SECONDARY DIVERSITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIVENESS OF PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE
The work determined the relationship between secondary diversity and organizational innovativeness of private secondary schools in Rivers State. The objective of the study was to examine how secondary diversity such as educational background diversity and religious diversity relate with organizational innovativeness of private secondary schools in Rivers State, especially in terms of people innovation and service innovation. The study adopted cross-sectional explanatory survey research design. The target population for the study comprised of all the one thousand, two hundred and thirty-three (1,233) registered private secondary schools in Rivers State. Using Taro Yamane’s formula, a sample of 302 private secondary schools was drawn from this population. However, in the course of determining the number of respondents per under studied private school in Rivers State, 3 key managerial members such as the director/proprietor, principal and vice-principal were chosen, which made a total of 906 respondents. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data after due validation, and ascertaining the least reliability of the instrument at 0.704 using Cronbach alpha. Out of nine hundred and six (906) copies of the validated questionnaire that were administered, the researcher was able to retrieve eight hundred and five (805) copies. SPSS version 22.0 was used to run the analyses. Spearman Rank Order was used for the bivariate analysis. The study revealed that: there is a very strong positive relationship between educational background diversity and people innovation of private secondary schools in Rivers State; there is a strong positive relationship between educational background diversity and service innovation of private secondary schools in Rivers State; there is a strong positive relationship between religious diversity and service innovation of private secondary schools in Rivers State, and; there is a strong positive relationship between religious diversity and service innovation of private secondary schools in Rivers State. The study concluded that educational background diversity and religious diversity are triggering diversities that promote the innovativeness of secondary schools, especially in terms of people innovation and service innovation. Among others, the study recommended that private secondary schools should implement inclusive hiring practices that seek professionals from various educational disciplines, thereby ensuring a dynamic and forward-thinking learning environment
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