The effects of workforce diversity on Employees’ Job performance: The case of commercial Bank of Ethiopia in Jimma town

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of work force diversity on employees’ job performance in commercial bank of Ethiopia in Jimma town. To achieve this purpose a mixed Research approach is used by applying descriptive and explanatory type of research design. The sample consisted of 195 professional employees were selected from the Commercial bank of Ethiopia (CBE) branches in Jimma Town using simple random sampling techniques to respond the questionnaire. Questionnaire with five-point Likert scale and interview was used to collect primary data. SPSS software 23.0 version is used to analyze the collected data by using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as Pearson’s correlation analysis and multiple linear regression to determine the association between the effect of work force diversity and employee job performance. The qualitative data analyzed using thematic content analysis, direct quotation (or verbatim) and narration. The result of this study shows that only 59.4% changes occurred with the fact of explained variable and the rest 40.6% due to unexplained variable which indicated that age; gender, ethnic, and education background diversity were significant to affect employee job performance. Ethnicity (β=0.366), age (β=0.229), education background (β=0.167) and Gender (β=0.105) were made a positive contribution of 36.6%, 22.9%, 16.7% and 10.5% on workforce diversity, respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that the performance of employees working in Jimma town does influence significantly by their age, gender, ethnic and educational background. It is recommended that the organization needs to do more in diversifying the workforce in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and educational background so as to acquire lots of skill, knowledge and attitude and to increase employees’ job performance.