Effect of Diversity on Job Perspectives in Selected Sectors of the Indian Economy

Diversity means variations in social, economic, demographic and employment factors. The diversity of the workforce, social and demographic-wise, is an interesting comparison for a study on diversity management. The purpose of the research work is to estimate the direction and relationship of identified social, demographic and economic diversity factors on job perspectives, namely firm and peers, job and life and human resource management (HRM) systems. The conceptual framework is built on diversity factors, such as age, gender, marital status, religion, nativity, caste and salary. The study is conducted on a random sample of 928 employees, spread across five industrial and service sectors in a public sector steel plant, two private sector steel plants, a BPO, a public sector information technology (IT) firm and private sector IT firm. The sample includes executives and non-executives within the respective industrial employments. The Cronbach’s α values for all 176 items of job perspective factors are in the range of 0.938 to 0.770. The perception of peers has an inverse impact by age diversity. The age, religion and caste diversity on the job and in life is moving in the reverse direction. The age and religion diversity presents a similar trend in HRM systems. The age, religion and caste diversity are major diverse variables on HRM systems, job and life and perception on firm and peers. Diversity factors in the Indian context on HRM factors, job and life and firm and peers are the reflection of age, religion and caste.