The effects of organizational diversity perception on affective commitment

ABSTRACT

The Korean government introduced the “Balanced Public Personnel Policy” in the mid-1990s. Since then, diversity in the public sector has increased dramatically. However, studies examining the effect of diversity on organisation are scant. To fill the research gap, this study analysed the effects of organisational diversity using a sample of 778 employees from 35 Korean state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The study measured social category diversity, informational diversity, and value diversity and analysed their impacts on conflict and affective commitment. The results show that (1) social category diversity decreased conflict and increased affective commitment, (2) informational diversity did not have a statistically significant impact on conflict and affective commitment, (3) value diversity increased conflict and decreased affective commitment, and (4) conflict had a mediating effect on the relationship between value diversity and affective commitment. This study shows that organizational diversity affects affective commitment and that different types of diversity have different outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• diversity
• diversity perception
• affective commitment
• conflict
• Korean public sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Survey items for each variable are provided in the Appendix.

2. See the Appendix.

3. According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, SOEs are classified into two different types depending on the number of employees and the income (http://www.alio.go.kr/home.do).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sangsuk Kim

Kim, Sangsuk is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the BK21Four Project group (“SNU-GSPA Research Group for Developing Global Convergent and Innovative Talents in the Era of Inclusive Governance”) of the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. She received a PhD in Public Administration from Ewha Womans University. Her research interests include workforce diversity, representative bureaucracy, and public service motivation etc. ([email protected])

Geunjoo Lee

Geunjoo Lee is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. He received his Ph.D. from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington. His research interests include public personnel management, organisational behaviour, diversity management and performance management. ([email protected])