Resumen
Subject matter: Diversity has, nonetheless, been a powerful influence on terminology and practice worldwide. Employee diversity encompasses a wide variety of differences, including age, gender, culture, work experience, parental status, educational background, geographic location, and much more. Goal: Examine the effect of gender diversity on sales Patronage of multinationals Food Industry and also to determine the effect of age diversity on multinationals operational cost. Tasks: The optimum outcome of this study is to benefit the Multinational Food industry in Nigeria by getting along with the top management and workers from different backgrounds that would find the information in this research study useful in accessing the value of workforce diversity in their organization. Methods: Two research questions were posed for the study and two hypotheses formulated in line with the objectives. The paper adopted descriptive research design. Simple random sampling was employed. The total population of the study consists of 9,376 employees of Multinational Food Companies in South-West Nigeria. The study made used of macorr sample size determination. The research questionnaire was administered to three hundred and seventy-five (375) employees which was the sample size representing the chosen study population of the 5 selected multinational food industry in South-West Nigeria. The study made use of statistical tools such as Hierarchical regression analysis in testing hypotheses, Cross tabulations, Inter-item correlation test and ANOVA which helped in the interpretation of results. Results: The study found out that there is a positive relationship between gender diversity and sales patronage such that sales patronage is affected by gender diversity. The findings of the study further revealed a positive relationship between age diversity and operation cost such that operation cost is affected by age diversity in the organization. Conclusions: The research concludes that there exists a relationship between employee diversity and organizational performance and organizations should ensure that diversity existent in their employees is aimed at improving organizational performance. The research recommends that multinational food industry should not only ensure employee diversity in their businesses but they should also make sure that diversity is used to improve organizational performance. Further studies should focus on other sector and not limited to food and beverage and conglomerate sectors of the Nigeria economy.