| dc.description.abstract | This PhD thesis explores how core national cultural values of ethnically diverse employees in Nigeria influence their understanding/views of organisational values and their commitment to these values. The study is motivated by the need to understand the impact of ethnic culture on employee value allegiance and how this translates into ethnic loyalty or organisational commitment within private sector organisations in culturally diverse and developing economies like Nigeria. Twenty employees from two wholly-owned Nigerian commercial banks formed the subjects of this research. Using a multiple case study design, based on interviews and vignettes, constructs which represent employees’ ethnocultural values and organisational values were explored in relation to employees’ accounts of workplace practices. This thesis extends the knowledge in cross-cultural management, specifically in a multi-ethnic sample, first by revealing how commitment might be experienced in different cultures and why, and second, by putting forward propositions for applicable culture-specific considerations which can enhance the cross-cultural applicability/adaptability of egalitarian organisational values in a culturally diverse and developing country such as Nigeria. The findings show that ethnocultural values and practices thrive in Nigerian organisations which espouse egalitarianism due to the inability of employees to translate implicit/explicit organisational values into required job/workplace practices. Also, the employees' consciousness of differences is sustained through organisational relationships based on status, and the social distance between managers and subordinates. Consequently, this research reveals a missing link between organisational structure on paper and the relationships which that structure presumably supports, in practice, in Nigerian Banks. This research also shows that the structural elements of an organisation can be disconnected from its attitudinal counterparts, which can have far-reaching implications, including negative consequences, for managing employees within organisations in a multi-ethnic context. | en_US |
