Organisational Behaviour (OB) can be defined as a multi-disciplinary area of focus in modern business environment. According to Olutoye and Asikhia (2022) this is intended to understand, predict and influence individual behaviours in organisational setting. Hence, it can be argued that organisational behaviour is an area of focus on how people, groups and structures have on behaviour within entities for the sake of application of such knowledge towards improvement of an organisation effectiveness. Further, Zam et al. (2021) argue that for the efficiency and performance of modern organisations, there is a need for harnessing their organisation behaviour. The rationale of this is that the synergy and behaviour between the people in an organisation establish the level of their efficiency. Without an organisation having an appropriate organisation behaviour and structure of operations, it would be a significant challenge attaining a long-term success (see figure 1 relationship).

Figure 1: Relationship of Organisational Behaviour and other factors in an organisation

Hence, similar to figure 1 summary, it is evident that through a prioritisation of organisational behaviours, it is possible to improve job satisfaction, enhance performance, promote innovation and foster good leadership qualities. The relevance of this concept is evidenced by what Kalwani and Mahesh (2020) identify as the Hawthorne Effect which evidence on the people’s behaviour changes in an event they assume a feeling of being observed. Additionally, with appropriate organisational behaviours lacking, employees would end up facing an immense irrationality. This would have a severe implication of equal employment opportunities in the organisation.

1.2 Introduction of Areas of Interest

In this report, the aim is to evaluate the impact of diversity on individual decision making and citizenship behaviour. These are concepts of OB which successful implementation is dependent on the appropriateness of how these concepts are exercised and implemented in the modern business environment.

Diversity

Diversity is a concept which identify approaches in which individuals possess same or distinct features from each other. This concept is specifically defined by Mousa et al. (2020) as an organisation being open to perspectives from distinct backgrounds leading to increased creativity and resilience increased. Hence, it means that diversity is characterised by varying features in specific work roles including aspects of gender, race, age, education, tenure and functional background. Over the years, Ohunakin et al. (2019) noted that this has significantly increased in its popularity and particularly entail ensuring that there is an increased representation of the minorities and disabled individuals in labour market. Hence, this means for the most successful organisations, they have appropriately invested in diversity management which ensure an inclusive organisation climate is established appreciating the personal differences and respects intergroup dissimilarities as core role of diversity management policies. The importance of this concept is evidenced in World Economic Forum (2019) as characterised by 75% of people believing on organisations innovativeness when a culture of diversity is in place. Similarly, considering Millennials represent 47% of the entire and are significantly prioritising on diversity in workplace in searching for their potential employers.

Decision Making

In an organisation operations, decision making is a core area in such a set up. For instance, as evidenced in Erdogan et al. (2021) the process entail identification and selection of other solution which lead to a desired action. This means that decision making is inclusive of distinctive processes which are immediate phases between the thought and the action which is taken. As evidenced in Aydiner et al. (2019) it is instrumental for organisational decision making to be successful for efficiency of the organisation operations. This is since the entities succeed through the quality and distinct decisions which are arrived at over time. This is with high-quality and speedy decision-making harnessing organisations performances. The effectiveness of these decisions inform on how the organisations perform in their business sector. In this regard, it would be essential ensuring that the decision makers possess relevant skills and capabilities for holistic decision making in a prompt and translating them into their actions in a consistent manner.

Citizenship Behaviour

This is an important concept of an organisation effectiveness which is involved in shaping the social, operational, and psychological components of organisational processes inclusive of workplace happiness. Hence, it can be argued that when employees diversity is promoted, it is possible to promote appropriate decision making with the employees actively taking part in citizenship behaviour. This means that there are positive and constructive employees actions and behaviours which are not integrated in their formal job description. This is supported by Ali and Anwar (2021) this note that employees perform positive activities/actions benefitting their co-workers and the business. This is despite of being eliminated/eliminated from the basic job description and specification. Hence, the employees implement such actions with their free wiliness supporting all colleagues and benefits of the organisation holistically.

2.0 Overview of Diversity

2.1 Meaning of Diversity

As aforementioned, diversity has been identified as a process where an organisation intentionally engage employees who are made up of people of varying characteristics. These characteristics include gender, religion, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education and attributes. This is supported by Cletus et al. (2018) identifying the diversity process as being either internal, external, organisational and worldview.

Figure 2: Types of Diversity

Internal Diversity– Adopting the definition of Miles-Johnson and Linklater (2022) this is a process which identify the internal diversity characteristics which are linked to situations that an individual has been born into. Basically, they represent the things in which an individual did not willingly select to belong to and characterised with impossibility of changing. It is in this regard that CIPD (2022) which is an organisation dealing with improving employees capacity development identified this as inclusive of race, ethnicity, age and national origin. Also, these include sexual orientation, cultural identity, assigned sex, gender identity, physical ability and mental ability.

External Diversity– In Tamunomiebi and John-Eke (2020) report which focused on evaluating the workplace diversity through an evaluation of emerging issues in contemporary reviews, appropriate findings were obtained. This was identified as applicable in evidencing the things which are linked to an individual and are not characteristics that an individual was born with. Considering the external diversity are significantly impacted by people and their surroundings, they could eventually entail the factors that an individual could potentially change and doing it with time. The factors which are put into account include personal interests, education level, appearance, citizenship, religious beliefs, relationship status, socioeconomic status and life experiences (Ng & Sears, 2020).

Organisational Diversity– As evidenced in Sanyang and Othman (2019) the organisational diversity is defined as functional diversity which is linked to the differences of people who are assigned to them by an entity. Basically, these represent the characteristics within a workplace distinguishing the different employees from each other. Hence, irrespective of the position of an individual in the organisation, the amount which are paid and forms of work roles for assisting solidifying their active belonging to an entity. In a similar context, Van Wyk et al. (2019) by evaluating the critical success factors, it had argued that despite of an individual operating in private, non-profit, public sector and governmental organisations or volunteering, organisation diversity is instrumental. This is characterised by the aspects of job function, work placement, management status, employment status, seniority and union affiliation.

Worldview Diversity– Adopting the definition of Baker and Power (2018) the worldview diversity identify an integration of internal and external and organisational diversity factors working in collaboration for forming a worldview. Further, ANJORIN and Jansari (2018) identified the worldview diversity as being characterised on issues linked with economic, political and cultural beliefs held. Hence, from both studies, it can be argued that the worldviews of the employees are integrated and impacted by immense aspects which entail their upbringing and life experience.

2.1 Theories of Diversity

2.1.1 Institutional Theory of Diversity

This theory of diversity is based on the basic assumption that for the purpose of determining an organisation structure, it is not possible differentiating the social environment in which an organisation has based on its operations. This is supported by Raineri Bernain (2018) research which note that an organisation tend to mimic their competitors as a strategy of lowering uncertainties. For the most successful organisations in using the diversity as part of their operations, owing to unclear nature of diversity outcomes, organisations establish social comparisons intended for lowering uncertainties on diversity management strategies effectiveness. For instance, considering an organisation such as Saudi Aramco operating in Saudi Arabia oil and gas sector, other organisations such as ADNOC tend to embrace same norms and regulations for developing same administrative structures. According to Afzali et al. (2022) the identified conformity evidence will of an entity to harness consistency in the norms as a process of garnering legitimacy for their active practice. The rationale of this is that since the laws demand entities to embrace decisions to individuals within the entities and outside the organisation they conform to the laws and norms. Failure of entities in adopting to the identified legislations and norms could be a question with termination being possible owing to laws termination.

2.1.2 Resource Based Theory of Diversity

As evidenced in Yadav and Lenka (2022) the Resource Based Theory of Diversity Management is informed on how the process of diversity impact on the organisation resources. For instance, for success in adoption of diversity processes, the relevant resources entail physical capital, financial capital, human capital and corporate capital resources. According to Sherer et al. (2019), the identified resources could guide or inhibit practices of an entity. In an attempt to be successful, entities end up using these resources in manner that would guide and improve business operations. In a business context possessing an increased advantage in comparison for organisations which are homogenous. In this regard, Ngand Sears (2020) highlight that through a consideration of the racial diversity, it is possible for entities to increase financial performance which impact on the growth or innovation approach adopted. In summary, through the use of this model, it is worth noting that organisations with diversity management initiatives put in place experienced lower levels of employees turnover. This is with management strategies interacting in a positive manner in innovation strategies. The outcome of this is further identified in Zhang (2020) as promoting an increased diversity productivity and improved market performance. Entities which embrace diversity attain immense advantages over entities failing in implementing diversity policies successfully.

Adopting the definition of Carroll et al. (2021) the social cognitive theory is based on the assumption that diversity could lead to negative results in groups and organisations. Hence, the relevance of using this theory in diversity is influenced by promptly and easily compartmentalising data with people categorisation being into areas of visible features such as race, sex and age. For example, when an individual views personal of a specific race, automatic processing is evident and beliefs on the specific race being activated. According to Homan (2019) even when the individual is not visible, they are subjected to automatic categorisation. For instance, the names or gender of an individual could be evidencing their gender or race hence being discriminated in the process of their recruitment. The different stereotypes are linked to their categorisation and highlight immense overgeneralisation of features of larger groups. It is in this regard that Lankester and Alexopoulos (2021) argue that these stereotypes form a foundation of prejudices and discrimination processes. From a job-linked case, by use of categorisation and stereotypes in employment decision making is normally not legal. Despite of being defined as illegal or legal, the strategy is not consistent with valuing-diversity strategy in place.

3.0 Overview of Decision Making

3.1 Meaning of Decision Making

As earlier aforementioned, the decision making include a process followed to make choices by noting on the best decision. This is by sourcing appropriate information and assessment of alternative resolution as part of the process implementation. It is in this regard that Zak and Hasprova (2020) that noted that decision making entail a stepwise process for assisting in making a deliberate, thoughtful decision making process assisting in enhancing deliberate, thoughtful decisions through organisation of appropriate information and definition of all alternatives. As illustrated in figure 4, the best practice in decision making is holistic and can include the identified approaches.

Figure 4: Approaches of Decision MakingCommand decision-making- This approach of decision making is identified in Kania (2018) as inclusive of making decisive choice with a minimal input from the rest. This is regarded as the most prompt decision making process and directly leading to an agreed outcome arrived at. By application of this approach, it is possible to respond to time-sensitive issues or work in fast-paced environment with daily decisions happening on the spot. The outcome of this is what Johnson (2022) identify as the process being reliance on the knowledge of the decision…….

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