Diversity and inclusion practices on corporate performance of Tier 2 commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

Diversity and inclusion have emerged as important matters of strategy to organizations that are seeking to experience sustainable development and competitiveness. This study has discussed the effects of diversity and inclusion practice on corporate performance of the Tier 2 commercial banks in Kenya. Four dimensions led to the study, including, gender equality, inclusive hiring, accessibility at the workplace, training and awareness programs would inform this study. The research was anchored on four theories such as the Social Role Theory, Human Capital Theory, Social Model of Disability as well as the Social Learning Theory. The research design that was adopted and involved a quantitative approach was descriptive. Five employees and management staff of top Tier 2 commercial banks were used as the sample. Stratified random sampling assisted in the selection of a representative sample of 207 respondents. The information obtained was through the structured questionnaires and analyzed with the help of Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. The correlational test was employed to test both the relationship among the variables of the study and descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The outcome revealed that diversity and inclusion practices were significant and positive to corporate performance in Tier 2 commercial banks. Training and awareness programs, workplace accessibility, gender equality and inclusive hiring were the most influential ones. The results of the regression showed the regression coefficients of R-Sq= 0.717 with the implication of the diversity and inclusion practices explaining 71.7% of the corporate performance variance. The ANOVA results also showed that the model was statistically significant (p = 0.000). These results indicated the necessity to mention that banks with inclusive policies were more productive, innovative, and effective in their organization. It has been determined in the analysis that diversity and inclusion practices are necessary to enhance the performance of corporations, the most prevalent one in this example is training and awareness programs. It recommended that the banks should strengthen their inclusion plans with widespread training, availability in workplaces, gender equilibrium and equal hiring processes. This study proposed that other studies should explore the moderating implication of the organizational culture and the leadership commitment on the relationship between the practices of inclusion and performance.