Unit 2 Assignment Leadership in Diverse Organizations
Leadership in Diverse Organizations
Diverse organizations have become the evident scenario in today’s organizational set up as people from different backgrounds, socioeconomics, cultures, religions, and genders continue to become the healthcare workforce. Inclusion and diversity have become extensively used terms in healthcare leadership and workforce management, with an increased focus on them in the recent past. According to Hitt et al. (2018), it has become indispensable to have a healthcare team which denotes the tapestry of the communities as they concern gender, race, physical abilities, and sexual orientation, among other defining aspects, to render the best possible care to the equally diverse patient populations. Diversity has been aligned with greater breadth and depth in perspective and experience, demanding leaders to be aware of diversity to relate with employees and patients effectively. This paper discusses diversity in the healthcare industry, the benefits of working in a diverse healthcare organization, barriers to developing a diverse organization and applying servant leadership to address the barriers identified.
Benefits of Working in a Diverse Healthcare Organization & Benefits to Patient Care
The better a patient is understood and represented, the better they are treated and comfortable being served (Stanford, 2020). Working in a diverse workplace or organization comes with a host of benefits for the healthcare leadership and management, employers, professionals and the patients. Leaders and organization management teams should work to build a more equitable and diverse healthcare workforce. One of the primary benefits of working in a diverse organization is that the inclusivity and diversity among the employees create a strong feeling of inclusion and community for the staff. Not only does this make the workplace welcoming and accommodating, but it also promotes a feeling of safety and enjoyment.
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Secondly, a diverse work environment promotes improved problem solving, communication and employee retention. According to Hitt et al. (2018), a diverse workforce is defined by differences among workers in multiple facets. This gives a host of perspectives which can lead to more creative solutions. A diverse workforce comes with diversity in ideas and perspectives, resulting in more significant innovation, hence improved workers and organizational productivity. Concerning better decision-making, a diverse workforce enables workers to recognize and respect other people’s cultures and differences. This understanding fosters effective communication among the staff, hence a high level of self-motivation and a higher employee retention rate. Singh (n.d), in his work, identified that; the healthcare sector is one of the industries marked by a high employee turnover rate. A diverse workforce has not only motivated individual employees but also made them feel valued, safer and happier, hence longer staying within the practice. Diversity has improved workers’ morale and desire to remain on the team.
Diversity-compliant organizations have been identified to have a better recruitment plan. An organization committed to diversity benefits when recruiting new health professionals and other staff. It attracts the best professionals from minor communities, building a stable workforce. Regarding patient care, diversity has extended patient-based care to underrepresented communities resulting in effective, improved communication and quality care.
Barriers to Developing a Diverse Organization
Diversity and inclusion initiatives have become the forefront target for healthcare organizations to create and sustain a competitive work environment that outperforms a homogenous workforce (Stanford, 2020). While success in diversity relies on a multifaceted talent pool among the staff denoted by ingenuity, creativity, and problem-solving abilities, developing a diverse organization has not been straightforward. Different barriers hinder a diverse organization’s development, ranging from internal to external factors. One of the challenges to an effective diverse workplace is stereotyping and unconscious biases. Humans are conditioned to make decisions based on traditions and preexisting assumptions. Unconscious biases are socially related stereotypes about a group of people that individuals form based on their conscious awareness. This trend can result in discrimination and favoring those deemed similar or from the same background or interests. For example, hiring nurses or other healthcare professionals who have grown up in the same state, school, or color hinders an organization’s ability to establish a diverse team. Combined with affinity, unconscious biases tend to hurt diversity as people tend to contribute or foster a biased team discussion and decision-making. This trend deprives an organization of the ability to tap from diversity in experience and talent Unit 2 Assignment Leadership in Diverse Organizations
In addition to unconscious biases, there is also the challenge of the leadership skill Gap. The skills to establish and build a lasting diverse team or works are not straightforward to all managers and leaders in an organization. The skills are limited to leaders who possess critical skills to manage change from a homogenous to a diverse workplace environment (Stanford, 2020). With ever-changing healthcare environment dynamics, leaders are not fully prepared, equipped, or trained to nature and capitalize on the diversity paradigm. According to (Singh, n.d), unless organizational leaders have the skills to manage differences in a diverse workforce, diverse teams can derail organizational performance, resulting in a tainted image, poor care delivery, and patient feedback and outcomes.
Thirdly, diversity may result in communication issues and slower decision-making. Communication-related issues can be evident and standard in a team defined by diversity and for multiple reasons (Hitt et al., 2018). Different communication preferences and styles, language barriers, or the presence of healthcare workers with hearing problems may reduce diversity effectiveness and overall employee productivity. For example, a team with generational differences may find the younger group prefers chats and social media while the older generation prefers phone and face-to-face conversation. This requires influential leaders on how and when to use each communication platform to benefit such a team. While different views, opinions, and ideas were identified as one benefit of workers’ diversity, this gain can also be a hindrance in the aspect that it can slow down the decision-making process as each of the worker’s ideas and opinions are factored in when making decisions towards goals (Singh, n.d). For example, a team member from a minority group may question the status quo in a meeting and may bring a critical point in the meeting that needs exploring. Poor communication increases the decision-making process, hence a critical barrier that needs effective solutions.
Finally, with poor communication and slow decision-making, there is the possibility of conflict between the diverse workforce due to misunderstanding, prejudice, or other fueling actors. Diversity can be divisive if ineffectively managed. This leads to conflict among the workers and divisiveness, significantly decreasing productivity and morale. While workforce diversity can enhance its effectiveness as a result of interaction, conflicts such as disrespect and negative identity and recognition are possible. Conflict taints the organization’s image and reduces the effectiveness of care delivery and patient experience.
Applying Servant Leadership to Address the Challenges Identified Above and Foster Organization Become More Diverse
The servant-Leader leadership approach is denoted by knowledge and power sharing by placing other people’s needs first while creating the best possible environment for the followers to grow (Whitney, 2018). Healthcare is a service industry that requires different professionals working together to influence patient care according to patient needs. The adoption and implementation of the servant-leader model overlap with patient-based communication, fostering trust among the healthcare providers and patients.
Regarding addressing the identified barriers, the servant-leader approach values people/workers for who they are and not what they give to the organization. With servant leaders committed to improving their followers, the approach cultivates positive teamwork by overcoming stereotyping and unconscious biases as workers understand each other not as per their professional output but also as individuals who deserve respect and understanding. The servant-leader approach encourages each employee to take action and build consensus in teamwork through persuasion and not authority. According to Gandolfi & Stone (2018), without strong relationships within an organization, employees would be unable to do their job effectively. Servant-leadership approach helps foster strong relationships, which in turn form strong teams. By cultivating respect, the servant leader approach helps workers to demystify unconscious biases and stereotypes.
Additionally, the selected leadership approach recognizes workers’ differences, giving everyone input in making decisions. The leader is the final decision maker who considers all ideas and opinions, ultimately moving forward. This approach helps reduce stalling of an organization due to delayed decision-making as the leader acknowledges and recognizes individual contributions from the team of workers.
Lastly, leaders tend to learn from their followers by recognizing individual workers’ input while influencing and coaching them through a task. This approach helps fill in the leadership gaps, as the leader may have no idea, through teamwork, which helps build coalitions and communities, promoting the widespread ethical practice in the healthcare industry.
How a Diverse Organization Assists In Creating a Competitive Advantage within the Healthcare Environment
There are multiple and diverse benefits linked with a diverse workplace or organization. According to Stanford (2020), diverse staff perspectives, ideas, and opinions can lead to better problem solving and increased innovation. This has helped healthcare organizations effective and better serve their patient base, attain new heights and gain a competitive advantage over other organizations in the industry. By coining a diverse healthcare organization, there is an increased platform to serve the traditionally underrepresented groups, creating a sense of belonging. When patients are served by one of their own in terms of color, sex, or person with a disability, etc., they tend to feel more as part of secure and safe hence resulting in positive customer feedback and satisfaction. Satisfied patients are crucial to hospital referrals based on the organization’s ability to meet diverse patient needs. Hospital organizations embracing diversity are known to have a higher and positive public image due to customer feedback, hence an upper hand in the market over other organizations.
Whitney (2018), in his work, identified that, as US populations continue to become more diverse in terms of age, education, and ethnicity, among other aspects, an increasing demand strengthens the clinical capabilities of organizations, healthcare processes, accessibility, efficiency, and more importantly the patient outcome. These facets have become the key battleground on which competitive strategies are being executed. Through the adoption and development of a diverse organization, healthcare organizations have gained an upper in terms of competitive advantage as they have stood to gain more by addressing patient needs to their satisfaction. Diversity has talent healthcare organizations closer to patients as it has helped reduce the marginalization in the community. Rather than see diversity as a challenge to leadership and organization income generation, far-looking healthcare organization managers see diversity as an opportunity to understand patient differences in terms of their preference and understanding of healthcare matters, hence gaining a competitive advantage over organizations that have remained homogenous Unit 2 Assignment Leadership in Diverse Organizations.
Healthcare organizations denoted by a diverse workforce stand to gain from diversity aspects through empowering their initiatives to improve patient outreach and targeting care (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). A diverse organization and healthcare workforce are viewed as a representation of the community it serves, hence used as one strategy to eliminate disparities. This is because such a workforce is better positioned to effectively and better meet the needs of diverse individuals and accord higher quality care, high levels of patient satisfaction, and subsequent gain an upper hand over its competitors. Finally, a diverse workplace or healthcare organization stands in a better position to motivate and improve workers’ productivity, health outcomes, and revenue streams, not to mention laying the foundation for the most effective strategies to achieving an advantage over other care organizations. In addition to being better positioned to meet patients’ needs, a diverse healthcare organization benefits from a positively motivated workforce, optimizing performance, reducing employee turnover, and building a culture of success.
References
Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal of management research (09725814), 18(4), 261-269.
https://eds-aebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=a1ccce89-87fa43ca-904d-2a55abc4505a%40sdc-v-sessmgr03Links to an external site.
Hitt, M.A., Colella, A., & Miller, C. (2018). Organizational behavior. (5th Ed.). Wiley. ISBN: 978-1119441304.
Singh, R. (n.d). The Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators on Employee Engagement in Information Organizations. Retrieved from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1096700.pdfLinks to an external site.
Stanford, F. C. (2020). The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Healthcare Workforce.
Journal of the National Medical Association
,
112
(3), 247–249.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnma.2020.03.014
Whitney, S. (2018). Nursing leadership & management: leading and serving. Theories and concepts in leadership and management. Retrieved from
https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-andserving/v1.1/#/chapter/1Links to an external site.
Unit 2 Assignment Leadership in Diverse Organizations
Instructions
Write a 1200-1500 word Unit 2 Assignment Leadership in Diverse Organizations paper in APA format.
This paper should:
Be approximately 5-6 pages long, double-spaced
Include a title and reference page – not included in the page count
Exclude sources older than 5 years
Should include sources from the required readings and/or scholarly sources found from Herzing’s library. Your textbook may be used as one source.
Include an introductory paragraph and a conclusion
The paper should include:
Introduction to the topic.
Identify the benefits of working in a diverse healthcare organization. Include the benefits to patient care.
Identify the barriers to developing a diverse organization.
Apply
your dominant leadership style
and address the identified barriers to assist your organization in becoming more diverse. This leadership style may be the one you discussed in Week 1 or maybe one found in Chapter 8 of the textbook.
Lastly, identify how a diverse organization assists in creating a competitive advantage within the healthcare environment.
Conclusion – should not bring any new ideas to the paper.
Resource(s)
Hitt, M.A., Colella, A., & Miller, C. (2018). Organizational behavior. (5th ed.). Wiley. ISBN: 978-1119441304. Unit 2 Assignment Leadership in Diverse Organizations