Socio-Cultural Variables as Indices of Discriminatory Practices in the Workplace: A Sociological Analysis of Employment Relations in Nigeria

The socio-cultural differences observable in the larger political society have been replicated in the workplace to its detriment. Thus, the workplace has been turned into a contested terrain by socio-cultural forces: religion, culture, ethnicity, politics and statism, inter-alia. The influence of these factors on inter-personal and inter-group relations affects the distribution and utility of power as it no longer remains an end in itself but a means to other ends defined by the afore-mentioned narrow-minded variables. This is the crux of the matter. Consequently, the contest for power by various groups along these lines has turned the workplace into an arena of conflicts of various colourations as those who hold power deploy it as an instrument of coercion and for advancing the primordial interests of their kit and kin, group members and supporters to the disadvantage of other groups within the same organization. In such organizations, hard work no longer determines upward mobility such as promotions or appointments. Rather, upward social mobility in terms of career advancement depends on perceived measure of loyalty or group identity by those who expropriate power and its resources within the organization. The paper attempts to x-ray the magnitude of the impact of the subjective application of power for the advancement of group interests; its impact on inter-personal and inter-group relations, morale and productivity, and the distribution of objective rewards such as appointments and promotions, staff training and development; and the conflictual effects on the social structure of the organization in the future based on this negative development that presently pervade and bedevil the workplace in Nigeria, and by implication the developing world in general. v