The Influence of Workforce Diversity on Team Effectiveness-A Study of Selected Manufacturing Firms `in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the influence of workforce diversity on team effectiveness: a study of selected manufacturing firms in Enugu state, Nigeria. A five point likert scale questionnaire that covered the different areas of workforce diversity and how it affects team effectiveness was used to elicit response from the respondents. The population of the study comprises of 300 members of staff drawn from three manufacturing firms in Enugu state. The researchers however using yaro yamene’s formula selected 171 employees out of the population of study. The Non-Parametric Kruskalwallis test (H) using the 20.0 version of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data gathered. The overall finding in this study shows that workforce diversity has significant impact on team effectiveness in manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The kruskawalis (H) value of the various hypotheses as tested was less than the level of significance (i.e 0.001<0.05). The researchers therefore concluded that team thrust, teaming skills and team task skills are largely influenced by the extent of diversity in the workforce. The researchers recommend that to maximize the benefit of diversity in the workforce, diversity sensitivity training should be included workforce orientation programmes. This will enable the workforce adequately confront the challenges of diversity in the team
Key Words: workforce; team; diversity; psycho-social; team thrust; teaming skills; team tasks