Scholarly Journal of Management Sciences Research | ISSN: 2955-0793 Vol. 2, Issue 1 (January, 2023) | www.ijaar.org/sjmsr 150 SOCIAL IDENTITIES MATTER: DIVERSITY AND THE QUAGMIRE OF ETHNO-RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION IN WORKPLACES IN NIGERIA. Miebi Ugwuzor Department of Management, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, P.M.B. 071, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. +2348036666332. miebi.ugwuzor@ndu.edu.ng ABSTRACT The examination of identity issues bothering employees and hindering the full attainment of their productive potentials were the major focus of this work. Nigeria’s informal social makeup comprises of persons of diversified ethnic and religious extractions variably distributed in a vast population size of persons with ample potentials and diversified strengths capable of usefully contributing to the fortunes of workplaces. However, this has not played out as expected. This work highlights the behavioral implications of social- identification in workplaces and intends to lend a voice to the discourse on social identification, stressful work experiences as well as workplace behavior management. It also raises questions on phenomenological interpretations in the minds of contemporary compatriots of Nigeria as a nation of people bound in freedom, peace and unity. The social- identity and the social stress theories were explored in an attempt to explicate the interpretations of the meanings persons make of their behaviors and those of their colleagues at work. The outcome of such ingrained analysis depicts the extent to which identities they assume matter in the situation being experienced. This paper suggests amongst others that firms should stress and institutionalize the primary focus of corporate success over primordial sentiments in workplaces for the betterment of individual, workplaces as well as for national development. Keywords: Development, diversity, ethnicity, equity, identity, religion, Nigeria