The Effect of Age Related HR Practices on Perceived Age Discrimination, Employee Commitment, Turnover Intentions and The Moderating Effect of Diversity Management. A Survey Investigation in Nigerian Banks

This study investigated the role of Human Resource Management practices in age discrimination and employee commitment in the Nigerian banking sector. The study was motivated by the need to understand how the configuration of Human Resource (HR) practices in terms of age inclusivity are related to perceptions of discrimination on the grounds of age, and the relationship between perceived age discrimination, affective commitment and turnover intentions in culturally diverse and developing countries like Nigeria. An empirical quantitative approach was adopted for this study, based on six hundred and fifty-six employees from seventeen wholly-owned Nigerian banks. A number of hypothesised relationships were developed and tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) based on Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) while PROCESS was used to test the moderating effects on the relationships. This thesis extends the knowledge in diversity management, specifically in a diverse sample, first by revealing how [age] discrimination is manifested, and how and why commitment might be perceived, expressed and experienced in different contexts. The implications of these findings for context-specific diversity management are presented.

The findings show that in organisations with no age-inclusive HR practices, employees perceived greater age discrimination and were less committed to their organisations and low employee commitment was associated with higher turnover intentions. Furthermore, diversity management practices were found to moderate the main effect between perceived age discrimination and employee commitment in such a way that the relationship was weaker when a high level of diversity management was introduced. This thesis makes important contributions to both theory and literature in the field of Human Resource Management research by extending the empirical application of Social Exchange Theory. It demonstrates how the predicted relationships also hold in a previously unstudied context by evidencing the moderating effect of diversity management on the relationship between perceived age discrimination and employee commitment. This study offers practical information to managers and policymakers regarding the impact of age discrimination during recruitment that may not put their organisations at a competitive advantage. Finally, this study will encourage policymakers to put measures in place to enforce existing laws on discrimination which will help in improving performance and reduce the number of unemployed youths, thus boosting the country’s economy.