Gender Diversity and Productivity of Companies in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This research empirically investigated the nexus between gender diversity (and gender intelligence) and company productivity among one hundred companies that were purposely selected in Harare in Zimbabwe. While the literature analysis views the labour force as comprising a sheer team of male and female employees, the recent researches proved that gender balanced corporate boards and employees have a positive bearing on the performance, development and productivity of the companies. Gender diversity in production team members has potential to encourage more innovation, collective intelligence, different skills-sets and emotional perspectives to decision-making, compared to gender imbalanced production team members. A culture of inclusiveness creates a conducive environment for a company to be able to attract and retain the best employees and manufacture more germane products that suit expectations of an evolving and more profitable market place. At the same time women entering the production industry face a number of social and cultural factors that in the long run would shape the challenges that they experience including discrimination, poverty and limited access to financial loans. These challenges are costly to production and the benefits of closing such gaps are important to industrial productivity. Both the Beijing Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals argue that providing women and girls with equal access to decent work and representation in political and economic decision-making processes would fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. The research undertakes key informant interviews with company executives to assess levels of access to finance and business related opportunities in sole male companies, sole female companies and the diversified gender companies; administers questionnaires to the company’s executives to gauge performance of male and female workers and holds three focus group discussions to assess views and register attitudes of employees. The research concluded that gender diversity and company productivity are related.