IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jfr/ijba11/v6y2015i2p17-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Work Force Diversity on Employee Performance in Singapore Organisations

Author

Listed:
  • Darwin Joseph R.
  • Palanisamy Chinnathambi Selvaraj

Abstract

Workforce diversity has been identified as one of the strategic capabilities that will add value to the organizations over their competition. As Singapore is one of the most globally competitive countries, it attracts highly skilled and extremely innovative people to work here. Age, gender and ethnicity are the most commonly diversified demographic variables observed among the workforce of many organizations. Thus, the present study focuses on the effect of the workforce diversity in terms of age, gender and ethnicity. If the diversity of the workforce is properly managed, it will provide positive benefits. If not properly managed, however, it could lead to negative results. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the views of employees in both the manufacturing as well as the service industries in Singapore. The reliability of the survey was tested by estimating Cronbach¡¯s alpha. The empirical relationship of age, gender and ethnicity of the employees with the performance was computed using Software Package for Social Science (SPSS). The analysis reveals that the three variables do not have a statistically significant impact on the performance of employees. Human resource programmes suggested by the employees to improve the effectiveness of workforce diversity has been recommended.

Suggested Citation

  • Darwin Joseph R. & Palanisamy Chinnathambi Selvaraj, 2015. "The Effects of Work Force Diversity on Employee Performance in Singapore Organisations," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(2), pages 17-29, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:jfr:ijba11:v:6:y:2015:i:2:p:17-29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/ijba/article/view/6528/3879
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/ijba/article/view/6528
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ozgen, Ceren & Nijkamp, Peter & Poot, Jacques, 2011. "The Impact of Cultural Diversity on Innovation: Evidence from Dutch Firm-Level Data," IZA Discussion Papers 6000, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Leonard, Jonathan S. & Levine, David I., 2003. "Diversity, discrimination, and performance," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt19d1c3n3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    3. Uschi Backes-Gellner & Stephan Veen, 2013. "Positive Effects of Ageing and Age-Diversity in Innovative Companies - Large Scale Evidence on Company Productivity," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0093, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    4. John Morgan & Felix Várdy, 2009. "Diversity in the Workplace," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 472-485, March.
    5. Leonard, Jonathan & Levine, David I., 2006. "Diversity, Discrimination, and Performance," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt2p3880ms, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    6. Jonathan S. Leonard & David I. Levine, 2006. "The Effect of Diversity on Turnover: A Large Case Study," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 59(4), pages 547-572, July.
    7. Benjamin F. Jones, 2010. "Age and Great Invention," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Neil Lee & Max Nathan, 2011. "Does Cultural Diversity Help Innovation in Cities: Evidence from London Firms," SERC Discussion Papers 0069, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2003. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2028, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    10. Stephen Bear & Noushi Rahman & Corinne Post, 2010. "The Impact of Board Diversity and Gender Composition on Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Reputation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 207-221, December.
    11. Harold Andrew Patrick & Vincent Raj Kumar, 2012. "Managing Workplace Diversity," SAGE Open, , vol. 2(2), pages 21582440124, April.
    12. Lisa Hope Pelled, 1996. "Demographic Diversity, Conflict, and Work Group Outcomes: An Intervening Process Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(6), pages 615-631, December.
    13. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    14. Sproten, Alec N. & Schwieren, Christiane, 2012. "Age differences in the reaction to incentives – do older people avoid competition?," Working Papers 0522, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daeyoun Won & Bon‐Gang Hwang & Soo Jing Chng, 2021. "Assessing the effects of workforce diversity on project productivity performance for sustainable workplace in the construction industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 398-418, March.
    2. Jekelle, Helen Elena, 2021. "An Empirical Analysis of Key Antecedents of Workforce Diversity on Job Performance in Nigeria," OSF Preprints ybja2, Center for Open Science.
    3. Nkiru Sochi-Iwuoha & Okechukwu Sunday Abonyi & Deanne Larson, 2024. "Assessment of Employees’ Perception of Workplace Diversity and its Influence on Job Satisfaction: Insights from Calgary Economic Region," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(2), pages 1-3.
    4. Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Wei-Kang Wang & Wen-Min Lu & Yun-Jung Chen, 2021. "Do female directors will have impact on corporate performance?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 611-631, April.
    5. Clarisse Blazi & Olawumi D Awolusi, 2020. "Employee Engagement in Multinational Diverse Organization in Difficult Terrain: A Study of Non-Family Station Organization," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 12(1), pages 45-62.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sander Hoogendoorn & Mirjam van Praag, 2012. "Ethnic Diversity and Team Performance: A Field Experiment," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-068/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 01 May 2014.
    2. Laetitia Challe & Fabrice Gilles & Yannick L'Horty & Ferhat Mihoubi, 2021. "Gender and age diversity. Does it matter for firms’ productivity?," Erudite Working Paper 2021-10, Erudite.
    3. Marino, Marianna & Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Pozzoli, Dario, 2016. "Educational diversity and knowledge transfers via inter-firm labor mobility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 168-183.
    4. Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Pozzoli, Dario & Pytlikova, Mariola, 2014. "Labor diversity and firm productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 144-179.
    5. Alex Bryson & John Forth & Helen Gray & Lucy Stokes, 2020. "Does Employing Older Workers Affect Workplace Performance?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 532-562, October.
    6. Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Pozzoli, Dario & Pytlikova, Mariola, 2010. "Does Labor Diversity Affect Firm Productivity?," Working Papers 10-12, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    7. Owen, Ann L. & Temesvary, Judit, 2018. "The performance effects of gender diversity on bank boards," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 50-63.
    8. Gary Charness & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2009. "Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 956-978, June.
    9. Dr Max Nathan, 2013. "The wider economic impacts of high-skilled migrants: a survey of the literature," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 413, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    10. Haile, Getinet Astatike, 2013. "Are You Unhappy Having Minority Co-Workers?," IZA Discussion Papers 7423, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Claudio Fassio & Sona Kalantaryan & Alessandra Venturini, 2020. "Foreign Human Capital and Total Factor Productivity: A Sectoral Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 613-646, September.
    12. Truc (Peter) Do & Kathleen Herbohn, 2024. "The impact of board ethnic diversity and Chief Executive Officer role on corporate social responsibility," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(1), pages 575-605, March.
    13. Gaowen Kong & T. Dongmin Kong & Ni Qin & Li Yu, 2023. "Ethnic Diversity, Trust and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moderating Effects of Marketization and Language," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 449-471, October.
    14. Haile, Getinet Astatike, 2012. "Unhappy working with men? Workplace gender diversity and job-related well-being in Britain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 329-350.
    15. Haile, Getinet Astatike, 2009. "Unhappy Working with Men? Workplace Gender Diversity and Employee Job-Related Well-Being in Britain: A WERS2004 Based Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 4077, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. ., 2012. "Migration impact assessment: a state of the art," Chapters, in: Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot & Mediha Sahin (ed.), Migration Impact Assessment, chapter 1, pages 3-62, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Ceren Ozgen & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2013. "Measuring Cultural Diversity and its Impact on Innovation: Longitudinal Evidence from Dutch firms," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2013003, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    18. Ben-Ner, Avner & McCall, Brian P. & Stephane, Massoud & Wang, Hua, 2009. "Identity and in-group/out-group differentiation in work and giving behaviors: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 153-170, October.
    19. Trax, Michaela & Brunow, Stephan & Suedekum, Jens, 2015. "Cultural diversity and plant-level productivity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 85-96.
    20. Georgiadis, Andreas & Manning, Alan, 2013. "One nation under a groove? Understanding national identity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 166-185.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jfr:ijba11:v:6:y:2015:i:2:p:17-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jenny Zhang (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://ijba.sciedupress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.