Effect of employee diversity on organization performance of selected state corporations in Kenya

Abstract

Despite the adoption of the employee diversity legislation by public institutions, the impact of the diversity programs at the organization level still need to be identified since these programs are executed deliberately by human resource managers, and may have varied adaptations and unintended consequences. This study therefore sought to establish the effect of employee diversity on organizational performance of state corporations in Kenya. The study categorized employees diversity under the categories of skills diversity, values diversity and social diversity.The study targeted the employees of selected state corporations using multi-stage sampling technique.The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Primary data was collected via structured questionnaires using the “drop and pick” method. The data was analyzed using both descriptive & inferential statistical measures. Descriptive statistics included: frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviations. Inferential statistics namely; regression,correlation analysisand hypothesis testingwere employed to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables under study.Employee diversity was found to affect customer satisfaction,market share, employee satisfaction,labour cost and employee performance with the most significant impact being on employee performance. The study found skills category diversity to be the most significant factor that positively affected the performance of the selected state corporations.This was followed by values diversity that had a moderate effect on performance. Social category diversity was found to affect performance positively and was the third most influencing factor.The relationship between employee diversity and organization performance of the selected state corporations was found to be moderated by the external environment, organization management and leadership.