Managing Staff Diversity for Effective Secondary School Management in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the management of staff diversity for effective management of secondary schools in Delta State. It was a descriptive survey. The population consisted of all Delta State high school principals. A sample of 250 respondents (150 men and 100 women) was selected. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. A researcher-designed instrument called the Employee Diversity Management Questionnaire (EDMQ) was used to collect data. The instrument was verified by experts. The reliability index determined for the instrument using Cronbach Alpha was 0.78. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the Z-test was used to analyze the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Among other things, the findings of the study revealed that there are certain strategies for managing age and gender diversity for effective management of public secondary schools and that both male and female school principals do not differ in their strategies for managing age and gender diversity. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among other things, that the government formulate policies to guide school administrators in managing diversity among teachers, and that the Ministry of Education and other relevant authorities organize training programs for school administrators.