Workforce Diversity Management and Employee Performance in the Civil Service in Kenya

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of workforce diversity management on employees’ performance in the civil service in Kenya. This study further sought to assess how diversity policies, work teams, affirmative action, and diversity committees influence employees’ performance in the civil service in Kenya. A descriptive research design was used in the study. A self-administered semi structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Secondary data was gathered by reviewing both theoretical and empirical literatures. The target population was the civil service in Kenya, numbering 256,651. The sample size consisted of three hundred and eighty four (384) respondents drawn from 26000 civil servants working in the eighteen (18) government ministries’ Headquarters based at Nairobi City. Pilot testing was conducted to assess questions validity and reliability of the data. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyze the data. Open-ended questions were qualitatively analyzed thematically and presented in narration form as well as verbatim. The quantitative data was analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) window version 21 to generate both descriptive and inferential data. The findings were summarized into frequencies and percentages and presented using Tables, pie charts, bar charts. Multiple regression analysis and inferential analysis was carried out. This was useful in the interpretation of the study results. It was found that there is a positive significant relationship between Diversity Policies (r=.300, p=.000), diversity training (r=.136, p=.012), work teams (r=.258, p=.000), affirmative action (r=.322, p=.000), work committees (r=.314, p=.000) and employee performance. The following recommendations were provided: there is need for more awareness to be created in the government ministries on the workforce diversity management and the role that is playing in empowering the performance of employees. There is also need for an extensive training to be carried out among the managers not only in the human resource department but across the ministries. The study concludes that workforce diversity management had an influence on employee performance in the civil service. Therefore, necessary resources need to be provided to promote workforce diversity management process. The study contributes to the