ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Globalization of business and unprecedented movement of labour across borders have created organizations that comprise a mixture of people from many different cultures, age, gender, ethnic origins and education backgrounds. Managing an organization with a diverse workforce creates challenges in terms of management practices and leadership styles, due to the differing viewpoints it elicits. Overall benefits and challenges of a diverse workforce organization can be closely related to how effective it is managed. This is one of the reasons why diverse workforce is a pressing managerial issue and therefore the basis in which this study was conceived. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between workforce diversity and employee performance in public universities in Kenya. The study was guided by positivism research philosophy and descriptive survey research design and correlational research design were adopted. The target population included the chairpersons of departments of the public universities in Kenya. Correlation and regression analysis established a statistically significant positive relationship between workforce diversity variables and employee performance. The conclusion drawn from the study findings is that age diversity, gender diversity, ethnic diversity and education background diversity influence employee performance positively and majority of the employees are positive about workforce diversity practices in public universities. The study recommended that the management should continue to uphold its workforce diversity policies and practices in order to increase the benefits of workforce diversity.
Adler, N. J. (2005). Cultural Synergy: Managing the Impact of Cultural Diversity. London: Sage Publications.
Adler, N. J. (1997). International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing.
Alserhan, B. A., Forstenlechner, I., and Al-Nakeeb, A. (2010). Employees’ attitudes towards diversity in a nonwestern context. Employee Relations Journal. Vol. 32, No. 1. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Berry, L. M. (2010). Examining Turnover Intent: Examining the Effect of Employee Engagement, Compensation Fairness, Job Satisfaction and Age: PhD Thesis. Tennessee University. Executive Pay and Firm Performance: Methodological.
Carrel, M. R. (2006). Defining Workforce Diversity Programs and Practices in Organizations: A Longitudinal Study. Labor Law Journal. Spring, 2006.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edition). New Jersey State: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Cox, T. (2001).Creating the Multicultural Organization: A Strategy for Capturing the Power of Diversity, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ellis, C., Sonnenfield, J. A. (1993). Diverse Approaches to Managing Diversity. Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 33 No.1. Emerald Publications.
Erasmus, L. (2007). The Management of Workforce Diversity and the Implications for Leadership at Financial Asset Services. Business Management, University of Johannesburg.
Gilbert, J. A., Stead, B. A and Ivancevich, J. M (1999). ‘Diversity Management: A New Paradigm’. Journal of Business Ethics. No 21. Netherlands: Kinutt Academic Publishers.
Gordon, J. (1995). Different from What? Diversity as a Performance Issue. Training, Vol.32, 5, 25 – 33.
Hall, D. T., Parker, A. P. (1993). The role of workplace flexibility in managing diversity. Organizational Dynamics Journal. Vol. 22, No.1.
Hayles, R., Mendez, R. A. (1997). The Diversity Directive. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jehn, K. A. (1999). Diversity, Conflict, and Team Performance: Summary of Program of Research. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 12(1), 6-19.
Kochan, T., Bezrukova, K., Ely, R., Jackson, S., Joshi, A., Jehn, K., Leonard, J., Levine, D., & Thomas, D. (2003). The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research network. Human Resource Management. 42. 3-21. 10.1002/hrm.10061.
Kothari, C. R. (2009). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi. New Age International Publishers.
Loden, M., & Rosener, J.B. (1991).Workforce America! Managing Employee Diversity as a Vital Resource. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin.
Magoshi, E. & Chang, E. (2009). Diversity management and the effects on employees’ organizational commitment: Evidence from Japan and Korea. Journal of World Business, 44. 31-40. 10.1016/j.jwb.2008.03.018.
Mellenbergh, G. J. (2008). Tests and questionnaires: Construction and administration. In H. J. Adèr & G. J. Mellenbergh (Eds.) (with contributions by D. J. Hand), Advising on research methods: A consultant's companion (pp. 211–234). Huizen, The Netherlands: Johannes van Kessel Publishing.
Mugenda, O. M. & Mugenda, A. G. (2003). Research Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. 2nd. Rev. Ed. Nairobi: Act press.
O’Flynn, J., Ricciotti, A., Nicholas, S., Lau, K., Sammarino, A., Fisher, N., (2001). The theory of Diversity and Group Performance: Australian Centre for International business, 1-54.
Ogbo, A. I., Kufordu, A. A., & Ukpere, W. I. (2014). The Effect of Workforce Diversity on Organizational Performance of Selected Firms in Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(10), 231-236.
Richard, O. C., Kirby, S. L., & Chadwick, K. (2013). The impact of racial and gender diversity in management on financial performance: How participative strategy making features can unleash a diversity advantage. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(13), 25712582.
Sang, K. (2010). Outsourcing in Kenyan Universities. An Examination of Challenges and Opportunities. International Journal of Business and
In-Text Citation: (Mande & Awiti, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Mande, W., & Awiti, L. (2019). Leveraging Workforce Diversity to improve Employee Performance in Kenya. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(7), 339–351.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode