COMPARISON OF WORK FORCE DIVERSITY

IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR

ARSLAN NAZIR
arse113353@gmail.com
(Student of Lahore Business School)

MUHAMMAD SAMI-ULLAH
samiullah.hanif@gmail.com
(Student of Lahore Business School)

FAHAD MUNIR
f4faddi@hotmail.com
(Student of Lahore Business School)

WAJIHA KAUSAR
jiakhalid30@gmail.com
(Student of Lahore Business School)

AOUN HAIDER
angeleye.aoun@gmail.com
(Student of Lahore Business School)

ABSTRACT:
We have done research on comparison of work force diversity in public and private
sector. It is the way to check the employee performance in the two different scenarios of
private sector and public sector organizations. Diversity encompasses acceptance and
respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our
individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender,
sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs,
political beliefs, or other ideologies. We formulated three objectives which include
ethnicity, performance and gender. We have designed questionnaire which includes close
ended questions. The sample size is one hundred and fifty and numbers of questions are
seventeen. Result tells that employee performance effects the work environment in the
organization.

INTRODUCTION:
Our study is to check the employee performance in the two different scenarios of private
sector and public sector organizations in this we have found two was to analyze it is the
diversity in the form of gender and in the form of ethnic groups.
We have read a couple of articles to check the previous studies on these topics of
workforce diversity.
The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding
that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be
along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status,
age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. (Dogra
2010)
The present paper addresses this gap in the literature by presenting the results of a
controlled experiment on the effects of ethnic diversity. Since organizations are moving
increasingly to team-based job design, we chose the small group as our level of analysis.
The specific task we examine is idea generation because it is typically a first step in
group problem solving, and a task that has been shown to be affected by heterogeneity of
group member characteristics. Hence, this paper presents an experimental investigation of
ethnic heterogeneity effects on idea generation in small groups.(McLeod, Lobel et al.
1996)
Racial diversity displayed a curved positive relationship to intermediate firm performance
at low or high levels of diversity. Racial diversity also exhibited a positive correlation to
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long-term firm performance. Environmental instability would negatively moderate this

relationship i.e., the U-shaped relationship between firm performance and racial diversity
would be stronger in stable environments than in unstable environments.(McMahon
2011)
At the same time, formal literature on the corporate case dispute is rather thin, especially
within the European context. As a result, the corporate case argument for gender
diversity, suggesting that diversity translates into better decisions and ultimately in better
products, is rarely made on the basis of firm, bookish research. (Marinova, Plantenga et
al. 2010)
As in other organizations, women in universities are greatly outnumbered by men in
Positions of formal power, authority, high status and high income. To remedy this
situation, Employers and HR managers often apply policy measures, like gender-neutral
hiring and selection procedures and preferential treatment of women. Given the
popularity and the costs of implementing a gender equality policy. (Timmers, Willemsen
et al. 2010)
This study has three primary goals. First, we examine effects of intra-organizational
ethnic demography on lack of respect in service interactions second; this research goes
beyond examining organizational consequences of intra-organizational diversity to
examine the consequences of the degree to which organizational demography represents
the demography of directly served stakeholders. Third, extending previous theoretical
rationale, we reason that lack of respect toward service recipients can obvious when
demographic characteristics are not aligned and that this incivility impedes organizational
success.(King, Dawson et al. 2011)

OBJECTIVES
1) To check the effect of Ethnic diversity on Employee performance in public and
private sector.
2) To check the effect of Gender diversity on Employee performance in public and
private sector.
3) To check the effect of diversity on Employee performance in public and private
sector.

LITERATURE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS YEARS

3

The purpose of the research is to study literature on different work force diversity
dimensions of Pakistan. The objective of this conceptual analysis is to discuss
methodology, findings and identify limitations in research work under review and point
towards unresolved issues, if any that can pave the way for further research in the field of
work force diversity management in Pakistan. Workforce of Pakistan is not delivering
effectively, which, among other factors, may be attributed to lack of desired level of
diversity in terms of age, culture and gender. Corporations are experiencing problems due
to the absence or in-adequate application of diversity management policies while
maintaining relationship with different stakeholders (including colleagues, customers,
suppliers etc). Establishing a clear differentiation between the public and private sector
organizations in Pakistan is also an area lacking due research coverage in the past.
Research gap is evident from the fact that not a single study has been conducted to
analyze and compile a critical review of workforce diversity literature in Pakistan.
Theoretically, the workplace diversity literature espouses three different theoretical
frameworks for the examination of the possible effects of workplace diversity (Williams
& OReilly 1998). The first is social categorization, which, according to Turner (1987)
describes the categorization of people based on salient attributes like gender, ethnicity or
age, resulting in stereotyping on the basis of these differences. The second is
similarity/attraction theory, which asserts that similarity on salient and non-salient
attributes like race or values increases interpersonal attraction and attachment (Berscheid
& Walster, 1978). The third is information and decision making theory, which examines
the impact of distribution of information and expertise on work-teams.(Omankhanlen and
Ogaga-Oghene 2011)
Researchers also pointed out that female employee
are facing more discrimination
than their counterparts, in private organizations as compared to public sector. They came
to this argument based on results of structured survey of more than 500 male and female
employees working at various levels (both in public and private sector) in few districts of
Sindh province. It was also discussed that this type of discrimination negatively effects
satisfaction and motivation of employees and positively affects the level of stress among
the staff.(Idrees, Abbasi et al. 2013)

The net effect on productivity will only be positive if these gains outweigh additional
communication costs (and difficulties related to emotional conflicts) incurred by a more
diverse workforce. Conclusions regarding the optimal workforce mix are somewhat
different if one follows the organizational demography or social comparison literature.
The former (see e.g. Pfeffer, 1985) stresses the importance of social similarity (and thus
of inter-personal attraction) to stimulate interaction, communication and cohesion among
4

the workforce. Given that features such as age, education or gender help to explain
similarity, diversity along these dimensions is expected to hamper job satisfaction,
communication and firm performance. The net effect on productivity will only be
positive if these gains outweigh additional communication costs (and difficulties related
to emotional conflicts) incurred by a more diverse workforce.
(Garnero, Kampelmann et al. 2014)
Religious organizations have also seen how important it is to value and manage diversity
to adapt their messages to other cultural identities. They are probably the ones that "have
been in the forefront of documenting, studying and learning to manage cultural
differences"(Wentling and Palma-Rivas 1997)
The organization should create such a working environment as will increase the
motivation, satisfaction, and commitment of diverse people. Performance standards must
be clearly and objectively established, effectively communicated, and used on objective
criteria without any bias. Identify desirable and undesirable behaviors that must be based
upon performance feedback discussions involving a diverse workforce. (Ongori and
Agolla 2007)
In both public and private sector organizations, the impact of education profile of both
genders is almost the same when it comes to the issue of gender discrimination.
Moreover, female employees were perceived to be victim of discrimination more than the
male employees in both the sectors. (Idrees, Abbasi et al. 2013)
A perception of interpersonal incompatibility is labeled as relationship conflict and it
typically includes tension, annoyance and animosity among group members (Hasan,
Muhammad and Imran, 2009; Jehn, 1995;Simons, Peterson, 2000). It is a related to
difference of relationship between team members. It is infertile, difficult to manage and
likely to leave people with more pressures and less ability to manage them. Normally, it
occurs between frontline workers and their supervisors. It can reduce creativity,
innovation, quality, and performance of employees and organizations (Jehn, 1994, 1995;
Amason, 1996; De Dreu and Van de, 1997; Friedman, Curral and Tsai, 2000; Michael et
al., 2001; Passos andCaetano, 2005). Relationship conflict also relates to conflict about
personal taste, political preferences, values, and interpersonal style (DeDreu and
Weingart, 2003). Relationship conflict negatively effects on the team performance and it
breaks personal and professional relations.(Arokiasamy 2013)
A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace. In the
laboratory research diverse work teams bring high value to organizations and respecting
individual differences will benefit the workplace by creating competitive edge and
increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair
and safe environment where everyone has access to the same opportunities and
challenges
5

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
The research is conducted on taking the indirect variables of Gender and
Ethnicity and direct variables of Employee Performance.

GENDER
EMPLOYEES
PERFORMANCE

METHODOLOGY:

ETHNICITY

Focus on Research:
The project was assigned for the purpose to have complete command and practical
implementation of Primary Research Method. So we have selected the topic of
WORK FORCE DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR for this
project.
Our questionnaire is based upon the Impact of WORKFORCE DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE SECTOR. In start, we have considered some kind of general information
related to age, gender, sector and occupation etc. This kind of information tells about that
particular persons personality and his/her behavior in the society. We have given the
Likert scale for the questions so that our audience can easily understand the questionnaire
n can easily solve it too without having any kind of complications.
Many research papers on this particular topic are already available on search engines, but
the main purpose of this research was to have future outlook of WORK FORCE
DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR in Pakistan. On first we designed
questionnaire based on 17 questions. After finalization the research was carried out from
people of different occupations, sectors. Then the result was posted in SPSS software to

get the statistical graphical representation. Report was compiled with the help of different
resources. Introduction and articles of this topic were linked with Note-Ex7 software.
We were trying to find out perceptions of people about diversity in either public or
private sectors on doing job or business. We gave them a questionnaire for their opinion
whats in their mind.
We made our questionnaire in very simple and easily understandable wording so that the
respondents may response very efficiently and
Easily and would not need any kind of help in solving the questionnaire.

APPENDIXES:
There are 4 portions of the questionnaire which are as follows that we have made:

INTRODUCTION
ETHNICITY
GENDER
PERFORMANCE

INTRODUCTION:
In introduction of the questionnaire we tried to ask people that how much they are having
knowledge about the Diversity in the workforce. How much they are influence on its
outcomes.

ETHNICITY:
The second portion of the questionnaire is based upon the questions related to the
diversity in terms of ethnic group. Wither it influence employee performance.

GENDER:
The third portion of the questionnaire is based upon the questions related to the Gender
diversity in the work force. We think that this portion is the most important portion of our
questionnaire because it tells about the discrimination, weaknesses of the workforce
ethics.

PERFORMANCE:
7

Now, the fourth, the last portion of our questionnaire is based upon the conclusion which
is a basic part of a research and it has a lot of importance in research work. It gives the
end result and includes the whole statistics which we had drawn in the whole research. It
includes such type of questions which are related to the main goal of our research.

HYPOTHESIS:
H= the discrimination does not effect the employee performance.
H1= the discrimination is effecting the employee's performance.

EMPERICAL REULTS:
TABLE NO: 1
Variables Entered/Removedb
Model

Variables Entered

Variables Removed

Method

Ethinicitmeana

Enter

a. All requested variables entered.

b. Dependent Variable: performean

TABLE NO: 2
MODEL SUMMARY
Model R

R Square

Adjusted
Square

.087

.081

.295a

R
Std. Error of the Estimate
.50864

a. Predictors: (Constant), Ethinicitmean

EXPLANATION:
The value of R is 0.295.
The value of R^2 is 0.87.
8

The value of standard deviation is 0.5 therefore, we accept the hypothesis.

TABLE NO: 3
ANOVAb
Model

Sum of Squares df

Mean Square F

Sig.

3.638

3.638

.000a

Residual

38.290

148

.259

Total

41.928

149

1
Regression

14.061

a. Predictors: (Constant), Ethinicitmean

b. Dependent Variable: performean

EXPLANATION:
The significant value of Anova is less than 0.5.
Therefore, we accept the hypothesis. H

TABLE NO: 4
Coefficientsa
Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model
1

(Constant)

Std. Error

2.382

.349

Ethinicitmean .334

.089

Beta
.295

Sig.

6.826

.000

3.750

.000

a. Dependent Variable: performean

EXPLANATION:
The risk of error is very low that is 0.29. (Beta)

In research the significant value is less than 0.5 therefore we accept all hypothesis of H

CONCLUSION:
As the result of the research we are on a conclusion to say that workforce diversity is
affecting the employee performance and in the long run it could raise conflict in the work
environment.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
The head department should manage the diversity and the workforce in a way that it
generates a favorable outcome of new idea and as a whole a positive effect on the
organizational performance.

REFERENCES:

Dogra, N. (2010). "Ethnicity and culture and their relationship to health care."
InnovAiT: The RCGP Journal for Associates in Training 3(6): 366-372.

10

King, E. B., et al. (2011). "Why organizational and community diversity

matter: Representativeness and the emergence of incivility and
organizational performance." Academy of Management Journal 54(6): 11031118.

Marinova, J., et al. (2010). "Gender diversity and firm performance: Evidence
from Dutch and Danish boardrooms." Tjalling C. Koopmans Institute
Discussion Paper Series 10(03): 1-28.

McLeod, P. L., et al. (1996). "Ethnic diversity and creativity in small groups."
Small group research 27(2): 248-264.

McMahon, A. M. (2011). "Does workplace diversity matter? A survey of

empirical studies on diversity and firm performance, 2000-09." Journal of
Diversity Management (JDM) 5(2).

Timmers, T. M., et al. (2010). "Gender diversity policies in universities: a

multi-perspective framework of policy measures." Higher Education 59(6):
719-735

Arokiasamy, A. R. A. (2013). "Literature Review on Workforce Diversity,

Employee Performance and Organizational Goals: A Concept Paper."
Researchers World 4(4): 58.

Garnero, A., et al. (2014). "The heterogeneous effects of workforce diversity

on productivity, wages, and profits." Industrial Relations: A Journal of
Economy and Society 53(3): 430-477.

Idrees, R. N., et al. (2013). "Systematic Review of Literature on Workforce

Diversity in Pakistan." Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 17(6): 780790.

Omankhanlen, A. E. and J. O. Ogaga-Oghene (2011). "The Impact of

Workforce Diversity on Organizational Effectiveness: A Study of a Nigerian
Bank."

Ongori, H. and J. Agolla (2007). "Critical review of literature on workforce

diversity."

Wentling, R. M. and N. Palma-Rivas (1997). Diversity in the workforce: A

literature review, National Center for Research in Vocational Education,
University of California at Berkeley.

11

APPENDIX 1

12

COMPARISON OF WORK FORCE DIVERSITY IN

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR
Dear Respondent,
Greeting! Thank you for taking some time out for filling this questionnaire.
It will take approximately 5 minutes of your time but would be a great help in
achieving the goal of our International Research thesis, which is to check
comparison of work force diversity in public and private sector. I would like to
assure you that all information provided will be kept completely confidential and
will
only
be
used
for
the
purposes
of
research.
Gender: Male

Occupation:

Female
Age:

Businessman

Job

15-20
21-30
31-40
41 and above

Qualification:

Salary:

10,000-20,000

Intermediate

21,000-30,000

Graduate

31,000-40,000

Post-Graduate

40,000 and above

M Phil
PHD
Sector: Private
Public
13

Q: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about
Marketing/Business Strategy based activities in your organization.
S.D means Strongly Disagreed
D means Disagree
N means Neutral
A means Agree
S.A means Strongly Agreed

ETHNICITY

S.
D

D N A S.A

S.
D

D N A S.A

Ethnicity related workforce perform well in

organization.
2 Ethnicity affects the overall performance of employees.
3 Ethnicity allows more flexible working behavior.
4 Ethnicity prejudice prevails in the workplace.
5 Divers ethnicity creates sense of competition among
employees.
6 Ethnicity propagates and gave rise to discrimination in
a workplace.

GENDER
1

2
3
4
5

The gender composition in an organizations workforce

will affect individual, group, or organizational level
performance.
Gender diversity is good for businesses.
The interaction effect of gender diversity affects the
performance of employee.
A gender-diverse workforce can produce high quality
decisions.
Gender protagonist propagator creates sense of
14

employee benefit plans.

Diversity in gender keeps harmony and respect among
the employees.

PERFORMANCE
1
2
3
4
5

S.
D

D N A S.
A

If diversity manages properly it will results in better

performance.
Diversity is required for any organization to generate
new ideas.
Diversity impact negatively on employee performance.
Diversity impact positively on employee performance.
Diversity can be a source of competitive advantage.

15