Effect of Workforce Diversity Management on Employee Performance in the Public Sector in Kenya

Abstract

It is generally recognized that there is diversity in the workforce of any enterprise, be it business, government, or civil society. The World’s increasing globalization requires more interactions among people from diverse cultures, beliefs and backgrounds than ever before. Diversity is increasingly recognized and utilized as an important organizational resource in regards to whether the goal is to be an employer of choice, to provide excellent customer service, or to maintain a competitive edge. For this reason public and non-profit organizations need to come up with more creative mechanisms for managing their workforce diversity and embracing change. Diversity management is particularly important in the management of Human Resources in the public sector given the concerns that have been raised previously regarding frosty workplace relationships between the older and younger employees. The younger employees in the public sector in Kenya have for a long time looked at their older colleagues as being less educated, generally bureaucratic and averse to change. The objectives of this study were; to investigate the influence of employees’ educational diversity on employee performance in the public sector in Kenya and to examine the effect of age diversity on employee performance in the public sector in Kenya. A case study design was used where 180 line officers and 10 management level officers from the department of Probation and Aftercare Services were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Study findings established a statistically significant positive relationship between educational diversity and employee performance and further found that age diversity had a statistically weak relationship with employee performance. Findings of this study present stakeholders in the public sector in Kenya with vital information regarding the need to espouse workforce diversity as a strategy for spurring organizational performance.

Keywords: Workforce diversity, Educational background, Age differences and Public Sector Performance.