A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (CORPORATE MANAGEMENT) IN THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT, KCA UNIVERSITY
Companies listed in the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) in Kenya are faced by workforce diversity challenges since they employee people from all over the country as well as foreigners, in which case they accommodate diverse workforce that requires effective workforce diversity management for the sustainability organisational performance. Lack of productive workforce diversity management would most likely impede group functioning and lead to ineffectiveness. Studies have shown that failure to achieve the anticipated organisational performance could be attributed to poor workforce diversity management. Although there have been many more studies conducted on workforce diversity and organizational performance, there is scanty information which relates the organisational performance of companies listed in the NSE to workforce diversity management policies, appreciating employee diversity, commitment to managing diversity, gaining employee commitment, promoting inclusion. It is against this background that this study was conducted to find out the effect of workforce diversity management on the organisational performance in the companies listed in the NSE in Kenya in the various sectors of the economy. The study had a total population of 60 companies out of which 30 companies were selected using both stratified and random sampling. The primary data collection method was by structured questionnaire which was delivered to the human resource managers of the selected companies. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Descriptive data was analysed with assistance of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Inferential analysis was done on the data to estimate a study model using multiple regressions. The study found out that fewer females were employed in companies listed on the NSE compared to males (males were more than 2/3rd of the employees ). Workforce diversity management, appreciating diversity, commitment to managing diversity, gaining employee commitment and promoting inclusion highly influenced the organizational performance and promoted efficiency in the organization. However weak legal framework, unfavourable economic factors and the political climate moderately affects the performance of the companies. The study recommends that the companies listed on the NSE should implement the requirements of the constitution of Kenya, especially on issues touching on gender equality. The companies should review their policies to ensure that employee rights are upheld at all times and ensure that the staff recruitment is based on diversity. The companies should also provide education and training on workforce diversity and implement various programme to support the wellbeing of the employees (such as Employee Share Ownership Programme).The companies should also ensure there is teamwork and employee accountability. The legal framework on workforce diversity should also be reviewed. Further studies should be conducted on the factors of workforce diversity that influence employee performance and the effects of workforce diversity management on organizational performance in other companies that are not listed on the NSE.