ABSTRACT
The study examined workplace discrimination using the Nigerian police force as a case study.The study adopted survey research design through the use of questionnaire as data collection instrument. Stratified sampling technique was adopted by dividing the entire police population in Ogun State into four strata. Quantitative method of data analysis was adopted to draw inferences about effects and relationships among variables.The study provided both theoretical and statistical evidences to show that managerial skill has positive and significant effect on talent retention in The Nigeria Police Force in Ogun State, Nigeria (β=32.177, t=21.897). Career development has positive and significant effect on talent retention in The Nigeria Police Force in Ogun State (β=0.478, t=18.362, p=0.000). When the moderating effect of work climate was individually tested, it had significant moderating effect on the relationship between workplace discrimination and talent retention (β=0.004, 29 R2=0.041, p<0.05). Also, the individual moderating effect of religion affiliation on the relationship between workplace discrimination and talent retention in The Nigeria Police Force in Ogun State was negative and statistically significant (R2=0.002 or 0.2%, p<0.05). It was finally established from the findings that workplace discrimination had combined significant effects on talent retention in the Nigeria Police Force in Ogun State (R2=0.358, F=181.158, p<0.05).It was concluded that workplace discrimination truly exists in the Nigeria Police Force in Ogun State, Nigeria, and its dimensions; managerial skills, career development, institutional policy and workforce diversity affect talent retention. Furthermore, when religious affiliation and work climate were combined together, workplace discrimination became explicit in decreasing talent retention. It was therefore recommended that workplace discrimination that fuels low talent retention should be discouraged.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Globally, retaining talented employees is challenging to organisations in the face of hyper-competition, corporate failures, employees’ turnover, absenteeism and workplace discrimination. The concern emanates from the philosophical assumption that talented employees are instrumental to organisational success (Collins, 2006, 2009), and a determining factor in an organisation sustainability, and competitive advantage (Porter, 2008). organisations depend highly on the inherent experience and technical ability of their talented employees to strive with competitors (Armstrong, 2009) and to perform above average returns (Schuler, 2011, Vaiman, Scullion & Collins 2012). However, workplace discrimination has affected the retention of talented workforce in many organisations both .Â
The scholarly argument for talented employees retention is anchored on intellectual capital perspective (Becker, 2000) and resources based view (Penrose, 1959), and three reasons stated by Harvard Business Essential i.e. (1) the need for growth on intellectual capital, (2) the occasional relationship that connects talented employee and customer satisfaction, and (3) financial cost of employee’s turnover and lack of interruption of competitive goods and services (Chitra, 2013). In addition, Armstrong (2006 &2010) and Becker (2000) emphasised the effect of intellectual capital as human intangible assets to organisation longevity and financial success.
Nevertheless, recent studies have revealed the difficulty in the retention of talented employees for the organisations as several employees are lured and hired with better rewards (Armstrong, 2006; Desseler, 2008; Michael & Crispen, 2009; Michael, 2008). The after-effect has been industrial espionage and loss of intellectual property. Hence, competitive advantage is eroded when talented employees are not given chance to have a long stay in the organisation so as to maintain lack of disconnection of company’s competitive products and services in the market within which it operates (Michael, 2008).
Abbasi and Hollman (2000) indicate that in an instance of losing a talented employee by an organisation, it becomes a disadvantage to innovation, consistencies in providing quality services become vulnerable, and there exists major setbacks in services rendered to customers. These negative effects emerged since talented employees are the progenitors of knowledge, innovation, and creativity that constitute the main advantages of an organisation over its rivals. From the foregoing, talented employees retention is fundamental to an organisation’s competitiveness (Rath & Rath, 2014).
Talented employees’ retention is confronted with challenges due to workplace discrimination in today’s business world. Proprietors, management and other employers of labour acknowledged the reality of workplace discrimination orchestrated by employees’ diversity; age, gender, marital status, social status, health status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity, race, career focus, and culture (Kossek, Lobel,& Brown, 2005). In this regard, studies in the area of discrimination have examined such characteristics in relation to organizational behavioral outcomes and performance (Channar, Abbassi, & Ujan 2011).
In spite of the worldwide acceptance of the law as an appropriate instrument for dealing with workplace discrimination challenges and the conscious efforts of organizations to rid themselves of such practices, workplace discrimination remains a global reality (Beau champ & Bowie, 1993; Gregory & Thompson, 2010). The concern for workplace discrimination arises from the assumption that it causes disparity, organizational injustices, and inequity among employees of different groups or associations within the organization (Robins & Judge, 2014; Jie, Ashok, Brian & Manjit, 2009).
Weiss (2008) sees workplace discrimination as a recent managerial task which demands serious attention because its after-effect amplifies the intention of talented employees to leave and hinders organization from wining a competitive advantage. Authors who research on discrimination rarely give close attention to variables such as (1) religion affiliation (2) work climate (3) managerial skills (4) career development (5) institutional policy and (6) workforce diversity. Rather, attention has always been more on disability, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexual orientation, with others in relation to workplace discrimination (Channar, Abbassi, & Ujan 2011; Darity & Mason, 1998; Hoobler, Lemmon & Wayne, 2011).
