Managing Diversity through Workplace Flexibility for Organizational Performance

Abstract

It is not common to find an organization having a homogenous workforce i.e. in terms of age, gender, ethnic affiliation, religious affiliation, physical disability, nationality and even race. This paper therefore sought to find out how organizations can manage this diverse workforce using flexible working patterns e.g. flextime, job sharing, shift working, work modules, compressed workweeks, part-time working, job rotation and childcare assistance so as to improve organizational performance.. The paper is grounded on Herzberg’s two-factor theory. According to the research findings, workforce diversity greatly influences the practice of flexible working patterns. Diversity variables: Gender, age and parenting responsibilities were tested and they indicated a significant relationship at 95% significance level. There was also a statistical significant association between flexible work patterns and organizational performance. The paper therefore gives recommendations to organizations to practice workplace flexibility so as to be able to enable them manage their diverse workforce and therefore optimize organizational performance.