Does Gender Diversity in the Workplace Affect Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions?

Abstract

In the present study, we explore the contextual meanings and consequences of workplace diversity. We focus on gender diversity in the workplace and explore its relationship with job satisfaction and turnover intentions among male and female employees. We perform our analyses in a survey data set containing replies from 2,818 employees from 13 different occupations in the Danish public sector. The sample is stratified according to gender and contains equal shares of women and men in each occupation, thus providing good opportunities to estimate the importance of gender diversity for both women and men in widely differing occupational contexts.

We define gender diversity as gender heterogeneity in the workplace, which means that workplaces with equal shares of female and male employees have the highest degree of gender diversity, while gender homogenous workplaces have low gender diversity.

We choose job satisfaction and turnover intentions as our dependent variables because these variables represent key indicators for the well-being of employees in the workplace. Furthermore, empirical research is unsettled as to the positive or negative relationship between diversity and these variables.

We suggest that turnover intentions may not be an unambiguous indicator of organizational dissatisfaction or lack of well-being (as it is often tacitly taken to be). In some contexts, turnover intentions may be an expression of positive career orientations. Intentions to find another job may express an urge to move on, develop, obtain better pay, and so on. An occupational variable may be decisive in capturing the relevant context for determining the meaning of turnover intentions.