Effect Of Workforce Diversity On Performance Of Information Technology Firms In Nairobi County

Abstract

Managing diversity in the workplace should be the concern of every organization. In order to survive, a company needs to be able to manage and utilize its diversity for creating advantages and its benefits. Managing diversity in the workplace should be a part of the culture of the entire organization. Valuing and recognizing diversity is imperative in order to maintain competitive advantage. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of workforce diversity on performance of IT firms in Nairobi County. The specific objectives of the study were to; establish the effect of age diversity on performance of IT firms in Nairobi County; determine the gender diversity impact on performance of IT firms in Nairobi County; examine influence of education level diversity on performance of IT firms in Nairobi County; and assess ethnicity diversity influence on performance of IT firms in Nairobi County. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of four executives from the 20 ICT based companies operating in Westlands, Nairobi County giving 80 respondents. A census was employed on all the 80 respondents and thus the sample size was 80 respondents. The study collected primary data using questionnaires. The collected data was coded into SPSS software and the analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Means and standard deviations formed the descriptive statistics while regression analysis was the inferential statistic. The findings were presented using frequency distribution tables, graphs and pie charts. The study established that age diversity (p=0.296) had no significant influence on organizational performance. However, gender diversity (p=0.000), educational diversity (p=0.005) and ethnicity diversity (p=0.000) all had p values less than 0.05 and thus significantly influence organizational performance. The study concludes that gender diversity, educational diversity and ethnicity diversity all significantly influenced organizational performance. The study recommends that the top management team of all IT firms should recognize and value age diversities at the work place. The management of all IT firms operating in Kenya need to improve on their gender diversities at the work place to significantly raise performance of their organizations.. All other firms in Kenya should strengthen their education level diversities. All IT firms need to improve on their ethnicity diversity at the work place.