(Get Answer) – Management in healthcare: A comparison of the versatility levels between male and female managers Management in healthcare: A comparison of the versatility levels between male and female managersIntroduction/background to the researchBerlluzzo (2007) observes that the healthcare industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The growth is attributed to the ever increasing demand and consumption of healthcare services. The growth is also attributed to the growth in population. The healthcare sector continues to expand even amidst the many challenges that are faced in the economy. This is because the demand for healthcare always increases. This also calls for improvement in the management of the healthcare. Management professionals in the healthcare sector perform different roles. They work as managers, administrators, chief executive officers, planners and many more leadership roles. Therefore the question here is which group of gender has the ability to perform well in leadership in the healthcare.In their research, Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala (2010) ascertain that management or leadership is a complex activity which calls for the use of different skill and potentials of the managers. It has been argued that men portray different leadership potentials from females hence they can perform well in management in certain sets or fields of management. The same is also said of women. This brings into picture the aspect of gender in leadership and management. Therefore, management and leadership remain to be a highly gendered subject and remain to be a key question attracting theory and practice. Both empirical research and general empirical analyses have pointed to gender gaps existing in management. Gender abilities in management of healthcare can be best explained by borrowing into theories of social identities. These theories help in contextualizing both genders in terms of their abilities and potentials to best serve as leaders in healthcare. Are women more versatile to handle the leadership or management roles in the healthcare sector or is the vice versa true (Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala, 2010).People chosen to lead or manage healthcare must have positive healthcare experience which are combined with other traits most of which are derived from the socio-metal orientation. It can easily be argued that women are better placed for managing in the healthcare because they seem to poses the socio-mental characteristics. These characteristics include sympathy, the caring personality, desire to help others and the aspect of honesty. However, it is evident from the outside economic outset that the healthcare sector is composed of organizations that are fully functional unlike in the past. Most organizations in the healthcare are now driven on strategic goals with those in the private sector operating for profits (Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala, 2010). Therefore, the socio-metal characteristics that are posed by women may not be applicable to effective management of the healthcare sector. This leaves healthcare open to management by either gender. This also implies that men are likely to be more predominant in healthcare management as opposed to women. This resonates from a look on the general economy where men are known to discharge managerial duties better than women. The number of successful male managers or leaders far mush outweighs that of female managers. Females are only found in a few leadership or managerial positions. This is also replicated in healthcare management where women are thought to poses the qualities of management required here (General Electric, 2011).According to General Electric (2011) the potentialities of women thence versatility in performing managerial roles are affected by many things. These include the recognition of women and the situations facing them, adaptability to technological changes, communicative and organizational capabilities and the exercising of power and authority in the organization. Other factors are home-job relations, intersectionality and masculinity in works among other mainstreaming issues. The working environment exposes different conditions to managers. These conditions may have different impacts on different managers depending on their gender. Though many researchers are working on justifying that there are no significant differences between different genders when it comes to management, differences are prevalent and are generative in nature. The differences are often generated from the working environment itself (General Electric, 2011).Most fields in the economy are considered to have been initiated under the initiative of men hence they are managed by men. The healthcare sector is dominated by women who mostly act as act as nurses or primary healthcare givers. The other big positions in the healthcare sector are dominated by men ranging from doctors to clinical officers and other specialists. As mentioned earlier, the healthcare sector is so elaborate and so engaging because it is marked with handling fragile operations. These include the discharging of primary and secondary healthcare activities. These activities are in most times highly fragmented which require familiarity and commitment on the part of the person overseeing their implementation (Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala, 2010).Problem StatementThe debate about gender roles in management has been raging and is likely to continue raging into the future. Many people see differences in potentialities of men and women concerning the discharge or performance of specific duties. This is because of both the physical, social and even mental characteristics that are attached to men as well as women. Traditionally, the men have been regarded as the best managers because of their emotional set-up which gives them the ability to discharge compelling tasks. Research has been pointing out that men have high resilience mechanisms which enable then to effectively coordinate different challenging tasks and come up with solutions. This explains why many leadership or managerial positions in different industries are held by men. However, in the recent times, it has been noted that women have come up and are really challenging men in management levels. Women can also be cited in different leadership positions in different industries where they are discharging their roles in a well coordinated manner. In many instances, they have even surpassed their male counterparts in dealing by leading the departments which they head or manage into great success. What should be asked in here is whether women are performing better in the management in the healthcare sector.The healthcare sector is one of the most complicated and delicate sectors which needs high level of commitment and flexibility for its managers. Whether men or women can fulfill the attributes of managing in the healthcare sector is a question that needs more research. Researches and discussions that have been done in recent times concerning gender in leadership have been focused on comparing how men and women discharge roles in given managerial roles. These researches have been mostly general and have not focused on specific industries. Management in certain field calls for more than just the theoretical skills but also other aspects that are implicated differently in different genders. Research needs to compare real cases of management and come up with a congruent conclusion that will give an outcome of which gender is best positioned to manage in the healthcare sector.The purpose of the researchThe primary purpose of this research is to establish the differences in management potential between male and female managers in the sector. It will base on cases of managing healthcare using men and the cases of managing healthcare using women in order to ascertain the more versatile gender in healthcare management. The research is meant to bring out results that will portray the potentiality male managers as well as female managers. After the analysis, a clear line will be drawn to indicate whether women performs well in managerial or leadership positions in the healthcare sectors as compared to the performance or men.Research questionsIn order to explore the subject of this research, a number of questions will be posed and guide in the collection of data for analysis. These questions will guide and direct the entire research and the answers to the question will be the important source of data to rest the research case. Five major questions will be critical in generating enough data for the topic the topic under investigation here. The questions that will inform and guide this research are as follows:-What is the ratio of male to female managers in the healthcare sector?Are there potentialities that place women in a better position in managing the healthcare sector?Are women good managers/leaders? Are their managerial skills and abilities favorable in managing in the healthcare?What are the gender gaps and differences in management in the healthcare sector?Are there any real pointers that women are more versatile in managing the healthcare sector better than men?Research ObjectivesThis research seeks to put management into picture by focusing on engendered issues in management of healthcare. The objectives of this research are:-To explore the ratio of female to male managers in the healthcare sectorTo find out and enlist factors that make female to be considered as favorites in managing or leading the healthcare sectorTo establish whether women are good managers and whether their managerial skills and abilities are best suited in the management of healthcareTo identify the gender gaps concerning management that exists in the healthcare sectorTo develop conclusive outcomes on whether women are versatile and best suited in managing the healthcare sectorReview of LiteratureHistory of leadership – focus on gender perspectivesAccording to Jurma & Powell (1994) leadership and management are considered to be universal phenomena. Issues concerning the leadership capabilities of men and women have been as old as civilization with these issues being quoted in ancient civilizations like the Egyptian civilization. The According to Hale (2001) the subject of women and leadership has been dragging for a long time. It has increasingly attracted more research. The outcomes of these researches point out that there are more imaginations of the existing differences of leadership differences between women and men. Historically, women have been seen as having less potential to ascend to leadership or managerial positions and even if so, they rarely succeed in management. In the healthcare sector, women are only linked to specific ranks like being midwifes and nurses and caregivers which falls far below leadership and management. Meta-analytical studies point out that women are countering what is considered to be stereotypic beliefs and are performing tasks in a way that matches the way male perform leadership tasks (DeMicco & Williams, 2000).Historically, studies point to the masculine features of men as being the reasons why men are rated hire those women workers. However, recent developments point to the mental complexity of people in attending ton tasks. This also still point to the fact that men are more prepared for handling tasks that seem too complex to be managed. Psychology supported by research that men have emerged as bets managers when it comes to handling complicated and more demanding tasks (Jurma & Powell, 1994).Management is considered to be a growing subject. In the ancient time, management and leadership was mostly focused on pure business institutions. However, as it is today, leadership and management has come to focus on the entire economic segments including healthcare. Leadership and management in the healthcare sector are becoming useful because of the complex operations that are involved in healthcare. Leadership attributes are considered to be important in managing healthcare departments because they are highly intertwined (Berlluzzo, 2007).Qualities of leadership and managementIn a research that was done to ascertain the essence of leadership and management in healthcare – hospital, three leadership characteristics were singled out for what would be successful managers. Ability to handle business complexity was one of the characteristics. It was noted that successful leaders in healthcare are required to be intelligent and knowledgeable in business management. Such leaders also needed to be versatile with the ability to handle multiple complex tasks. The other quality of healthcare leaders is integrity which means they should follow a code of ethics in and be ready to admit mistakes. This quality is mostly attributed to female leaders. The leader must also have the ability to remain cool even amidst an emergent crisis in the healthcare sector. They must be ready to learn from every single situation in the organization (DeMicco & Williams, 2000).Research is showing the number of women constituting the workforce in the United States has been on the increase. As of now, the United States workforce in is comprised of 50 percent women. However, the representation of women in leadership and managerial positions remains curtailed. This is so even amidst increased research and effort of ensuring that women take over leadership in all economic sectors. Women have been increasingly advancing in academics especially so in business and management courses. Therefore, the lack of theoretical skills cannot be blamed on the absence of women in leadership positions. This means that there are more forces that determine the ability of people top perform well in complex managerial positions such as those in the healthcare sector (Seija, 2002).Managing healthcare systemsAccording to Jurma & Powell (1994) healthcare organizations and systems have been undergoing comprehensive changes in order tom meet the ever increasing demand for healthcare. Both new technologies and procedures are being introduced to help in meeting the changing demands in healthcare. These changes call for effective management and leadership which will see the implementation of these changes. Therefore, present and future managers who will be managing any department in healthcare need to be more versatile so that they can match the environment. Women are arguing to be well prepared in handling the tasks because of what they term as high level experience in handling issues in nursing (Seija, 2002). It is evident that women have been superficially good in handling subordinate tasks in healthcare. However, the qualities that enable then handle these tasks have not been used in lifting them to managerial positions in healthcare.
