Importance of Trust in Managing Diversity in Higher Education Institutions and Performance Outcomes: The Case of Zambia

The objective of this research was to explore the relationship between trust and diversity among academic staff performance in higher education institutions in Zambia. A total of 267 HEI academic staff were chosen at random from 34 public and 9 private HEIs. Quantitative analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Version 20 for descriptive statistics and SmartPLS 4 for structural equation modeling (SEM). A survey was used to collect data to measure trust and diversity; performance outcomes focused on employee commitment, engagement, productivity, and effectiveness. Results indicate that the hypothesized direct effects of diversity on trust and performance were not statistically supported, with only weak or negligible relationships observed. This indicates that diversity alone does not drive trust or performance within Zambian HEIs. Importantly, trust emerged as the critical factor, mediating the relationship between organizational conditions and enhanced performance outcomes. Thus, the study found that while diversity is a valued organizational attribute, its impact is realized primarily through its influence on trust, rather than as a direct driver of performance. An important conclusion of the findings is the challenge of unconscious biases (a mental process) and covert discrimination (the behaviour that perpetuates inequality) in diversity because they are problems that can lie unseen in the background of the diversity of HEIs.