The Impact of Workforce Diversity on Sustainable Business Growth in IT sector with reference to Bangalore

Abstract

Workforce diversity has emerged as a strategic capability for fostering sustainable business growth; however, limited research has examined the mechanisms through which it influences long-term organisational outcomes in the Bangalore IT sector. Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Social Identity Theory (SIT), this study examines the direct relationship between workforce diversity and sustainable business growth, with organisational culture and inclusive leadership as parallel mediators. A quantitative research design was adopted using survey responses from 170 employees across service-based, product-based, and startup IT firms in Bangalore. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation, and multiple regression. The findings reveal that workforce diversity significantly enhances sustainable business growth. Organisational culture and inclusive leadership partially mediate this relationship, with organisational culture demonstrating the stronger mediating effect. The model explains 48.9% of the variance in sustainable business growth. The study extends RBV and SIT by demonstrating how organisational culture and inclusive leadership transform workforce diversity into a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Among the mediating variables, organisational culture exhibited a stronger influence than inclusive leadership in explaining the relationship between workforce diversity and sustainable business growth. The findings also provide practical implications for HR practitioners and organisational leaders in designing effective diversity and inclusion strategies for long-term organisational sustainability.