Person-Environment Fit in Ghanaian Banks - The impact of sex, age, ethnical origin, personality similarity and workgroup diversity on interpersonal relations and performance

Diploma Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Psychology - Work, Business, Organisational and Economic Psychology, grade: 1,0, University of Leipzig (Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie / Sozialpsychologie), language: English, abstract: The African nations are not only economically underdeveloped, but also received little attention by psychological research, which is extensively reviewed and critizised. Few substantial research covers interpersonal relationships' dependence on attribute configurations of dyads or workgroups, and their associations with outcomes. These relations were analyzed within a person-environment fit framework, covering the three facets Person-Supervisor Fit, Person-Workgroup Fit, and workgroup diversity in sex, age, ethnical origin and personality in a sample of three banks in Ghana using multi-level analysis. Findings indicate a highly differentiated pattern of fit effects on the outcomes leader-member exchange, relationship style with and positive affect towards the leader, perceived workgroup cohesion, follower's affective commitment, promotion, income and group performance. They could mostly not be explained with common similarity attraction or information/decision-making paradigms but rather unique historical and societal dynamics, indicating that fit effects are highly sensitive to context factors.