INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT ON EFFECTIVENESS OF WORK PLACE DIVERSITY IN THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN KENYA
Saida Suleiman Mohamed - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Wario Guyo (PhD.) - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Diversity has become a favorite topic of discussion in academia, government institutions and work organizations across the globe over the past few years. If diversity is effectively managed in an organization, it may result to greater creativity and innovation, and improved decision-making. Conversely, if diversity is not managed effectively, some potential major costs to the organization include, at a minimum, breakdowns in communication, interpersonal conflict, and higher turnover. It is upon these grounds that this study seeks to establish the influence of management on effectiveness of employee diversity management in the National Treasury. This study used of a descriptive research design to study the research problem. The study focused on employees in top level, middle level and low level management from National Treasury, Kenya. The study used stratified random sampling to select the study sample. The studies utilized primary and secondary data. While primary data was collected using a questionnaire secondary was obtained from published documents or materials. A pilot study was conducted to enhance validity and reliability of the research instrument. Both qualitative data analysis and quantitative analysis were used for this study. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The study found that 80.17% of the changes in diversity management could be attributed to the combined effect of the predictor variables. The study found that management support influence workplace diversity management to a great extent (r=0.607). Institutions need to adopt cohesive, coherent, and collaborative integration of diversity and inclusion into the institutional pursuit of excellence. The study also deduced that awareness and training influence workplace diversity management to a great extent (r=0.713). This is to mean that diversity training is essential to ensure teamwork for enhanced organizational performance. Further, the findings shows that performance management standards influence workplace diversity management to a great extent (r=0.534) and that employee resourcing influence workplace diversity management to a great extent (r=0.483). The study concludes that awareness and training had the greatest effect on workplace diversity management, followed by management support, then performance management standards while employee resourcing had the least effect to diversity management. The study recommends that in ensuring a diversity supportive environment, employees should be given opportunity to advance their career and social aspect of their lives through training, workshops and outings; a purposeful development and utilization of organizational resources to enhance employee learning.
