Workforce Diversity in Small Business: An Empirical Investigation

摘要

While it would seem that hiring a diverse workforce would be advantageous to any firm that wants to compete glob- alloy, such diversity in fact entails costs as well as benefits for the small firm. This study explores the relationship Between workforce diversity in small Businesses and the small business owner/ Manager's motivation to diversify, the Owner/manager/s personal characteristics (ethnicity, age, education, and gender), and the number of family members employed in the small business. Results suggest that the owner's minority status and age were significant predictors of the firm's level of workforce diversity. The results also showed that the gender of the owner was a significant predictor of workforce diversity but not in the hypothesized direction: small businesses managed by men had more diverse work- forces than did those managed by women.