Abstract:
Universities are under pressure for a proper professional approach to managing workforce diversity
as governments call to address lack of representation in the workplace guided by annual targets. However,
there is little or poor progress in the critical area of employment equity to its strategic goals and objectives.
This has been exacerbated by the inability of the Universities to apply diversity management practice consistently.
The purpose of this study is to critically review the literature on the importance of workforce diversity in
enhancing organizational goals. This literature review article further sought to ascertain the bottlenecks in the
diversity management application practice to the academic staff members in Universities. Workforce diversity
practice as a research subject has received little attention and its importance cannot be ignored. There is a
need for a paradigm shift how workforce diversity is applied in Universities and tasked with an importance of
job knowledge creation and advancement of research as well as community engagement. This is qualitative
literature review study where the grounded theory as a qualitative analytical approach will be followed where
themes and trends will emerge from the published journal articles. The paper addresses how to dissect the
challenges of workforce diversity, effect of workforce diversity and the management of the workforce. From the
thematic analysis university leaders will be able to select the most management best practices for managing
diversity that could impact University goals. Further this will bring diversity management practice that enhances
the importance of workforce diversity and will implement sound turnaround strategies that affirm diversity
