An Empirical Analysis of Key Antecedents of Workforce Diversity on Job Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effect of workforce diversity on job performance. The employees’ diversity were conceptualised in terms of gender diversity, age diversity, and educational background diversity. The study was underpinned by the social identity theory as it examined such characteristics as gender, age and education. The social identity theory infers that employees have a tendency of classifying themselves based on groups in which they fit in. The study area was public sector in Abuja, Nigeria. The study adopted the quantitative research design whereby questionnaires were administered to the participants. A sample size of 208 participants were drawn from a population of 452 employees of the government agency in Abuja using Raosoft sampling size calculator. However, only 137 valid questionnaires were retrieved from the participants. Therefore, the data analysis was based on the valid retrieved questionnaires. Data analysis and hypotheses test was done using multiple regression analysis. The results showed a significant relationship between the dimensions of the explanatory variables (gender diversity, age diversity and educational background diversity) and the outcome variable (employee performance). The study also revealed that the combination of gender, age and education were the core elements that explained employee performance by 62.9 percent. In terms of individual contribution, the results indicate that educational background diversity contributed most to the variation of employee job performance while both age and gender also contributed significantly. The study therefore recommended that leadership of organisations need to focus more on diversity management in order to integrate the diverse characteristics of the workforce within the organisation.