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.