Abstract
This research paper will discuss the disparities that currently exist in the management of the health care systems. As it will be seen women are trying very hard in making very effective strides in terms of achieving ranks that most people feel are reserved for men in the management of health care organizations. There has been objective evidence that has shown that there are some considerable disparities that are still existing, the slow growth of numbers in a given time, a good number of minorities comprising of either male or female in the leadership roles within the health care organizations.
These issues of disparities of women and minorities have to be discussed in-depth and how the health care is out to give great support to both women and the minorities. The methodology that was used in this study included a survey that was conducted throughout the nation on the chief executives of different hospitals. This was a survey that had just been concluded recently and the chief executives were being asked about their previous experiences on leadership, the impacts if any the leadership experience had on them, and the plans. The analysis had the inclusion of chi-squared analysis, descriptive statistics, logic regression, and linear regression.
What followed was a very extensive qualitative kind of study that consisted of expert interviews and case studies from different health care organizations. Telephone interviews were also conducted which lasted almost an hour. These telephone interviews included various topics with the likes of mentoring opportunities and the different perspectives concerning the many challenges that women and minorities do face in the management of health care systems. All the interviews that were conducted were later on transcribed and then analyzed using both the inductive and deductive methods.
Introduction
The existence of management disparities in the health care units that mostly affect women and minorities represents a very big failure of the health care systems in the provision of equal management opportunities to every individual regardless of gender or any other factor (Ian, 2007, p. 21). Not only in the management sector but also the minorities stand high chances of not receiving good quality health care. Those together with women have been looked upon by many.
Women are trying very hard in making very effective strides in terms of achieving ranks that most people feel are reserved for men in the management of health care organizations. There has been objective evidence that has shown that there are some considerable disparities that are still existing, the slow growth of numbers in a given time, a good number of minorities comprising of either male or female in the leadership roles within the health care organizations. These issues of disparities of women and minorities have to be discussed in-depth and how the health care is out to give great support to both women and the minorities.
Literature Review
As far as the problem of disparities of minorities in health care is one of the most important for the existence of modern society, numerous scholars dedicated their works to this issue. Ian (2007) provides considerable information about disparities in health care and outlines their main reasons. Another topic of this work is the equality of rights for working as managers for all minorities. Andrew (2006) develops the idea of disparities and describes the main area in which they occur and methods of their overcoming them. At the same time, the work by Clement (2000) presents a considerable amount of statistical data concerning the topic of this paper.
The author discloses the reasons for disparities of women and minorities in the healthcare system and ponders on the ways of their handling. The importance of the issue of disparities and its possible consequences are explored in the work by Hillary (2000) who examines the main reasons for the disparities and calls financial dependence one of the major causes of discrimination against women. The methodology of this research is described in the works by Nickson (2004) and Williamson (2005). These authors disclose the essence of the qualitative method of research and outline its main instruments.
Methodology
The final results from some two nationwide studies were analyzed to assess issues concerning development for minorities and women in health care management. First and foremost, a survey was conducted throughout the nation on the chief executive executives of different hospitals (Nickson, 2004, p. 43). This was a survey that has just been concluded recently and the chief executives were being asked about their previous experiences on leadership, the impacts if any the leadership experience had on them, and the plans. The analysis had the inclusion of chi-squared analysis, descriptive statistics, logic regression, and linear regression. What followed was a very extensive qualitative kind of study that consisted of expert interviews and case studies from different health care organizations (Williamson, 2005, p. 76).
Telephone interviews were also conducted which lasted almost an hour. These telephone interviews included various topics with the likes of mentoring opportunities and the different perspectives concerning the many challenges that women and minorities do face in the management of health care systems. All the interviews that were conducted were later on transcribed and then analyzed using both the inductive and deductive methods.
The studied population
The survey which was carried out throughout the nation had 844 correspondents who were all chief executives. This was estimated to be a response rate of about 18 %. Most of our respondents were white; this was estimated to be about 96 % that is if the analysis was by race infeasible. The qualitative study included organizational cases which were sixty and about thirty-five expert interviews. This brought the total number of the informant to 160 who were interviewed through out the nation. This number included women CEOs. Informants who came from the expert interviews were for example recruiters, consultants, academic researchers, and association leaders (Andrew, 2006, p. 89).
The principle findings (results)
The findings or rather results from the study revealed that male and female chief executives do not at all share the same leadership experiences, not even their perspectives. Female respondents from the statistics obtained were revealed to have significantly less likely to have occupied a leadership seat like CEO before. This from the results was about 42 % in women compared to men which had 62 %. It was also seen that most of the women usually had short tenure during their periods of being CEOs. Usually, the period was estimated to be 10 years compared to men who normally have longer tenures of about 15 years. At the same time, statistics revealed that women were less likely to lead in the health care systems (Clement, 2000, p. 45). This was about 10 % compared to 20 % of that of men.
Further, the female respondents were rated lower than men on all aspects of leadership and effectiveness. This includes women leaders meeting their goals with regards to the management of the health care systems and financial performance. Women were more prone to agreeing on offering internal programs on leadership and permitting job assignment flexibility.
Different themes emerged from the qualitative study. These themes include strategies for overcoming barriers, barriers hindering progress, and concerns and opportunities about targeting minorities and women as special cases in the development of health care leadership.
This clearly shows that there is a high inequality when it comes to the management of the health care systems. From the survey conducted and the results obtained, it is very evident that when it comes to management as far as health care systems are concerned, men are normally given high priority.
This has been proven by the study since the percentage of men who had previous leadership experiences was higher than the same for women. The level of financial performance and effective leadership by women is noticeably lower than that of men. It is therefore very true that this said disparity exists and it is not only being experienced in women but also by the minorities in the society. This disparity needs to be addressed because it has got far-reaching consequences (Hillary, 2000, p.23).
Conclusion
Those organizations that have aimed at increasing women’s representation together with the minorities should be able to acknowledge the existing disparities and then take reasonable steps towards greater inclusion. The strategies that have been suggested for incorporation of the disparities of minorities and women such as the creation of participation metrics for board roles and senior leadership, and constantly widening the experiences of minorities and women and promoting their success, and at the same time giving good support to a formal mentoring that can easily assist health care organizations by promotion of a wider diversity in the management of health care systems.
This will make senior leadership to becoming more reflective of both communities that are served by the health care organizations and the employee population. Therefore if disparities have to be reduced to a minimal level, then it would be very advisable to strictly follow the suggested strategies that are out to eliminate these disparities. And health care management should be practiced or rather run by all people regardless of their race, ability, or gender. Moreover, if disparities in women and minorities in the management of health care have to come to an end, then the government has to step in and give directives to different concerned authorities so that its elimination can be easily dealt with. With this at hand, disparities will surely come to an end.
References
Hillary, E. (2000). Health disparities. Boston: St. Martin’s.
Andrew, H. (2006). Equity Issues in Health care management. Cambridge: OUP.
Williamson, J. (2005). Health disparities research. London: Routledge.
Nickson, K. (2004). Pain and disparities. London: Routledge.
Clement, C. (2000). Health disparities. New York: Macmillan.
Ian, K. (2007). Health disparities. Boston: St. Martin’s.