Employees’ Discernment of Workforce Diversity and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction in a Public Service Department

Abstract

In South Africa, much has been said and legislated in terms of enhancing workforce diversity of organizations. Workforce diversity issues are now considered important and are projected to become even more important in the future due to increasing differences in terms of age, gender, race or origin in the organization. Organizations need to focus on diversity and look at ways to become totally inclusive organizations because diversity has the potential of yielding greater job satisfaction and competitive advantages. The need to understand diversity is also driven by women and younger workers in the workplace. The current study focuses on the employees’ discernment of workforce diversity and its effect on job satisfaction. A sample of 90 employees was used in the study. The data was collected by means of a questionnaire which consisted of closed ended questions on a Likert-Scale. Statistical analysis was applied to the quantitative data obtained. Seven factors (age, marital status, ethnicity, income levels, period of service, professional qualification and job title) were investigated. The results indicated that five of the factors could have predictive effect on employee commitment to work. However, employee commitment was not significantly affected by the factor of gender.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n15p37