The Impact of diversity on organizational performance

Abstract

This bachelor thesis was written in the context of the degree in Economics and was submitted to the University of Macedonia, supervised by professor Anastasia Katou. It refers to the impact of diversity on organizational performance. In particular, after a review in the existing literature, a statistical analysis was conducted, examining this topic in organizations based in Greece, with data collected through questionnaire. Specifically, the research focused on examining the relationship between ten key characteristics of diversity and the level of individual job satisfaction, as well as the relationship between 11 aspects of diversity and organizational performance, as perceived by the employees themselves. One of the key findings of the paper is the low level of diversity in greek businesses in terms of race, ethnicity, disabilities, sexual orientation and religion. On the other hand, the research indicated higher levels of diversity in terms of age, gender, marital status, work experience, functional expertise and educational background. It was also found that there is no causal effect between the ten key characteristics of diversity and the level of job satisfaction. What is more, it was found that ethnicity and work experience diversity have a positive statistically significant contribution on performance, with coefficients 0,126 and 0,210 correspondingly.