard to religious affiliations; this not only influences a team’s cohesiveness but eventual employee commitment. Workers within religiously diverse teams may avoid voicing or discussing any religious related topics or affiliations within their workplaces, to avoid discrimination or the perception of discrimination that may affect the team members’ commitment and engagement in the team’s objectives (Messarra, 2014). According to the exploratory interviews, team members and other employees were more comfortable just being aware of their counterparts’ religions, but not diving into deeper discussions. Various team members, therefore, expressed the religion to which they may be affiliated through nonverbal communication techniques, such as dressing. The study also found that religion is only discussed among team members if and when it is tied to a concept that is part of the group’s objectives to be achieved. Ultimately, religion is a silent factor that affects a team’s performance, whether the team members choose to express and discuss their religious affiliations, or not. Due to concerns about how discussing religion may lead to conflict and arguments, and thus limit group cohesion and performance, avoiding the topic creates a void within the team cohesion, which may also significantly impact its performance. Furthermore, the participants’ views reflect the assertion held by Brown (2013) about organisational identification and commitment, where acceptability, support and engagement exert an inclination to stay with an organisation, as well as increasing efforts to complete the assigned tasks. This also highlights that a more homogenous group, in terms of religious affiliations, would be much more productive due to the higher level of trust and commitment existing between team members that consequently influence their cohesion and overall performance (Syed et al., 2017). In essence, one can argue in line with cultural mosaic and social identity theories that identified commonness and belongingness to a given group, significantly influenced individual relation and interaction with other members (Feitosa et al., 2012; Saunders, 2012). Team members with similar religious backgrounds and cultures easily and ultimately develop in-group liking, attraction, and favouritism, while those with contrary values and beliefs tend to engage in constant conflict, less communication, and less engagement, affecting commitment to collective team goals and missions.

5.12 Effective Leadership

Team performance is increasingly important and cannot be ignored, especially where decision-making is key. However, the most salient dimension to team heterogeneity revolves around ethnicity. The findings established the fact that ethnic diversity can be used in a positive or negative way to impact the outcomes (Polat et al., 2017). A strong team would embrace individual enthusiasm, as well as conduct. Most of the respondents would argue that ethnic diversity creates the mood for team performance, and the impact can take either direction depending on the agreed upon values, accepted norms, and accepted and adopted beliefs. For contrast, some of the arguments raised in the findings include the fact that small teams are likely to perform better compared to larger teams (Shamir et al. 2018; Thompson et al., 2018; Mao et al., 2016). The reason behind this argument is that small teams are less diverse and have fewer values to debate compared to those encountered by larger teams. Other respondents would still argue that the type of leadership adopted in a team is what matters most and is what is most likely to reduce lengthy debates and enhance focus on goals. With this argument in place, the discussion attracts the interest to understand the required components of leadership that should be put in play to impact ethnic diversity and its tendency to generate an attitude for team performance. Different components or dimensions of this kind of leadership inform the type of attitude that can be adopted by a team characterised by ethnic diversity. Some of the components include intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, charisma or idealised influence and individualised consideration. To start with, the idealised or charisma influence commonly refers to the leader’s behaviours that guide the ethical behaviour of the team, as well as, inspire the team members to act in the interest of organisational goals and personal growth. Effective leadership should embrace optimism, instil pride, and build respect as well as trust (Polat et al., 2017). For this to happen, leaders should communicate with confidence and power in a more dynamic way, which can instil the spirit of understanding among the team members. One of the respondents indicated that good communication, enshrined in good leadership, changed the attitude of each member as the group paid more attention to the quality of work and the welfare of each member. Essentially, members would easily embrace different values and beliefs and learn how to accept each other. The findings from the research also established the fact that team diversity helped most of members to learn more in regard to work ethics and team member behaviours. This indicates the prime role of leadership to address the whole idea of idealised influence, which centres on communication and team bonding. In addition, the charisma influence still fosters the essence of a leader who should stand out as a symbol of unity (Rosenbach 2018). At some point, the diversity of a group creates misconceptions, which are centred on gender, age, and even class. If such misconceptions are condoned in a team, divisions and rifts within a team cannot be avoided. Largely, this would be the first indication of bad leadership, which cannot create the ambient atmosphere for the prosperity of a team (Landy & Conte, 2016). Therefore, leadership can be dubbed as the critical tool that determines and maintains the level of respect in a group and the tendency of members to work alongside colleagues bearing different ethnic backgrounds.

5.12.1 Inspirational motivation.

The second component of leadership consistently perceived from the findings revolves around the theory of inspirational motivation, which defines the ability of a leader to communicate and endorse the most compelling vision. Notably, this component shapes the attitude of the team members by setting high but realistic conditions and standards meant to address or achieve a mission (Shamir et al., 2018). Leadership should raise the expectations of the team members while encouraging them to overcome hurdles and challenges. This is more informed through interpersonal interactions attained through sharing stories. The findings show that the attitude of the team initiates with attitudes towards leaders. The Cartwright (1968) findings support the responses from the interviewees who showed that they could not see huge misunderstandings and arguments because they learned the essence of respect and tolerance. The tendency of leadership to provide inspirational motivation is enshrined in the scope of cohesion that reduced a diverse group to a family.

5.12.2 Intellectual stimulation.

The third component of leadership involves intellectual stimulation, which is always a dimension that compels leaders to obtain inputs that enable employees to think critically (Landy & Conte, 2016). Within a team, a leader is likely to interact with different personalities, which are best described by ethnic backgrounds. It is possible that some of the personalities are beneficial and can easily be adopted by the team in the face of a tolerant attitude. Intellectual stimulation identifies the source of ideas and how the ideas can be tailored to the success of the team. The former is not only informed by professionalism but also the kinds of environments one has interacted with, and a pattern of work-related matters to be addressed through team performance (Polat et al., 2017).

5.12.3 The role of leadership.

Leadership, therefore, plays the ultimate role of accommodating diversity and tailoring ideas from people from different ethnic backgrounds to meet the interests and desires of the group. The assertion implies that leadership is a perfect mediatory tool that binds ethnic diversity to team performance through shared experiences, ideologies and informed theories that can help to solve some of the challenges or can help the team achieve its targets. This argument agrees with the perceptions the respondents had towards intellectual stimulation and the essence of leadership. The findings indicated that leadership plays the role of a string that joins team members and directs them towards acceptance of their own approach, style, and ideas. In a broader sense, the depth of the debate creates an environment in which, team members depend and support each other. As discussed, the environment is created by leadership. In the Nigerian case, the team members were more open with their feelings about the Nigerian culture and their views regarding the organisational leadership. Most of the interviewees felt negative preferential treatment favoured the Indians more than the locals. This evidence portrays the ability or the need for leadership to realign perceptions, opinions, feelings, knowledge, and emotions to suit the desirable context that can spark team performance (Meyer et al., 2016).

5.12.4 Individualised consideration.

The last component of leadership that shapes the relationship between ethnic diversity and team performance is individualised consideration. The latter refers to both the willingness and ability of the leader to attend to certain development needs, and serve as a mentor, where one provides the linkage between aspirations and passions. A leader displays empathy, compassion, and prudence while influencing the employee’s well-being, and enhancing the team’s emotional support. Also, based on the findings, it could easily be argued that the presence of a strong leader, who also plays the role of a servant, expresses concern to the welfare of each team member. This means that a strong leader should have diverse skills, which can confirm team progression (Meyer et al., 2016). From the Nigerian case study, a leader should even protect some of the insecure team members. Notably, a leader should win the trust of each team member and avoid treating the team collectively. From the findings, it can easily be established that effective diversity management has a direct impact on the organizational identification across a diverse group of members. Diversity management enhances the perception of increased attention to the concerns of the employees. The same applies to the perception behind equal measures and organisational identity. In due course, employees would stand owning the fate of the company, and therefore contribute positively and fruitfully to the organisational goals and targets. The assertion confirms that leaders are required to borrow heavily from the values and beliefs that cultivate the attitudes of the team members.

5.12.5 Language barriers.

Although, this may not be the obvious case for most of the organisations that encounter social rifts and team differences. Some of the challenges are beyond the solutions provided for ethnic diversity and team performance. For example, one of the respondents admitted that it took time to understand one another due to the accent and language differences. This is a common challenge to teams that has members from English speaking and non-English speaking nations. The cases of China and the United States has been common examples. These are two countries with many multinational companies with offices around the world. However, the Chinese rarely express their ideas and knowledge in English, which is a similar case for the United States where the population rarely understands the Chinese language (Churchill et al., 2017). Despite notable barriers, leadership is the most convincing tool that mediates ideas, tailors’ opinions, and shares knowledge without considering ethnic backgrounds.

5.12.6 Leadership as a mediatory tool.

Under the components of leadership, the discussion pointed at the structure or the required composition of leadership to address the link between ethnic diversity and team performance. Throughout the findings, it can be seen that leadership has constantly been mentioned as a critical tool of organisational and team performance and cannot be ignored. The criticality and essence of leadership in a team with ethnic diversity leads to the discussion on why leadership is such a mediatory tool that cannot be excluded amid any progress or performance. Broadly, there are gaps in the group that cannot be handled without having a leader (Polat et al., 2017). The findings noted that cultural and behavioural diversity played part in the performance of the team as a whole. As much as most of the respondents claimed to have enjoyed the cultural understanding and synergies realised from a collection of skills, good communication, allocation of resources, mutual understanding, and team dynamics needed more attention. Some even went further mentioning that a team needs the right perception of duty and attitude. This informs an extra gap between ethnic diversity and team performance, which revolves around social skills. According to Polat et al. (2017), the complexity of socio-cultural and diverse demographic characteristics conveniently calls for diverse and transformational leadership. Polat et al. (2017), still argue that diversity is not a problem and it can be managed if appropriate approaches are considered. The author describes diverse leadership as a process of acting tolerably, sensitively, and respectfully against diversity of people having differences based on political view, personality, race, religion, gender, language, and ethnic origin by embracing the differences and making use of diversity through placing separate identities in line with the objectives; through fair management to ensure harmony. Thus, leadership is a mediatory tool, which should work on a tolerant climate enhancing mutual understanding among people with social, cultural, and demographic differences. This is informed by an effort to work on a common culture characterised by employee motivation, as well as performance. Leadership is regarded as a mediatory tool because it provides the appropriate approach to equity, empathy, justice, diversity, and conflict management. All of these areas are necessary to address the need for harmony in the team. Most diverse leaders would be called upon to recognise the social and cultural differences, while raising awareness of an issue and supporting the dynamic organisational structure. The properties or characteristics of diverse leaders should conform to mediation, tolerance, objectivity, sensitivity, effective communication, care, sincerity, instructiveness, and optimism. All of these qualities look to ensure equity, respect among members, conflict resolutions, and a sense of unity among others. It is worth noting that leadership does not play an active role. Rather, leadership plays a passive role that cannot be ignored, as stated by some of the respondents. Therefore, leadership is a conciliatory platform that creates the right perception of togetherness. Furthermore, the findings and analysis section identified that ethnic diversity constitutes the language, norms, beliefs, and views that influence the organisational performance. Team performance implies the synergies or combination of beliefs and common views that enable the organisation to achieve its targets. Under this section, attention is drawn to how leadership and creativity affect the relationship between team performance and ethnic diversity.

5.12.7 Review of leadership.

Leadership, as one of the broad themes informs the commitment and responsibilities assigned to specific team members believed to have the capacity to provide direction. The literature review provided the scope of cultural dimensions and social obligations that are likely to be assigned to leaders or those in power within the Nigerian context; an organisation that observes hierarchy is likely to exhibit inherent inequalities with subordinates constantly waiting for orders from their leaders (Kieser et al., 2015). Based on the interview conducted during this research process, the respondents agreed that the success of a team measured by task performance was solely motivated by the prevalence and ability of the leadership to foster the team’s objectives. Effective leadership is equally important and plays a significant role in harmonising the team while bringing the members together. Further observations on good leadership indicate that a dynamic leader should theoretically prevent possible loafing outcomes and ensure equitable work allocation, which is also a move that ensures balance of work (Kieser, Nicolai, & Seidl, 2015). Therefore, the presence of leadership reiterates the essence of generating new values and norms that can impact a new culture for the team. Besides, leadership has been thought to be the neutral ground that enables members to bury their differences and embrace values that can help the team to achieve its goals.

5.12.8 Creativity.

According to the findings, the recurring theme of creativity is associated with the relationship between team performance and ethnic diversity. Based on the respondents’ views, the teams experienced creative personalities, especially when provided the freedom to brainstorm. Almost every respondent agreed with the fact that diversity had a positive impact on creativity; hence, team performance. Similarly, Anderson, Potočnik and Zhou (2012) indicated that creativity is inclined towards the perception of the world. Two processes, namely thinking and production, can simply describe this. Creativity has been linked to innovation in most cases. As such, based on the study’s findings and literature review, creativity is a subject to motivation, interaction within the workplace, and organisational environment that includes engagement, involving employees, and culture emphasised. Tuckman’s teamwork theory asserts that while forming teams, the early stages are normally characterised by confusion and rebellion, while the last stages find most of the followers are more focused and engaged (Guillaume et al., 2017). Ethnic diversity influences creativity but the converse is not true (Guillaume et al., 2017). A recap of the discussion on leadership indicated that a leader should be in a position to harvest and harness ideas from diversity. Based on the findings, some of the respondents indicated that ethnic diversity had a positive impact on creativity as people thought in different dimensions. One of the respondents argued that a good team is a result of ethnic diversity, which attracts different solutions meant to address a problem, while fostering interpersonal skills for every individual. Based on this argument, it is quite convincing that creativity is likely to be affected by people, culture, and the environment, which forms the description of ethnic diversity. This is informed by the constructivist view of knowledge, which insists on the intra-organisational processes that highlight the significance of social practices and the framework of new knowledge that defines the kind of social interactions embraced by the team (Leslie, 2017). Constructivism still argues that knowledge and ideas can easily be created by the interaction between explicit and tacit knowledge. Different studies have further connected managerial behaviours to creative performance among employees or team members (Buengeler & Den Hartog, 2015). Therefore, ethnic diversity is broad and requires a breakdown where key elements inform on creativity. Through the cultural approach, a culture that encourages adapting to changes, continuous learning, reshaping mode of operation, engagement, connectedness, and sharing of information among members, will ultimately result in higher creativity. From the findings, instilling such culture as emphasising on the interpersonal skills and acknowledging the influence brought by diverse personality, agrees with acculturation models. Furthermore, ethnic diversity is grounded on the descriptions of the people, their languages, skills, knowledge, and ideologies. Building from this assertion, one can argue that the description of diversity squarely lies on the composition of people within the same environment. Creativity is in itself an agent for the anticipated transformation described by the composition of people. Literature indicates that the emergence of social psychology has opened a frontier of knowledge that questions the capacity of skills and abilities of people to influence the pace of the technological change (Zhou et al., 2015). Most of the respondents from the research indicated that teamwork enhanced creativity because diversity heightened the abilities of the team. Despite the fact that some of the interviewees found it hard to understand other people’s ethnic backgrounds, the structure of diversity enabled the team to have alternatives that were relevant in handling some of the problems the group encountered. While people enjoyed interacting with colleagues bearing similar ethnicity, the diversity of people in the group ensured the diverse skills, ideologies, and knowledge are streamlined towards decision-making and problem solving (Leslie, 2017). However, diversity as the composition of people is still a challenge in itself because of the stereotypes, which may lead to a negative attitude that can ruin performance. Essentially, this reflects assertion forwarded by the cultural approach, where the individualism-collectivism dimension significantly influences personal perspective with regard to the greater benefits of a team. The findings indicate that team members were willing to forgo sacrificing some personal needs, objectives, and commitments in place of team and organisational performance. This was supported by Hofstede’s (2010) rating of Nigeria ranking indulgence as 80%, meaning most Nigerians are willing to go out of their way to collaborate with others for the common good. One can associate this to conflictual inter-groups, where cross-cultural communication and relations significantly affect interpersonal relations and discrimination. However, such stereotypes may further be worsened by the kind of leadership put in place by the team. Another element of diversity that informs on creativity is the environment. Diversity presumes that people either accord with their environments, or interact with new environments, which can impact their way of thinking. An environment is best described by the lifestyle, the economic value, technology, social life, and their government input. One respondent agreed that the essence of the senior management to adopt diversity is because the company’s growth can be influenced by diverse experiences, which is well defined by diverse environments. The findings also established the fact that some of the respondents had to be trained to understand the constitution of the company and its environment. The respondents believed that management upheld for employees to think alongside the environment and the associated requirements. Generally, interviewees felt that the company needed to embrace different diversities because they represented experiences defined by respective environments. The reason for this is that different experiences could easily lead to different ideas, which defines the preliminary platform for creativity (Tekleab et al., 2016). Organisations would also capture geopolitical factors, which are necessary to develop the most convenient work environment that can equally contribute to team performance. For good performance to be realised, people are supposed to have the right attitude and should be informed on the processes. Situations where team members have a negative attitude, the environment would not have a significant impact. Evidently, the findings post the elements related to cultural value (individualistic and collectivistic cultures) demonstrated power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity across difference ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds. The last component of ethnic diversity that informs on creativity is culture, which includes the social behaviours as well as norms that inform on a number of phenomena. Culture is largely transmitted through social learning and determines an individual behaviour by establishing a habit or a routine. Diverse cultures mean an interaction of social behaviours and norms, which bolster the tendency of creativity (Chua, 2018). The findings noted that cultures and languages informed on the team’s capabilities to generate new ideas and implement them at the same time. Cultural diversity informs on a number of communication channels that are established on ethical grounds. Diversity creates the essence of integrating different cultures and forming a common platform that appeals to the interest and attitudes of team members as they delve into a creative process (Ntim, 2015).

Therefore, creativity underscores the essence of diversity and still bolsters the bond between ethnic diversity and team performance. The findings pointed out that good team performance cannot be realised without creativity. The latter is perfectly sandwiched between ethnic diversity and team performance with the former influencing creativity, which in turn has an impact on group performance (Shemla et al., 2016). Respondents would appreciate contributions from people bearing diverse ethnic backgrounds, as creativity parents the “next generation” ideas. Across the scope of creativity, the Warr model is thought to negotiate the relationship between diversity and team performance on behalf of the creative motive. The model covers the significance of psychological growth as well as self-actualisation (Chua, 2018). The model goes beyond to attract the essence of happiness, contentment, and enthusiasm, which are well attached to creativity. Therefore, creativity, based on the Warr model, is a transitional component that takes advantage of diversity to impact team performance and personal growth. This is well informed by a motivated workforce that is free to contribute, to challenge, and to support significant processes considered by an organisation.

5.13 Chapter Summary

This chapter established that diversity is a key factor in terms of organisational or team performance. While most teams that are homogenous in a certain aspect may greatly excel as experts, the lack of diversity limits the organisation or group’s growth, and therefore future performance and efficiency is limited. Figure X details the relationship between team diversity and outcomes with the crucial mediating factor of proper leadership determining whether diversity results in a positive or negative outcome. Diversity plays a major role in enhancing creativity within a team, and thus enables faster and accurate decision-making. In addition, acceptance, appreciation, and tolerance of diversity within a team, (be it ethnic, religious, cultural, gender, sexual orientation or any other type of team and workplace diversity), impacts the team’s cohesion and subsequent commitment to the team, and the objectives by the team players. This influences an increased creativity level that is guaranteed to improve performance. However, diversity in itself, without proper leadership, can be dangerous to a team and cause conflicts and disagreements due to conflicting viewpoints. As such, leadership is a crucial component in managing diverse cultures, ethnic groups, and religious viewpoints, as well as enabling the exploitation of diversity for positive change and improved performance. Diversity, in terms of the skills and professional experiences of the team members, and a focus on the achievement of the team’s objectives is fundamental for enhanced success. The ability for team members to be able to compliment and supplement each other’s talents and skills in the effort to achieve organisational change is the most crucial element that enables cohesion, creativity, and commitment and thus greatly impacts team performance and organisational commitment.

CHAPTER SIX Conclusions and Future Research

This chapter houses the conclusion and recommendation on future research in accordance to the findings and challenges incurred while conducting this study. It will draw researcher’s conclusion to the connection between team performance and ethnic diversity, a focus on Nigeria organizations. The summary is broken down into cultural diversity, creativity, role of leadership, and diversity mapped to capture research objectives accordingly.

6.1 Theme Analysis

The study’s objectives aim to analyse each of the facets of diversity, and its influence the performance of a team. The study examined how diversity influences a team’s cohesion, creativity, and commitment. As such, this focus formed the basis of the research questions that interviewees responded to during the field study. The three indicators were considered as the building blocks for improved team performance. The research focused on exploring the connection between team performance and ethnic diversity within an organisational environment, focusing on Nigerian organisations. The research focused on the organisational settings while investigating indicators behind ethnic groups and the way they influence creativity and leadership. A wide review of literature highlighted that ethnicity, just like any other form of diversity, presents an inconclusive impact on team cohesion, and ultimately on team performance. This can be mainly attributed to wide spread stereotypes over the course of history that have led to the compartmentalisation of individuals into different groups with similarities found in behaviour, language and communication. In certain environments, ethnic diversity can actually be toxic and significantly contribute to dampening group cohesion, and therefore greatly minimises performance; contrastingly, in other environments, ethnic diversity is accepted, accommodated, and exploited for creativity. Most scholars are also in agreement that the major difference between these two environments is the type of leadership structure adopted for use. Existing literature linked the influence of diversity range from cultural, religious beliefs, age, gender, and ethnic to organizational competitive advantage through heightening creativity, innovativeness, and performance of a team. The two broad themes include leadership and creativity. Leadership would largely observe the aspect of commitment as well as responsibilities, which are assigned to specific people within a group. The concept of team performance has been widely explored by researchers capturing indicators to organisational success and factors affecting overall efficiency. One indicator that has received equal attention from scholars and researchers is diversity, exploring the ways in which it is related to organisational performance, team output, commitment, efficiency, and cohesion, from both managerial and employee perspectives. However, ethnic diversity in the context of team performance in the workplace is a less understood area of research. This study aimed to explore the context of Nigerian organisations, describe the relationship between ethnic diversity and team performance, and bridge the existing literature gap between the context and diversity-performance relationship.

6.2 Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity, just like religious and ethnic diversity, influences the behaviour, ideas, attitudes, and perspectives of individual team members regarding the common subject of discussion or the intended goals or objectives for the teams. As such, whether or not they positively or negatively influence a team’s cohesion, creativity, and commitment, and subsequently influence the team’s performance, is dependent on the level of tolerance, acceptance, and accommodation of the diverse opinions, ideas, behaviours, and perspectives that arise with cultural differences. It is evident that ethnicity is indeed a potentially significant factor in a workplace setting and as such, the handling of ethnic diversity is an important factor in the eventual performance of a team. This headlines the importance of leadership in the eventual functionality of an ethnically diverse team as emphasised by the findings. While the research topic is rather specific on ethnic diversity, the literature review, and actual research, study expands on diversity to analyse additional types of diversity, which may also have a potential and significant impact on the performance of a team. Such indicators include the religion, culture, age, gender, physical health, and sexual orientation of the team members. Through good leadership, which fosters tolerance, acceptance, and accommodation of diverse opinions and perspectives within the team, and also ensures a conducive working environment for open discussion and decision-making around these diversities, a team is capable of utilising their diverse opinions, ideas and perspectives into moulding effective and highly efficient solutions to their collective problems, in order to achieve their goals and objectives. As such, different individuals can exchange and share their various ideas, perspectives, and knowledge about a common subject or object in an open and educative way, which subsequently enhances their collective decision-making abilities, and eventual creativity of the team and team members. In addition, the acceptance and accommodation of these diversities influence the development of trust and acceptance among teammates, and inspires increased involvement and engagement, which consequently influences the cohesion of the team bringing the members much closer. Through enhanced cohesion and improved performance due to high levels of creativity, team members are likely to be more committed to the team, and thus ensure the long-term sustainability of good performance from the team. In addition, through effective leadership within a team, various team members learn to tolerate the diversity that occurs from the difference in ethnicity; additionally, the continued interaction between team members leads to the appreciation and accommodation of the diverse ethnic backgrounds. As a result, team cohesion, and in turn, performance and creativity may be achieved. A cohesive and creative group optimises its performance to the maximum efficiency and satisfaction of all team members. This impacts the members’ commitment and conviction to the group, guarantees the continued sustainability and improved performance.

6.3 Team Membership and Leadership

Leadership, as one of the main themes identified during thematic coding in the research, is considered to convince and influence inspirational motivation, which is confirmed through communication of the vision. This means that regardless of how team members differ from one another, leadership sets a common goal for all members, while establishing the mission under realistic conditions. Leaders should make an effort to raise the hopes and expectations of the team members, while enhancing interpersonal interactions. For example, the first interviewee of the exploratory interviews, confirmed that a good team only survives when there is a dream, a vision and unity, as well as a common goal. These elements can only be enjoyed when an effective leader provides a chance for each team member to highlight his abilities. Following coding of the data, various main themes were identified as the most promising tools that could bridge the gap between team performance and ethnic diversity. Within the Nigerian case study, leadership has been linked to power. The findings indicated that a good team is the one that accommodates individual enthusiasm and conduct. While some of the respondents argued that smaller, teams would perform relatively better than larger teams, the requirement of the leadership tool remained significant and relevant at the same time. Some dimensions of leadership discussed include the charisma influence, which conforms to leadership behaviours. One of the respondents noted that a team comprised of diverse personalities would succeed if the leaders channel the diversity and provide direction. Alongside the finding, the discussion and analytical areas noted that good leadership would simultaneously instil pride, embrace optimism, and build respect. This means that regardless of the team differences, leadership remains to be a powerful tool that would take advantage of team diversity to impact team performance. Furthermore, the key role of leadership is to serve as a transitional tool between ethnic diversity and team performance. This can effectively be achieved by tapping into the potential, ideas, and capacity of ethnic diversity, and tailoring such abilities to address the gap in team performance. Therefore, a group without leadership may not realise the importance of diversity and influence in relation to team performance. Leadership also bolsters intellectual stimulation. This is perfectly reasoned through personalities, skills and the knowledge people possess, instead of focusing on differences in ethnic backgrounds. For any team to survive and realise the impact of intellectual stimulation, a leader should be able to communicate with confidence and power, the purpose of instilling the spirit of understanding among the group members. Respondents recognised the importance of communication as an important tool to bridge the gap among team members. As much as some of the respondents had different opinions as to what would lead to effective communication, leadership remains paramount as far as communication of ideas, the level of understanding, and the aspect of sharing is implemented for consideration. Another respondent confirmed that effective leadership enshrines good communication, which would change the attitude of members. Therefore, leadership is well integrated in team performance and ethnic diversity by effectively communicating ideas. Another area of interest that captured the attention of the research is creativity. A common theme of all 30 interviews was the focus on creativity and ethnic diversity, which forms the backbone of the innovation path. From the findings, it could be established that creativity reflects the ability to use original ideas for the entire reason of creating something.

6.4 Creativity and innovation

The findings also established the fact that leaders should have the ability to harvest and harness ideas from the scope of diversity. From the findings, it is clear that the strong ethnic diversity resulted in the creation of creative products, shaped by different backgrounds, coupled by inference that creativity and diversity are determined by culture, people, and environment. Theories, such as constructivism, perfectly articulate the beneficial interaction among people, their environment, and culture. The fruits of creativity are well noted when the interaction moves beyond the boundaries. It can be concluded that creativity has been found to be the true backbone of diversity and team performance. The findings convey that good team performance may not be witnessed in the absence of creativity, as creativity provides a scope that incubates ‘next-generation ideas’. However, findings point to demands, whereby each group member must go beyond the conventional way of performing or doing, in order to establish better work ethics for the scope of the assignment. Therefore, a team can only grow when new ideas are brought to impact decision-making and problem-solving. This cannot work if diversity is not brought into play. This is a major limitation of diversity-performance.

6.6 Limitation of Research

In contemporary society, technological advancement has significantly influenced the lifestyles of people across the world, affecting world perception, interrelations with others, beliefs, ways of life, traditions, and cultures. Therefore, this outside interference and movement of people to other areas (urban areas) has direct and indirect influence on cultures and traditions. Increasing interaction of people from different backgrounds, culturally and religiously, particularly in urban areas has made pointing out a true cultural identify difficult. In this light, the study was limited to 26 participants. While the research aimed to strike an ethnic and age balance, there was a disproportionate balance. In addition, the research showed drawbacks while trying to control the unexpected themes that kept occurring during the interview. Such prominent themes included leadership, religion, and team differences, although could only count as supporting themes.

6.7 Future Research

Diversity represents one of the major indicators in sustainability of organisational commitment and team performance. Diversity represents a net of indicators that inevitably influence an individual’s behaviours, opinions, ideas, perspectives, and beliefs. The findings list different forms of diversity that can exist within a team including ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, age as well as diversities based on disability and sexual orientation. While diversity is an important aspect of a team’s performance, it can equally be the main cause of the lack of performance, especially concerning how team members view their diverse nature. Most aspects of diversity, as discussed above, involve sensitive topics that are likely to create rifts and alienation between members of a particular team. As a result, it is essential to develop an organisation culture that is inclusive and accommodating of different diverse ideas and perspectives, be they cultural, ethnic, and religious or skills. This further emphasises the importance of leadership and leadership structures within a team to enhance the impact of cultural diversity. Furthermore, effective leadership enables the development of an inclusive organisation culture that enhances the engagement and performance of team member’s despite their differences. The organisational culture also enables the open-minded discussion of these cultural differences, with the aim to provide solutions to group problems, thereby influencing the ability of teammates to be creative based on their diversity. Therefore, cultural diversity, coupled with good management and leadership, will most likely lead to positively influences for the team, and thereby improve its performance. In this light, future research should focus on the relationship between background and leadership; exploration of whether such indicators, as values and beliefs, should be instilled during upbringing; and the influence of leaderships indicators. Second, provided the apparent influence of globalisation and technologies on lifestyle, cultural values, traditional components, and beliefs, studies should investigate whether ripple effects exist, focusing primarily on team cohesion, engagement, involvement, and leadership.

6.8 Policy Recommendations

With keen observation on diversity and team performance, policymakers seemingly have the added task of integrating contextual diversity for the purpose of aiding productivity. Policy makers are recommended to implement a gender- and equality-focused policy that fosters ethnic and gender balance, while encouraging diversity. Notably, policymakers should avoid instances marked by the dominance of one ethnic group. Second, informative campaigns need to be facilitated for the purpose of forging the appropriate initiative that would boost diversification. This can be supported by putting in place knowledge-sharing events that mandate gender and ethnic audits, while paving the way for equal financial initiatives. Lastly, inclusion policies should foster an ambient climate, geared more towards innovation and equal access to resources.

6.9 Contributions to Knowledge and Implications of Research

In contemporary societies, globalisation that has resulted in extensive interaction with people from different ethnical and cultural backgrounds, especially urbanisation, has significantly led to the absence of pure cultural beliefs, norms, and perceptions. A good example is the penetration of western culture, and its power to replace traditional beliefs and religious observations in developing nations. As such, arguably, although traditional African ideas and cultural values exist across the continent, one cannot assume the individuals, primarily those working in urban areas (where most organization are located) and educated through western-oriented education system, will purely possess African traditional values, beliefs, and norms. This research into relation between ethnic diversity and team performance looks into heightening organizational performance by fostering team cohesion, engagement, decision-making, and problem-solving. Nigeria, being one of the most diverse countries across the global, can enhance such as ethnic, religious, age, and gender to advancing its business and organizational performance through tapping on team creativity and innovativeness. However, findings show potential of team diversity slowing or lowering down performance especially in a big team due to grouping of people of same values and views while at the same time supressing opinion of others due to prejudice.

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