Humanizing Ethnic Workforce Diversity in a 21st Century Organization: A Grounded Theory Case Study in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

The 21^st century organizations comprise diverse individuals from different ethnic ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, orientations, ideas, and perspectives on life in general; who come together as a team to achieve a common organizational goal, and managing these diversities has not been an easy task for the human resource development managers as the employees' uniqueness subconsciously play out which tend to interfere with organizational, managerial policies, thereby posing a challenge in the management of these differences. This study seeks to examine the humanization of the challenges faced in managing these ethnic diversities in an ethnically diverse organization. A case study of the Grounded Theory approach was employed on a sample of 49 staff in a Real Estate Company in Nigeria, who were administered a semi-structured interview. The findings show that the attributes of ethnic diversity are natural traits that form the individuals' personalities, and as a result, individual differences should be respected and properly managed for positive organizational productivity and competitive advantage.