In some cases ethnic homogeneity has enhanced the effective and successful implementation of the performance appraisal because people sharing values are likely to support one another during crises, and the lower staff may
accept appraisal results from their own ‘kin’. This is commonly seen in the recruitment and deployment of support staff. Respondents reveal that it is common for an officer who is entitled to official transport to prefer a driver who hails from the same district. The individual’s closest colleagues will also usually share the same ethnic identity, that is, be from the same tribe and speak the same mother tongue. The existence of a complex system of ‘ethnic arithmetic’, by which tribal preferences take precedence over formal procedures for recruitment and promotion, can be found in governments everywhere. In Africa few managers are prepared to deal head-on with such issues, even if it causes morale problems amongst their own staff (Montgomery, 1986,
p.22).