Word count: 1348

Introduction

Today the world economy is significantly integrated due to increasing globalization framework that
has required organizations responding. Organizations, regardless of the field, are starting to search
for new opportunities for enhancing their business performance and for identifying solutions for
their business issues. In this regard, organizations actively examine the inclusion of workforce
diversity in the traditional structure. Today workforce diversity is considered more than only ethics, it
becomes a big business opportunity. Most organizations start to adopt diversity at their workplace
and become more creative and open to change. Workplace (also called workforce) diversity can
generally be identified as "an organization, in which employees possess distinct elements and
qualities, differing from one another”. (Foma., 2014)Review of previous literature on workforce
diversity has shown that the majority of the researchers are considering these elements and qualities
in wide concept embracing class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual
orientation, spiritual practice. (Angel., 2016) (Mrs. Doris., 2016) (Darwin, 2015) Also, the researchers
have noticed that workforce diversity somehow impact business performance. We have found this
definition too broad and unclear to examine this issue. In this regard, we have narrowed the scope of
the definition of workforce diversity for our research and will consider only gender diversity within
organizations in New Zealand. We have chosen gender diversity based on actuality the issue in the
country. According to the Stats NZ data female participation over the two decades in workforce rate
slightly has been increased from 58 to 62 percent. In contrast, male workforce participation has been
stable and fluctuating around 74 percent. As is the case with female representation in the
management, on average, females hold 44% of the roles at the governance level overall. (Stat NZ,
2014) Based on the New Zealand Diversity Survey in 2017, data has been shown that public-sector
organizations have female representation at the decision-making level more than private-sector
organizations. In private-sector organizations, women make up less than 25 percent of the leadership
team and governance. Across the surveys carried out in 2017 among various organizations of New
Zealand gender has been identified among crucial diversity issues in ranking 32% - 45%. (Dr. Terruhn.,
2017) Thus, we can see the issue of gender diversity and its impact on organizations in New Zealand
is open and actual. It should be noted that looking at gender diversity within the framework of
business performance, organizations can gain a range of advantages. For example, gender diversity
can be associated with resources that can provide organizations with a sustained competitive
advantage. These resources can comprise market insight, different cognitive abilities and improved
problem-solving. Gender workforce diversity can provide a better understanding of the different
needs of male and female customers. Moreover, gender diverse workplace may enhance overall
creativity and innovation. From another side, gender diversity may have adverse effect role
expectations based on stereotypes, a lack of cooperation and increased conflict among group
members. (Dr. Metz., 2007) Some of the previous researchers also have indicated that gender
diversity tends to reduce coordination, communication and increase employee turnover. (Darwin.,
2015) All of these outcomes may impact on business performance overall. As known New Zealand
is a socially diverse and inclusive nation. However, reviewing literature, we have found there is lack of
New Zealand research about gender workforce diversity and its relationship into business
performance. Moreover, we have decided to confine a definition of business performance for our
research and this issue will be considered only as financial performance. Thus, statistics of New
Zealand and review of literature have given us the base of our research topic that is “gender
workforce diversity within organizations of New Zealand and its influence on financial performance".
In our research, we will analyse fifteen New Zealand organizations. The research will be based on
secondary data such as annual reports, code of conduct and diversity policy. This study is divided into
eight parts-the above being the introduction, the second part gives the literature review. The third
part is the methodology followed by the results presentation in part four. The fifth part is a
discussion of the results and the implications for managing a business in New Zealand. The
limitations of the study will be introduced in the sixth part. The seventh part is the conclusion and
future research and in the last part is the reference list.

Literature review

The purpose of the literature review is to analyse and critically review the research already been
carried out on workforce diversity and its impact on the organization. The literature review of ten
papers spoke about three things about workforce diversity in an organization - 1. How does the
workforce diversity affect the organization’s performance, 2. What are the benefits and breadth of
issues that workforce diversity brings, and 3. How do organizations manage or can manage their
workforce diversity more effectively.

The authors concluded managing a diversified workforce is key and provided feasible solutions for
managing it. Workforce diversity is a broader topic to discuss, the authors have mostly chosen one or
more of the demographic group, mostly: age, gender, and ethnicity. The empirical judgment was
made whether age, gender, and ethnicity have direct linkage to organizations performance or not.

All the authors cited the benefits of workforce diversity like - increase in the pool of qualified
personnel from different backgrounds, increase productivity, creativity, and improves problem-
solving. The authors (Darwin Joseph & Selvaraj., 2015) (FAROOQI, 2017) (Idrees, Abbasi, & Waqas,
2013) felt that the workforce diversity demographics like age and ethnicity have more benefits like
they found that the younger generation is more aware of the new technology and are bigger risk
takers than the older generation. It was also noticed in the organizations of Singapore, Nigeria, and
Pakistan that the older generation was cognitive and had balanced socio-emotion. The researchers
even said how the organizations could benefit from the combination of both the age groups. In the
research paper by (Fleury, 2016), the author had very well explained the emergence of the workforce
diversity in Brazilian organisations and theoretical concept of culture diversity. The author had
collected data from six different organisation but however, the findings was presented on only one
company in the form of case study analysis. Brazilian organization found that the white men were
more committed to the company objective than the black, the black’s felt more prejudiced. However,
all the authors who had gender demographic as one of its parameter believed that the organizations
definitely would have a more advantageous position as the decisions taken will be more sound. They
also acknowledged that the workforce diversity bring their own complexities like no proper
communication due to age gap and ethnicity issues, different ways of doing work, discrimination,
resistant of not adopting the new culture, not able to adjust with others attitudes and behavior. The
research paper by (Darwin Joseph & Selvaraj., 2015), the author had a very good understanding of
the workforce diversity this is seen through the empirical theory and even though the statistical
hypothesis formed. The research and methodology were very well defined and the author analysed
the data to prove there with no significance between workforce diversity demographics like age,
gender and ethnicity and organization performance. Limitations and suggestions were clearly
outlined and were feasible. The authors (Foma, 2014), (Mrs. Doris Wanja Gitonga, Kamaara, & Orwa,
2016) (Darwin Joseph & Selvaraj., 2015) strongly feel that there is no significant influence of
workforce diversity on the performance of the company but it has been identified that “The
organizational strategies of individual companies are likely to have an influence on the impact of
workforce diversity”. It has also been concluded that the workforce diversity has a positive impact on
working for an organisation and creates a harmonious environment to work in. It has been evident
from the various research paper under review that there is no direct link between the workforce
diversity and the business performance.

However, it is also found that organization are facing the biggest challenge in terms of managing
their diversified workforce and are in constant need of monitoring and managing them to derive the
best outcomes.