Effects of cultural diversity on employee relationships and performance in multinational companies in Western region, Ghana

Abstract

Employees in Ghanaian organisations now work with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Even companies who decide to recruit exclusively Ghanaian work force will still have to contend with the same interpersonal cross cultural challenges that confront multinational organisations. This is because within the national culture are sub cultures that significantly affect the behaviours of Ghanaians. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to examine the effects of cultural diversity on interpersonal relationship of employees, and hence the performance of such organisations. The study adopted a cross sectional design and used questionnaire to collect data from 121 randomly selected respondents in twenty multicultural organisations in the Western region of Ghana. It was realized from the study that all Ghanaian organisations were culturally diversified. Culture, especially intra- cultural diversity in organisation, plays no important role in the nature of interpersonal relationships in a multicultural organisation when choosing work mates but the opposite is true when choosing work mates as friends. The issue of interpersonal communication was the major cause of conflict in multicultural organisations in Ghana.It is therefore recommended that multicultural organisations should educate their staff on variations in non verbal communication. Foreign workers should also be given an intensive orientation on the cultural background of Ghanaians and the meaning they attach to certain gestures.