Title:
LEVERAGING ON AGE DIVERSITY FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF TELECOMMUNICATION FIRMS IN KENYA

Authors:
Mrs Doris Wanja Gitonga, Dr Mary Kamara, Dr George Orwa

Abstract:
The objective/purpose of the study was to explain the relationship between age diversity and the performance of telecommunication firms in Kenya. Workforce diversity issues may adversely affect an organization's public reputation, competitiveness and can significantly threaten the bottom line. In this age of technology, young employees can be more creative, learn faster and can drive innovation in an organization. Due to their different way of socialization and exposure, they can easily embrace change that drives innovation and organizational performance. Old employees on the other hand are considered as reservoirs of knowledge, carrying the institutional memory of an organization thus enabling effective transfer of skill. Secondary and primary data is collected and analyzed from 14 telecommunications firms for a period of five years (2010-2014). Blau's index (measure of heterogeneity) is used to operationalize age diversity. Financial measures of performance and in particular the return on investments (ROI) is used to measure firm performance due to its holistic nature and popularity as a measure of performance among the targeted firms. Descriptive analysis, Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis are the statistical techniques used for measuring the level and direction of correlation between the variables. The study found out that age diversity of employees has a weak but statistically significant relationship with performance (p<0.01), (R2=13.1%) implying that age diversity explained 13.1% variation in the performance of telecommunication firms in Kenya.