Workforce Diversity Management Strategies and Organisational Performance in the Food and Beverage Industries in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Workforce Diversity Management is gradually being used and becoming acceptable as a significant organizational resource in esteems to whether the objective is to be an employer choice, to offer outstanding customer service, or to sustain a competitive advantage. It also has verified to have controlled to an opinion of being essential for organizational performance especially in the Food and Beverage Industry in Nigeria. This ultimate faith forces managers to hold and understand the theory of workforce Diversity, its benefits and challenges. As such, this study examined the effect impact of workforce diversity management towards organizational performance which focuses into the food and beverage industry within the larger manufacturing sector. The research also emphases on workforce diversity management which contains the employee communication(EC) as a mechanism in reducing conflicts and talent availability(TA) which are the utmost critical variables amongst the others. The study employed primary data mainly for revalidation of results and inferential information from secondary sources. Primary data was harnessed from the views of managers and employees of the foods and beverage industries through questionnaire. The study adopted cross sectional research design and considered 3 multinational corporations in the food and beverage sector in Nigeria based on random sampling technique. The sample size constituted the lower, middle and senior level staff of the multinational Corporations at their headquarters and plants to achieve the  objectives of this study based on the two hypotheses that were formulated. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were employed. The statistical tools used included cross tabulations, Mean, Regression and Correlation analysis with the aid of SPSS computer packages. The results showed that employee communication (EC) have significant effect on organizational effectiveness (OE) (at P=0.000). It was discovered that talent availability (TA), has significant relationship on employee retention (ER)(at P= 0.002), the study reflected that Workforce diversity represents both a challenge and an opportunity for business and corporate entity. Hence, no organization in this dispensation of Globalization can survive without workforce Diversity. The study recommends that; organization ought to accord due priority for optimum utilization of strength of workforce diversity and institute measures to enhance commitment among the employees for improvement of organizational performance. Organizations should make workforce diversity management a core business value because diverse work teams bring high value to organizations and respecting individual differences will benefit the workforce by creating a competitive edge and increasing work productivity.