Abstract:
Leadership in the public sector is essential to the effectiveness of their performance (Mora &
Ţiclau 2012). The diversity of the labor force is the result of effective leadership (Ogbeide,
2012). The main aim of the study was to establish the effect of work force diversity on
leadership effectiveness in public sector in Kenya with specific reference of Kenya School of
Government. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the effect of ethnic
diversity, gender diversity, age diversity and educational diversity on leadership effectiveness
among employees of Kenya School of Government. The study was driven by the theory of
social categorization and complexity leadership theory which were used to explain this
concept and thus clearly show the relationship between the general objective and the specific
variables. The study employed an explanatory research design to hypothesize the
relationships between variables. The target population consisted of1945 Kenya School of
Government employees. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential
statistics, while linear regression was used to test hypotheses of the 320 Employees which
were selected from the Kenya School of Government using stratified random sampling which
was representative of the study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select
sampled respondents from the target population of employees at Kenya School of
Government since they were selected from different departments and all were given equal
chance of being selected and thus generate a representative sample for the study. The data
collection instrument used for data collection was questionnaires which were presented to
respondents based on the various objectives of the study in a closed and open ended
questioners. The null hypothesis that states that there is no relationship between workforce
diversity and leadership effectiveness was rejected. The results indicated that ethnic diversity
(β 1 = 0.375, p < 0.05), gender(β 2 = 0.230, p < 0.05), age diversity (β 3 = 0.241, p < 0.05), and
educational diversity (β 4 = 0.158, p< 0.01), all had positive and significant effect on
leadership effectiveness. Similarly, the overall R 2 is 0.722 (72.2%).Explaining a strong
relationship between diversity of the workforce and effectiveness of leadership. The study
concluded that high proportion of workforce diversity was crucial for leadership
effectiveness. Finally, the study recommends that Kenya School of Government should come
up with workforce diversity aspects to provide new insights into the usefulness effects of
workforce diversity on leadership effectiveness in the public sector.
