Workforce Diversity and Its Influence on Profitability and Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality Firms

The hospitality industry plays a crucial role in the economic performance of nations worldwide, but Nigeria faces challenges such as poor profitability and customer satisfaction. This study investigated the effect of workforce diversity dimensions on the performance of selected hospitality firms in North-Central Nigeria. These dimensions include demographic, cognitive, cultural, functional, identity, experiential, hierarchical, and geographic diversity. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 1,983 owners/managers of the hospitality firms across the North-Central States of Kogi, Benue, Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Niger, and the FCT, Abuja. The sample size of 322 owners/managers obtained using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination formula was used for the study. An adapted questionnaire was validated and used to collect the data required for the study. The response rate from the 322 copies of the administered questionnaire was 96.58% (311 useful copies of the administered questionnaire were retrieved). The validity of the constructs ranged from 0.696 and 0.741. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the constructs ranged from 0.967 and 0.988. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that workforce diversity dimensions have significant effect on organisational performance (Adj. R2 = 0.965, F(8,311) = 4.3043, p < 0.05); on profitability (Adj. R2 = 0.965, F(8,311) = 4.3043, p < 0.05); on customer satisfaction (Adj. R2 = 0.969, F(8,311) = 4.9183, p < 0.05); The study concluded that workforce diversity dimensions affected performance of the hospitality firms and thus recommended that management of hospitality firms needed to put in place policy to promote workforce diversity in their recruitment drives. Management should also establish policies to enhance the organizational performance of the hospitality firms.