Abstract

Highly diverse organizations, including the United Nations, face significant challenges in managing workforce diversity to achieve organizational outcomes. Therefore, this current quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between workforce diversity and organizational effectiveness of the United Nations civilian component in peacekeeping operations. The data collection was based on an online questionnaire administered to 131 civilian personnel of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Africa, selected by stratified random sampling. The results showed a strong positive and significant relationship between the three components of workforce diversity (age diversity, gender diversity, and ethnic diversity) and organizational effectiveness. The results also indicated that the three diversity components strongly and significantly predicted organizational effectiveness. This study provides insights into how UN peacekeeping missions can assess their diversity policies, practices, and strategies to improve the performance of civilian staff to meet organizational goals.