Abstract:
The shifting demographics, advances in knowledge and technology, and advent of a
global economy have brought in diverse workforce in organisations in Kenya. This
has paused new challenges in managing the complex human resource in terms of
diversity. In more recent years, the view of workforce diversity management
practices has changed to a more strategic concept of organizational performance.
This prompted a study to investigate the influence of human resource diversity
management practices on performance of non-commercial government agencies in
Kenya. The human resource diversity management practices discussed were diversity
recruitment, diversity training, diversity retention, and institutionalization of
diversity. Senior management accountability was studied as a moderator variable.
The study was of descriptive nature with a target population of 132 human resource
managers drawn from the 132 non-commercial government agencies in Kenya. A
pre-test was done with eleven respondents and the full study carried out using census
of 132 human resource managers. The data was collected from the primary source
using questionnaires. The study used both qualitative and quantitative analytical
techniques for data analysis. The findings of the study were presented and discussed
guided by the study hypothesis. Descriptive statistics indicated that performance in
non-commercial government agencies in Kenya was influenced by diversity
recruitment, diversity training, diversity retention, and institutionalization of
diversity. Inferential statistics confirmed that performance was highly predicted by
human resource diversity management practices. Senior management accountability
was found to moderate the relationship between human resource diversity
management practices and organisational performance. The study concluded that
diversity recruitment, diversity training, diversity retention, and institutionalization
of diversity were key human resource diversity practices which if fully utilized could
improve performance of non-commercial government agencies in Kenya. The study
recommended that the sector should advance its diversity goals by creating all
inclusive work environment to enhance performance.
