Posted: June 27th, 2015

Versatility Levels Between Male and Female Managers

Management in healthcare: A comparison of the versatility levels between male and female managers

Introduction

Berlluzzo (2007) asserted that the health care industry is one of the fast growing industries. The growth is attributed to the ever-increasing demand and consumption of health care products. The growth is also attributed to the growth in population. The healthcare sector continues to expand despite the many challenges that are experienced in the global economy. This is because the demand for health care products has always been increasing. The increasing demand calls for improvement in the management of health care institutions. Management professionals within the health care sector perform different roles. They work as managers, administrators, chief executive officers, and leaders. The leadership of men and women has been different. However, question about the gender that is better than the other in the leadership of health care institutions has not been answered. Husu, Hearn, Lamsa, and Vanhala (2010) are of the view that management and leadership are complex processes that require the use of different skills. The men portray different leadership potentials compared to women. Therefore, men can perform well in certain fields of management. On the other hand, women have strengths in managing other aspects. This brings into picture the aspect of gender differences in leadership and management. Therefore, differences in the management and leadership of men and women remain to be controversial. Different theories have been developed to explain the scenario. Empirical research and general scientific analysis have indicated that gaps exist in the management of men and women. Gender abilities in the management of health care organizations can be explained by exploring various theories. These theories help in developing a contextual definition concerning leadership abilities of men and women (Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala, 2010).

Leaders and managers in the health care sector should have positive health care experience. The experience is combined with personal traits to improve the performance of health care organizations. Some theories argue that women have better skills in managing health care organizations. This is because they seem to possess the socio-mental characteristics. These characteristics include sympathy, caring personality, desire to help others, and the aspect of honesty. However, it is evident that the health care sector is composed of organizations that are fully functional. Most organizations in the health care industry are driven by strategic goals similar to the goals in the private sector. In this case, the main goal is to maximize profits (Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala, 2010). Therefore, the socio-mental characteristics that are possessed by women may not be applicable for effective management of the health care sector. On the other hand, men have traits that are suitable in managing healthcare institutions. This implies that men are likely to be more predominant in health care management than women. This emanates from assumptions from the general economy where men are said to discharge managerial duties better than women. The number of successful male managers outweighs that of female managers. Notably, females are found in insignificant leadership and managerial positions. This is also replicated in health care management where women are thought not to possess the qualities of management (General Electric, 2011).

According to General Electric (2011), the potential of women and versatility in performing managerial roles is 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 exercise of power and authority in the organization. Other factors are home-job relations, intersectional and masculinity in work among other issues. The work environment exposes managers to different conditions. These conditions may have different impacts on different managers depending on their gender. Many researchers justify that there are no significant differences between different genders in management. However, differences are prevalent and are gender sensitive in nature. The differences are often generated from the work environment itself (General Electric, 2011). Most fields in the economy are considered to have been established under the initiative of men. Therefore, men are said to be perfect in establishing strategies.

The health care sector is dominated by women who work as nurses or primary healthcare providers. The other influential positions such as doctors, clinical officers, and other specialists, in the health care sector are dominated by men. The health care sector is elaborate and engaging as it involves handling fragile operations. These include the discharging primary and secondary health care activities. These activities are highly fragmented, and they require familiarity and commitment (Husu, Hearn, Lamsa & Vanhala, 2010).

Problem Statement

There has been a debate regarding the gender role differences in the management of health care organizations. Men and women discharge management and leadership duties differently. This is because men and women have physical, social, and mental characteristics that are different. Traditionally, men have been regarded as the best managers because of their emotional set-up that gives them the ability to handle challenging tasks. Research has indicated that men have high resilience mechanisms. This enables them to coordinate different challenging tasks and provide solutions. This explains why most leadership and managerial positions in different industries are held by men. However, in the recent times, it has been noted that women have come up to challenge men in managing organizations. Women have emerged to manage and hold different leadership positions within different industries where they discharge their roles. In many instances, they have even surpassed their male counterparts by leading departments to achieve considerable success. What needs to be reviewed is whether women can perform better in management within the health care sector. The health care sector is one of the most complicated and delicate sectors that need a high level of commitment and flexibility from the managers. The notion on whether men or women can fulfill the attributes of managing in the health care sector is a subject that needs research. There are various studies and discussions that have been done in recent times on gender roles in leadership. They have focused on comparing how men and women discharge management roles. The research has been general and has not focused on certain industries. Management in certain fields calls for more than just the theoretical skills. This is because it includes other aspects that are differently implicated among the different genders. Research should compare real cases of management and come up with a congruent conclusion on the gender that is best positioned to manage in the health care sector.

The purpose of the research

The primary purpose of this research is to establish the differences in the management potential of male and female managers in the health care sector. It will base on cases of managing health care using men and women to ascertain the versatile gender in health care management. The research is meant to establish results that will portray the potentiality of male managers, as well as that of female managers. After the analysis, a clear line will be drawn to indicate whether women performs better in managerial or leadership positions within the health care sectors than men.

Research questions

A number of questions will be posed to guide the collection of data for analysis. This will be critical for the exploration of the subject of this research. These questions will guide and direct the entire research. In addition, the answers to the question will be the main source of data to t the research process. Five key questions will be critical in generating data for the topic under investigation. The questions that will inform and guide this research are as follows:

• What is the ratio of male to female managers in the health care sector?
• Are there potentialities that place women in a better position in managing the health care sector than men?
• Are women good managers/leaders? Are their managerial skills and abilities favorable in managing the health care sector?
• What are the gender gaps and differences in management within the health care sector?
• Are there any real pointers that women are more versatile in managing the health care sector than men?

Research Objectives

This research seeks to put the aspect of management into the picture by focusing on engendered issues in management of health care. The objectives of this research are as follows:

• To explore the ratio of female to male managers in the health care sector.
• To find out and enlist factors establishing females as favorites in managing or leading the health care sector.
• To establish whether women are excellent managers and whether their managerial skills and abilities are best suited in the management of the health care sector.
• To identify gender gaps concerning management that exists in the health care sector.
• To develop conclusive outcomes on whether women are versatile and best suited in managing the health care sector.

Review of Literature

History of leadership – focus on gender perspectives

According to Jurma and Powell (1994), leadership and management are considered to be universal phenomena. Issues concerning leadership capabilities of men and women have been as old as civilization with these issues being quoted in ancient civilizations like the Egyptian civilization. According to Hale (2001), the subject of women and leadership has been dragging for a long time. This has attracted a lot of research from different individuals and organizations. The outcomes from researches point out that there are significant assumptions on the existence of differences in leadership among women and men. Historically, women have been seen as having limited potential to ascend to leadership or managerial positions. In case they do, they rarely succeed in management. In the health care sector, women are only linked to lower ranks like nurses and caregivers. These are ranks that fall far below the leadership and management positions. Meta-analytical studies established 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 higher than women workers. However, recent developments point to the mental complexity of people in attending to tasks. This also points to the fact that men are prepared to handle tasks that seem very complex to be managed. Psychological research noted that men have emerged as best managers when it comes to handling complicated and 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 health care. Leadership and management in the health care sector is becoming useful because of the complex operations that are involved in health care. Leadership attributes are considered to be crucial in managing health care departments because they are highly intertwined (Berlluzzo, 2007).

Qualities of leadership and management

In a research that was done to ascertain the essence of leadership and management in health care, three leadership characteristics were singled out for successful management. The ability to handle business complexity was one of the characteristics. It was noted that successful leaders in health care are required to be intelligent and knowledgeable in business management. Such leaders also needed to be versatile with the ability to handle multiple and complex tasks. The other quality of health care leaders is integrity. This means that they should follow a code of ethics and be ready to admit mistakes. This quality is mostly attributed to female leaders. The leader should also have the ability to remain calm even in the midst of an emergent crisis within the health care sector. They must be ready to learn from every single situation in the organization (DeMicco & Williams, 2000). Research shows that the number of women constituting the workforce in the United States has been on the increase. The United States workforce is comprised of 50 per cent women. However, the representation of women in leadership and managerial positions remains curtailed. This is irrespective of increased research and effort to ensure that women empowered to take leadership in all economic sectors. Women have been increasingly advancing in academics especially in business and management related courses. Therefore, the lack of theoretical skills cannot be blamed for the absence of women in leadership positions. This means that there are other forces that determine the ability of people to perform well in complex managerial positions such as those within the health care sector (Seija, 2002).

Managing healthcare systems

According to Jurma and Powell (1994), health care organizations and systems have been undergoing comprehensive changes in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for health care. New technologies and procedures are being introduced to help in meeting the changing demands within health care industry. These changes call for effective management and leadership that will see the implementation of these changes. Therefore, present and future managers who will be managing any department in health care need to be versatile so as to match the environment. Women are argued to be well prepared in handling these tasks. This is because women have high capacity and experience of handling issues in nursing (Seija, 2002). It is evident that women have been superficially proficient in handling subordinate tasks within health care sector. However, the qualities that enable them to handle these tasks have not been used in lifting them to managerial positions within health care sector.

References

Berlluzzo, C.M. (2007). Global perspectives of leadership in healthcare: Exploring differences using concept mapping as an analytical approach. New York: UMI Dissertation Publishing.

DeMicco, F.J. & Williams, A.J. (2000). Attributes associated with success as perceived by managers in three levels of multidepartment management in acute care hospitals. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 24(1): 36-48.

General Electric, (2011). Next-generation revenue cycle solution combines best metrics, interoperability, and versatility: The qualities you demand in a revenue cycle management solution. New York: General Electric publishing.

Hale, J.P. (2001). Leadership, ascendancy, and gender. Texas: University of North Texas

Husu, L., Hearn, J., Lamsa, A. & Vanhala, S. (2010). Leadership through the gender lens: Women and men in organizations. Helsinki: Hanken School of Economics.

Jurma, H. & Powell, L. (1994). Perceived gender roles of managers and effective conflict management. Psychological Reports, 74 (1): 104-106.

Seija, T. (2002). Views on management and leadership in nursing. Oxford: Enfermeria Global.