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Managing Employee Diversity for Effective Productivity in Secondary School in Rivers State JOHN IIBI IAUE/2017/EDM/Ph.D./0041 A SEMINAR PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF Ph. D IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT (ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION). AT IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION RIVERS STATE. Abstract There is increasing observation that diverse employee management pose challenges and threats to effective school administration and management in Nigeria. The paper examined managing employee diversity for effective productivity in secondary schools in Rivers State. However, in order to achieve this, the paper considered the following: the introduction to the study, conceptual clarification of management, diversity management and effective productivity. The paper also considered motivation and incentives as a form of encouragement to take action, they are direct and indirect benefits offered to employees. They are two types of incentives, monetary and non-monetary. The paper also discussed the strategies of managing employee’s diversity. The paper suggested that schools and government should create and maintain policies guiding diversity management and employees in accordance to those differences as this will reduce if not eradicate discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice. Also that Rivers State is a multicultural state and such school administrators and policy makers should not carry their cultural experiences and perspectives to their educational decisions and actions to avoid cultural conflicts in a pluralistic school environment. Key Words: Management, Diversity, Employees Diversity, Effective productivity Introduction The increasing diversity of the workforce has been one of the most important management issues that emerged in recent years. The differences existing among individuals in the work place in relation to age, religion, culture, gender, disability among others referred to as employee diversity. The success of an organization is dependent of the work force. The success and quality of the students is determined by the quality performance of the employees managed by both academic and non-academic staff of the school as an organization. The increasing trend of workforce diversity along racial, ethnic, and gender lines, as well as increasing percentage of the workforce that is below the age 30 and above the age 55 have several implications for human resource development experts, employees and the organization in general. In recent years, greater access to jobs for women especially in the federal and state ministries, parastatals, agencies have been increasingly diversified in Nigeria’s workforce. In secondary schools, diverse cultural backgrounds, different ethnic groups, different gender, age, religion, and educational background are drawn from the employees. The key factor of this study is to know how these diverse employees are being managed? Diversity is the way that people differ which can affect performance of a task within an organization, these differences could be in terms of age, gender, religion, race, education, culture etc. Diversity is dissimilarities, differences among people due to age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, physical appearance, socio-economic background, educational experiences, capabilities, disabilities and any other characteristics that are used to distinguish among people. The aim of employee’s diversity is to select the best people of each group by identifying, attracting and retaining a workforce where talents can perform at its best to maximize organizations value. It is important to recognize and embrace the diversity that employees bring to the organizations. Each employee is to be valued and encouraged to maximize his/her potential in the workplace. People from various walks of life should be able to serve in order to make the organization successful. The creative positive power that comes from diversity can be achieved. The ability to attract, develop and retain a quality diverse workforce lies in the organization success, thereby promoting an environment that values professional growth, individual respect, and dignity. Important ethical and social responsibility issues are raised by diversity. Diversity is a critical issue for secondary schools, such that if not properly handled can impede the growth of an organization especially in this increasing global world. The effective management of diversity is not just bringing diverse employees, it means to appropriately respond and appreciate the needs, values, beliefs and needs that diverse people bring to the school. It also means finding the most effective ways to utilize talents and skills of diverse employees by correcting misconceptions about how and why different kinds of employee groups differ from one another. In other to succeed on this, management shows greater effort towards accepting differences by opening work opportunities to people of diverse culture, religion, race, sex, experience, educational background and disability. In a diverse environment of employees, the management of secondary schools has to do with the understanding of educational curriculum, orientations, educational training and experience of the employees. Employees’ interest and organizational interest are always at a conflict because of the diversity of the employees. In some cases, diversity of employees’ interest influences organizational interest, if administration is not able to ascertain the interest of its employees and that of the organization when making a decision. Diverse traits also influence the attitude and behavior of employee to work, hence performance and productivity of employees according to Nwankwo (2004) will always have different levels of input. Conceptual Clarification Here conceptual meanings and clarifications are made in respect of management, diversity, diversity management, effective productivity. Management Management is an important organizational tool necessary in the effective and efficient achievement of organizational goals. The school system is unique because its major objectives is the development of human resources for the growth and development of society. Base on this, it is very important that the school is managed properly. Management is conceptual because it could mean different things in different situations. According to Agabi and Akinwumiju (2008) defined management as planning and organizing human and material resources in such a way that can ensure effectiveness and efficiency in an organization. In this case management is directed at the achievement of organizational goals most advantageously in terms of the use of organizational resources. Management is a social or interaction process designed to ensure cooperation, participation and involvement of others in order to achieve predetermined goals of any organization (Obasi & Asodike, 2007). It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an organization through the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain organizational objectives (Nwachukwu, 1988) in (Ilueme & Ebirim, 2016). It is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively in an organization (Wikipedia, 2015). It is the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people. Management functions are planning, organizing, staffing, reporting, directly, coordination and budgeting. Agabi cited in Agabi and Ebong (2004) sees management “the organization of all human and material resources in a particular system for the achievement of some specific organizational objectives in the most rational manner.” Management is required in every organization whether profit or non-profit making for effective performance. The need for management arises whenever people work together to achieve predetermined objective. However, according to Bratton and Gold (2012) the term management may be applied to either a social group or a process. Adeyemi (2009) in Asodike and Adieme (2014) opines that management as a social process is concerned with identifying, maintaining, motivating, controlling, and unifying formally and informally organized human and material resources within a social system. Since the organizations are seen as mobilizing and monitoring of activities in order to effectively achieve organizational goals as well as that of the society that they operate in. Human Resource management (HRM) Human resource management has been defined as that part of the management process that specializes in the management of people in work organizations (Bratton and Gold). The major asset of any organization is its human resources who work for the attainment of the organizational goals. The people in an organization are the ones who make things happen. The sophisticated machines, equipment cannot operate themselves; likewise, are the material resources which when not utilized will be unproductive and wasteful. Bratton and Gold (2012) in Asodike and Adieme (2014) categorically stated that human resource management is concerned with satisfying employees’ work related needs and dealing with their problems. This shows that task-oriented managers should not only focus on the job, but also on the welfare of their subordinates. All employees should be treated as valuable human resource. However, the human resource in education includes the students, teachers, school managers, and administrative staff in the ministry of education and non-academic staff. The HRM in our educational system is the function of the Personal Management Department in the Ministry of Education. But in the nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, it is the function of the office of the head teachers, headmasters/mistresses, principals and the registrars respectively. Their primary concern is the employees, students and their relationship with the organization. Motivation could mean different things to different people. To the ordinary man in the street, it simply means “encouragement”. To Longman (2005) it means very strong reason for action. One can say that motivation refers to the driving force that will comply people to put in their best towards the actualization of goals. Going by this definition of motivation, by the adoption and application of appropriate teaching methodology a teacher can strife for effectiveness if the external forces needed to activate teaching effectiveness are positive, encouraging and continuous, otherwise the teacher may become indifferent to the result of his teaching. Teachers who come to school regularly, teach their lessons, and perform other functions expected of them as teachers, expect to be positively rewarded. Such teachers expect that at the end of the month, their salaries should be paid, they should be recommended for promotion when due; they should not be reprimanded in front of their students, they should not be sacked from work without reason or notice, and they should be provided with facilities that will enable them perform their duties effectively and efficiently. They do not expect to be molested by parents whose children they had admonished in the course of carrying out legal duties. In Nigeria schools, financial remuneration is a powerful instrument of teacher motivation. Every worker desires to receive some payment at the end of the month as in the case of Nigeria. Regular payment of salaries and other emoluments makes the teacher happy in his work because he has something to look forward to as a reward for the performance of assigned duties. However, irregularities in the payment of teacher salaries as well as in the provision of other forms of benefits such as promotion, in-service training, provision of workshop materials and other teaching aids have often resulted in tension and conflict between teachers and their employers. This conflict has often resulted in indifference attitude to work, frequent industrial actions and brain drain in the teaching profession into other fields of endeavor where job performance is better rewarded. Therefore, to stimulate positive attitude to work as well as effective and efficient teacher performance in schools, the following element of reinforcement should be given to teachers: A salary that is not too far removed from that received by their contemporaries in other fields of human endeavor. This salary should be paid regularly as and when due. Workshops should be organized at least annually for teachers, to update their knowledge. Teaching aids should be provided regularly for school teachers. Where this is not always possible, teachers should be allowed to improvise materials to aid the process of teaching and learning. Hardworking teachers should be promoted as and when due. The school environment should be made generally healthy with safe facilities that do not endanger the lives of teachers and learners. These are some of the ways a teacher can be rewarded on his job. If this is done, the school can effectively achieve its goal of improved and sustained standard of education. The teacher on his part will also achieve job satisfaction (Agabi & Akinwumiju 2008). Incentives are a form of encouragement to take action. They are the direct and indirect benefits offered to employees as intrinsic motivators. They are the applications of additional inputs that shape the education process to achieve the eventual outputs of education in desirable ways. According to management study guide, (2013) in Ogbuagu (2016) sees incentive as act or promise for greater action. They are things given in addition to wages. It could additional remuneration of achievement or better work. It is a natural thing that nobody acts without a purpose behind. Therefore, a hope for a reward is a powerful incentive to motivate employees. Beside monetary incentive there are some other stimuli that can drive a person to do better like job satisfaction, job security, job promotion and pride for accomplishment. Incentives is also defined by Ugwu & Coker (2012) in Ogbuagu (2016) as special pay programs designed to motivate high performance. It attempts to link a portion of pay to job performance to encourage higher productivity. They are behaviors that help to achieve educational goal performance. Incentives relates compensation to productivity. A primary purpose of incentive is to encourage greater productivity from individual and work groups. The assumption usually made is that money or cash alone may not motivate employee. In designing incentive, output standard should be established. The standard is the measure of work that an average well trained employee working at normal pace should be able to accomplish in a given period of time. Incentives could be monetary or non-monetary. Concept of Diversity The word diversity originated from the middle English word diversite, used from 1300 to 1350. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary (2015) diversity refers to the state of having or being brought together of differing elements. It implies an addition or annex of different types of people of dissimilar races or cultures in a group, organizations or institutions. That is a situation where there exists a partial change of life within an environment; educational background, and so on. When individuals, plants, animals or things of different types or categories coexist within a particular environment, ecosystem, organization or institutions, this is referred to as diversity. However, diversity means more than just individuals with different educational, socio-economic, religious and political views coexisting. Diversity also means how people become aware of themselves and other people within and outside their immediate environment. Diversity is defined as any characteristic that humans are likely to use to tell themselves, that person is different from me. Differences in people such as employees can be seen in the way people think, the way they act and the different energy levels that they put into their work. Thompson, (2006) cited in Bhalia, (2013) posits that diversity is a variety of experiences and perspectives which arise from difference in race, culture, religion, physical or mental abilities, age, gender, sexual orientation and other characteristics. Cox (2001) defines diversity as the variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or marketing setting. According to Armstrong (2009), diversity refers to the given categories into which individuals fit at birth such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality and gender or that it may refer to the voluntary categories that individuals adapt to over time. Marilyn and Demand (2013) posit that diversity implies valuing the characteristics that make a person unique such as age, ethnicity, education level and family background. They further stated that the inclusion of diverse individuals in a workplace foster a greater and healthier exchange of new ideas among employees which enables the organization to harness the unique characters of the workforce. Diversity Management Diversity Management on the other hand is a combination of programs, policies and activities that support an environment where employees’ differences are valued and integrated into each part of the organization’s operations. It assists in understanding, valuing, respecting and promoting a diverse workforce to ensure that managers retain and capitalize on the ideas and skills all employees bring to the organization. Successful diversity management initiatives enhance both performance and the cohesiveness of an organization. Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and maximize their contributions to an organization’s strategic goals and objectives (Patrick & Kumar, 2012). Organizations have become more global today, this has led to an increase in heterogeneousness among employees and has increased the challenges of organization to manage diverse employees. Incorporating divers people and their perspectives has become major concern for every organization. The repercussions for not managing diversity would lead to lack of skills, competencies, and interest in employees, which will ultimately increase employee turnover and reduce individuals and organizations performance to a great extent. Organizations that manage diversity are recipients of more commitment, and better satisfied as well as performing employees. According to Jones and George (2006), the effective management of diversity means much more than hiring diverse employees. It means learning to appreciate and respond appropriately to the needs, attitudes, beliefs and values that diverse people bring to an organization. It also means correcting misconceptions about why and how different kinds of employee groups are different from one another and finding most effective way to utilize the skills and talents of diverse employees. Diversity management is concerned with organizational efforts to ensure that all people are valued regardless of their differences. It also ensures that all employees have the opportunity to maximize their potentials and enhance their self-development and their contribution to the organization. It recognizes the people from different background can bring fresh ideas and perceptions, which can make the way work is done more efficient and make products and services better. Managing diversity successfully will help organizations to nurture creativity and innovation and thereby to tap hidden capacity for growth and improved competitiveness (Patrick& Kumar, 2012). Diversity management means enabling diverse workforce to perform its full potential in an equitable work environment where no group has an advantage or disadvantage (Torres & Bruxelles,1992) cited in (kundu 2001). In essence diversity management is a strategy that is intended to foster and maintain a positive work environment by human resource experts or managers. Diversity management programs will promote recognition and respect for individual differences found among a group of employees. The main idea of diversity management is to encourage employees to be comfortable with diversity in workplace and develop an appreciation for differences in race, gender, background, sexual orientation or any other factors that may not be shared by everyone working in the same area of the company. Effectiveness The concept of effectiveness is related to efficiency in education. Effectiveness is the ability to produce the desired or intended result. Igwe (2006) made a distinctive differentiation between effectiveness and efficiency. To him, effectiveness is the accomplishment of the recognized objectives of cooperative action and that the degree of accomplishment indicates the degree of effectiveness. He went further to explain, that apparently, an objective of co-operation is non personal, being an aim of the system of co-operation as a whole. However, although effectiveness of co-operation effort relates to accomplishment of an objective of the system and is determined with a view to the system’s requirements, efficiency relates to the satisfaction of individual motives. The effectiveness of an educational system refers to the achievement of the system’s objectives. A senior secondary school is effective if its students perform well in the senior secondary school certificate examination. A subject teacher is effective if his/her students perform well in his /her subject. Therefore, effectiveness is concerned with the achievement of organization’s objectives, lesson objectives, teacher’s objectives among others. The ultimate goal of formal organizations is effectiveness to the extent to which organizations achieve their objectives with minimum expenditure of time and money. The effectiveness of an educational institution is the extent to which students are achieving, the teachers are satisfied, the staff morale is high, the student’s drop-out rate is low, etc. In public utility it is the extent to which services are rendered promptly and satisfactorily; and for business organizations, it is the extent to which profit is maximized. Public utilities in Nigeria in general are said to be ineffective because they fail to satisfy public expectations by not rendering services promptly and adequately (Ukeje, Okorie & Nwagb ara, 1992). Staff Development as a Tool for Effective School Management Staff development can be defined as the efforts put in at improving the performance of staff through skill development and further training. According to Daft (2003:422) in (Agabi & Akinwumiju 2008) “Training and development represent a planned effort by an organization to facilitate employees’ learning of job-related behaviour”. Staff development may include: On the job training Orientation training Classroom/workshop training Out-of-job training On –the-job training: Is a training which an employee acquires in the course of performing his regular assignments. This type of training prepares the teachers for various roles. A more experience teacher is paired with a less experience teacher in the performance of a particular assignment. Through assignment as form teachers, house masters/mistresses, heads of departments, a classroom teacher can also be exposed to administrative tasks, so that when such teacher is eventually pulled from the classroom to administrative functions, he/she will not be a novice in the new position. Orientation training: This is the first training given to new employees. The new employee is introduced to the school mode of operation. The orientation of staff is often carried out by an older staff. The new staff is introduced to the facilities in the school, the culture, standard and goals of the schools are also explained to the new staff in the course of the training. Classroom training/workshop: This type of training is usually carried out in a classroom. Lecturers (resource persons) are invited to give lectures to school staff in a particular areas of school interest. The resource person can also be drawn from the school itself. In this case, a staff that is knowledgeable in a particular problem area may be asked to give workshop training to other members of staff, in a classroom setting \Out-of-job training: This type of training is facilitated by the employer by giving employees the opportunity to improve on their training through the acquisition of higher education. In Nigeria for instance, teachers in most public schools are encouraged to use their long vacation to acquire higher education by participating in sandwich programmes in universities. In some cases, older teachers are granted study leave to enable them acquire full time tertiary education. Such teachers are expected to acquire higher education in areas that are relevant to the school system. They are also expected to return to their jobs at the end of their training especially if such training was acquired with full salary. Out-of-job trainings are facilitated by the employers because the employer provides the enabling conditions but may not necessarily pay the fees for the training programme. Concept of Productivity The concept of productivity is one that could be used to explain different phenomenon in different situations but have the same meaning. Productivity is usually tied to the word ‘produce’ which is used to explain the output derived from a venture. In the economic world, productivity is usually used to refer to the outcome derived by an organization when an economic resource or resources are committed in the form of an input into the production of goods and/or services. Productivity in education can be thought of, as how much individuals and society are getting from the education sector, given the resources they put in. This can be in form of: the quality of the inputs to the educational process, the quality of the process itself and the quality of the outputs from the process. In the 21st century, there has been a shift away from traditional models in which most students might have been viewed as passive recipients of teaching, absorbing information in an uncritical way, to a growing superficial processing of information (Elmore, 2002). Thus, nowadays, education is child-centred, everybody is interested in the performance outcome of a pupil or student. The concept of productivity has two dimensions: efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency refers to the level and quality of service which is obtained from the given amount of resources (Epstein, 1992) in (Adieme & Sergeant-Awuse). If the sector can produce a greater quantity or higher quality of output with the same amount of resources, it has improved its efficiency. Effectiveness relates to the extent to which the provider meets the needs and demands of the stakeholders or customers. In the education sector, these stakeholders include: students, parents, communities, state governments, industry, and the nation at large. In Nigeria, one of the national educational goals is “the acquisition of appropriate skills and the development of mental, physical and social abilities and competencies as equipment for the individual to live in the and contribute to the development of the society” (Federal Republic of Nigeria, p.8). It often helps to view productivity in terms of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. Inputs are the various resources needed to run the educational program. They include: financial resources, customers, clients, staff, student characteristics (academic, demographic, needs and expectations, interests); faculty characteristics; facilities (classrooms, library, buildings, instructional equipment); and instructional programs, curriculum, courses, schedules; support services (canteen, recreation, food, transportation etc.). The transformational processes are how the educational program is carried out. They are as follow: design (courses, programs, schedules. Inputs, class size); delivery (methods to deliver course material to the students); measurement of the outputs (number and frequency of quizzes, tests, assignments, continuous assessment and examinations); and evaluation of the program. The outputs are the units of service. They include: academic achievement (success rates, skill development, competency); graduation, dropout, failure; post- graduate (pass rates on professional examinations, additional education, e.g. success rates in getting admission in graduate schools); and employment achievements (employer satisfaction) (Adieme & Sergeant-Awuse). Challenges of Employees Diversity in senior secondary school Although employees’ diversity management offers opportunities that can enhance school performance, it also presents school organizations with several challenges. It must be recognized that employees do not set aside their cultural values and lifestyle preferences when they come to work, as such, it is expected that these innate differences must generate conflict between and among employees. Unmanaged diversity in the school environment can result in difficulties such as discrimination, ineffective communication and legal action amongst others. In the management of diversity in the school environment it is important to understand the nature of the challenges especially in a developing economy such as Nigeria, in order for school administrators to effectively and efficiently manage them. Some of these challenges include the following: Discrimination, Prejudice and Stigmatization Diversity in the school environment tends to generate a lot of negative treatment towards the minority segment of the population. Staff and students of the minority are discriminated against because of their social class, race, gender, or religion, physical disability, mental disability and so on regardless of their contribution to teaching and learning. In some cases, they are judged not on their effort, talent or physical merit but based on factors listed. Whenever teachers and students of an educational institution are stigmatized because of their tribe, gender, race, physical disability, political affiliation or ethnicity they become resentful towards others and unwilling to teach and learn. The resultant effect is a drop in school productivity. Educational administrators, who engage in judging and prejudicing their staff and students based on certain social differences, unconsciously create an antagonistic teaching and learning environment which inhibits school growth and productivity. According to Lippert-Rasmussen (2006) in Asodike (2016), such discrimination in the work place (school environment) can restrict employees of an organization from the opportunities or privileges they are entitled to. Fear Prevents Effective Teaching and Learning Human beings are naturally in opposition or afraid of change. This fear of opposition to change makes teachers and students of educational institutions afraid of their colleagues who exhibit qualities or characteristics different from what they are used to. In a diverse school environment with teachers and students from different socio-economic backgrounds this fear of change prevents people from teaching and learning together. There are educational administrators or members of school staff who refuse to work with people from a certain social, ethnic, religious and cultural background. They will avoid these individuals or prefer not to assign responsibilities to them; this mentality prevents new ideas from emerging and impedes progress of the organization (Rubin, & Hewstone, 2004) in (Asodike, 2016). Ineffective Communication in Schools Diversity in the school environment in the form of differences in language, disability and cultures can obstruct effective communication between school administrators and students. The ability to effectively communicate an instruction or decision in schools and classrooms is vital to the success or failure of the set educational objectives. Situations where educational managers speak a different language from their subordinates can frustrate effective communication. Cultural and language barriers in educational institutions need to be overcome for diversity programs in a school environment to succeed. Ineffective communication within an educational institution leads to confusion, low morale and costly mistakes. Similarly, teachers and students with disability must also be catered for educationally. Most educational institutions require special teaching and learning materials in order to teach effectively. However, if these teaching and learning materials for the disabled are not made available, the entire process of communicating to these disabled individuals will be compromised. Admission requirements should specify the areas the school can handle and areas they cannot in terms of teaching staff and facilities. Benefits of Diversity Management In this contemporary era of diversification, an educational institution’s productivity, success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and the opportunities it presents. As a result of globalization, the world has become more diverse than ever before. Businesses and educational institutions are able to communicate and exchange ideas with the people from diverse countries, tribes, races, religions, and political affiliations across the globe on “real time” basis (Jaja, 2014). This diverse business world has its advantages such as the following: Greater Market Share Diversity in the school environment builds an educational institution’s market share. An educational institution that has a diverse group of teachers and students from different backgrounds (racial, gender and ethnic), can have a greater market share to all groups of people, from a wide range of racial and ethnic background, men and women, old and young adults. This is because the staff of such an educational institution will appear more approachable and inviting to applicants, particularly students and teachers from similar backgrounds and diverse groups that exist in the school (Asodike 2016). Improved Flexibility In today’ fast changing world of globalization, educational institutions have to remain innovative, flexible and constantly evolving to meet up with the demands of the global market. Educational institutions which fail to evolve and change along with the times are usually left behind or swallowed up by larger institutions that are adaptive and flexible. Loysk (1996) in Asodike (2016) stated that improved flexibility or adaptability is one of the corner-stones of business success and such adaptability in the business of education is usually as a result of a diverse staff. Educational institutions with a diverse workforce can provide an increased variety of educational solutions or innovations in service, teaching and learning, even outsourcing teachers. Productivity and development can be ensured when members of staff are encouraged to bring their diverse talents, experiences and ideas into a flexible and fluctuating school environment. Variety of Opinions, Experiences and Ideas Diversity in the school environment creates a working environment that has a variety of viewpoints and opinions. This is an advantage to educational institutions because it provides different options to choose from in dealing with problems or in accomplishing educational goal. An educational institution that has diverse members of academic and non-academic staff, that are free to communicate their opinion, provides a reservoir of ideas and experiences that can be tapped into by the school. The educational institutions can draw from this basin of ideas to meet strategic business needs of the school and the needs of students (Lunenburg, & Ornsteen, 2009). Strategies of Managing Employees Diversity The modern workforce is far more varied in composition that it has been previously; this is due to factors such as globalization and changes in demography. Diversity is ubiquitous, no two persons are similar as such there is need for the creation and implementation of diversity management strategies which will inspire all employees to perform to their highest ability resulting in higher productivity, profit and return on investment. So many strategies have been identified by scholars on the management of diverse workforce. Wentling, (2013) in Malik-Mustapha, (2011), identifies some strategies for the management of employees’ diversity to include: Training and education program in areas such as awareness building, skill building, helping employees understand the need for valuing diversity, educating employees on specific cultural differences, providing the skills necessary for working in diverse work team and providing the skills and development activities necessary for diverse group to do their job and have the opportunity for advancement. Organizational policies that mandate fairness and equity for all employees. Organizations should provide mentoring programs for minority employees so that they won’t feel intimidated. More systematic career guidance and planning program. Use of performance appraisal systems that are non-discriminatory. Outreach programs, such as internship programs, scholarship, targeting, recruitment in the community and lectures at school. For diversity to succeed, the most crucial strategy is seeing it as commitment throughout the organization beginning with the top management. The school administrator must be committed to managing diversity in the entire school academic and non-academic, diversity result must be measured, that is, it must be accounted for. Managing accountability for achieving results must be emphasized and rewarded. Once this is done other diversity management strategies can be implemented. A diversity management committee can be formed, strategies like diversity training, mentoring system, appraisal systems and encouragement of work teams will be cared for by the committee. In the same vein, Jones and George, (2006) list out eleven steps in managing diversity effectively: Secure top management committee: Top management commitment to diversity is crucial for the success of diversity related initiatives. Top managers need to develop the correct ethical values and performances or business oriented attitudes that allow them to make appropriate use of their human resource. Strive to increase the accuracy of perception: One aspect of developing the appropriate values and attitudes is to take steps to increase the accuracy of perception. Administrators should consciously attempt to be open to other points of view and perspectives. Seek them out, and encourage subordinates to do the same. Increase diversity awareness: It is natural for managers and other members of an organizations to view other people from their own perspective because their own feelings, thoughts, attitudes and experiences guide their perceptions and interaction. The ability to appreciate diversity, however, requires that people become aware of other perspectives and the various attitudes and experiences of others. Diversity awareness programs focus on providing organizational members with accurate information about diversity, uncovering personal biases and stereotypes, accessing personal beliefs, attitudes and values also learning about other points of view. Increase diversity skills: Efforts to increase diversity skills focus on improving the way managers and their subordinate interact with each other and on improving their ability to work with different people. It is important that secondary school employees are able to communicate with diverse employees. Diverse school employees may have different styles of communication, may differ in their language fluency, may use words differently, may differ in the non-verbal signals they send through facial expression and body language and may differ in the way they perceive and interpret information. Managers and their subordinates must learn to communicate effectively with one another if an organization is to take advantage of the skills and abilities of diverse workforce. Encourage flexibility: Managers and their subordinates must learn to be open to different approaches and ways of doing things, they must be open and not feel threatened or intimidated. Employees need must be understood by the management. Managers should be flexible in balancing work life and family life, religious beliefs etc. Pay close attention to how employees are evaluated: managers should ensure that adequate time and attention are focused on the evaluation of employees’ performance without biases. Vague performances standards should be avoided. Consider the number: The relevance of the under-represented groups like women and other minority groups should be recognized and appreciated for the enhancement of productivity. Empower employees to challenge discriminatory behaviors, actions and remarks: When managers or employees witness another organizational member being unfairly treated, they should be encouraged to speak up and rectify the situation. Top managers can make this happen by creating an organizational culture that has zero tolerance for discrimination. Organizational members should feel empowered to challenge discriminatory behavior. Provide training utilizing a multipronged, ongoing approach: Multipronged approach should be used to increase diversity awareness and skills in organizations. These could be use of films and printed materials supplemented by experiential exercises to uncover hidden biases and stereotypes, sometimes a forum for learning and discussion of differences, values experiences should be encouraged. Group exercises, role plays, and diversity related experiences can help organizational members develop the skills they need to work effectively with a variety of people. Reward employees for effectively managing diversity: If the effective management of diversity is a valued organizational objective, then employees should be rewarded for their contribution to this objective. Encourage mentoring of diverse employees: Mentoring is very important for minorities. Mentoring is a process whereby an experienced member of an organization (mentor) provides advice and guidance to a less experienced member (protégé) and helps the less experienced member learn how to advance in the organization and his career. For effective diversity management mentorship must be encouraged. Inclusion as a strategy for management of employee diversity Creating an inclusive working environment is more than just giving everyone equal opportunity. It is about allowing people to be themselves at work, valuing difference and letting them know that their contribution is valued. At its most basic level it is about ensuring that on one feels left out because of age, gender, race, nationality, religion, physical or mental disabilities or social background. Inclusion involves bringing together and harnessing the diverse unique forces and resources possessed by man in a way that makes the institution to benefit from the differences. For schools to achieve this, educational managers must attempt to create an environment of involvement, respect and connection to enable the institution to maximize from the pool and richness of ideas, backgrounds and perspectives for the creation of business, value and goal achievement. In essence, for managers to attain inclusion they need to consider the needs of the unique individuals who make up an organization instead of not putting them into boxes based on certain characteristics (Nara 2012). The U.S. Diversity and Inclusion Plan (2010-2015) proposed some policies for managing and incorporating inclusion as a strategy for managing diversity. They submit that inclusion can be applied as a strategy by: Applying hiring flexibilities/authorities and recruitment strategies to actively build a diverse applicant pool. Reviewing employee view point survey results to identify actions Reviewing attrition surveys that are linked to job satisfaction Implementing outreach plans for all outreach programs through recruitment, information sharing, networking and public relations Mentoring, coaching and provision of support for all diverse groups Participation of all diverse employees in career development activities Encouraging employees to seek or participate in more complex activities Supporting, rewarding and recognizing all actions that promote excellence in the workplace. The U.S. department contends that these policies are necessary because inclusion is the ability to leverage the myriad of differences towards high-performing organizations (U.S. Department of the Interior 2012). Diversity naturally exits but inclusion is only achieved when the culture is open to change, willing to adapt to differences and embarks on a journey to become more cross culturally competent (Hudson, 2011). Conclusion This paper concludes that diverse work team bring high values to organizations, therefore respecting individual differences benefit the work place by creating a safe and fair work environment where everyone has access to challenges and responsibilities this implies that employees should be integrated, accommodation and managed properly for goal attainment. It also concluded that recruitment should come from different sources in respective of age, gender, religion and culture to avoid homogeneity. School administrations should have a conscious understanding of the issues that impinge employee diversity traits, generate new knowledge and adopt management practices to forestall its occurrence. Suggestions This study hereby suggested that: School administrators should have a conscious understanding of employee diversity in educational institutions. Thereby, allocating courses to employees in their area of specialization in order to bring about effective productivity. Government should have an understanding of how to manage employee by prompt payment of salaries, employees who are due for promotions should be promoted. Schools and government should create and maintain policies guiding diversity management and manage employees in accordance to those differences as this will reduce if not eradicate discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice. Rivers State is a multicultural state. School administrators and policy makers should not carry their cultural experiences and perspectives to their educational decisions and actions to avoid cultural conflicts in a pluralistic school environment instead cultural synergy should be created in workplace. A positive climate in an inclusive workplace will foster and promote diversity. References Adieme, F. G. & Sergeant-Awuse, V. D. (2016). Benchmarking for Productivity in Schools. In S. O. Oluwuo & J. D. Asodike (Eds.). Managing schools for productivity (PP.58-76). Port Harcourt: Pearl. Akinwumiju, J. A. & Agabi, C. 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