Impact of workforce diversity practices on employee performance in commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

This research project aimed at evaluating the impact of workforce diversity management on employee performance in four leading banks in Kenya, namely KCB, Equity, Cooperative, and Standard Chartered. The study investigated the influence of cultural diversity, age diversity, gender diversity, and educational diversity on the performance of employees. The research was steered by both the similarity attraction theory as well as the cognitive diversity theory. A descriptive survey was adopted, and the Yamane formula was utilized in determining the sample size. The research report collected data from 203 employees from the four banks, using structured questionnaires and interview guides for key informants. To review the qualitative statistics, the research employed thematic analysis, meanwhile, inferential statistics and descriptive statistics were employed on the quantitative data. The results suggest that cultural, gender, generational, and education diversity management had a highly significant impact on employee output in banks located within Kenya. The findings inform of a substantial correlation between workforce diversity and organizational performance. To enhance performance, commercial banks should prioritize diversity in their leadership teams, ensuring representation from various cultural and tribal backgrounds. Additionally, leveraging different gender capabilities and effectively managing staff of varying ages will contribute to achieving the desired employee performance. The study also highlights the need to develop strategies that are able to tap into different education backgrounds so as to be able to utilize different capabilities and especially the youth workforce that has a lot of potential in the area of information technology that are crucial in optimizing the performance across all sectors including banks activities that incorporate online technology.