Volume 5, Number 3

Factors Affecting Workforce Diversity for Firms Listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

  Authors

Zvinaiye Chimbadzwa Lighton Dube and Emmanuel Guvheya, Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe

  Abstract

The study employed the quantitative methodology to establish the impact of workforce diversity on firm performance measured by profitability of thirty-five (35) firms listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange using panel data collected over the period 2009 – 2015. Board gender and executive diversity were found to have a positive and significant impact on profitability as measured by returns per share and gross profit whilst board education diversity was found to have a positive and significant impact on profitability as measured by gross profit. Geographic location diversity was found to have a negative and significant impact on profitability as measured by returns per share and gross profit. Whether a firm is located in the rural areas had a positive and significant impact on profitability as measured by gross profit. The study recommends that companies should come up with diversity-enabling policies in order to enhance firm performance.

  Keywords

Workforce diversity, returns per share, Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.