Under many organizational hierarchies, it is commonplace for an older male to be in the role of highest authority. All United States Presidents have been male. There are 429 males in the 2018 United States Congress, which includes 535 Senators and Representatives. According to the World Health Organization workforce statistics, women account for more than 75% of the healthcare workforce in the United States (2008). This statistic aligns with the common assumption that women are caring, affectionate and compassionate which are necessary traits to work in healthcare. The same World Health Organization statistics showed that women also accounted for a majority of the associate professional positions in healthcare, but very few of the professional and physician roles (2008). As with any statistical data, there are always outliers. I happen to be employed at a non-profit healthcare organization that happens to be an outlier to this data.
The organization I work for is a nationwide, well-kept secret that is in the business of caring for others. This particular organization goes into communities with a need and does it’s best to meet it whether it is providing housing for the homeless, assisting newly released prisoners with acclimation to their new life and job search, and senior living. My location focuses on Senior Living Housing – Independent Living, Assisted Living, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Long Term Care and Memory Support. Our building is relatively small compared to others in the organization, employs just over 260 employees and we continuously compete with several other large healthcare facilities in the area. Of our four executives, three are females and one is male. We have thirteen department managers, twelve of which are females and one is male. Also included in our leadership structure are five supervisors, three are females and two are males. To put these numbers in perspective, we have two nursing departments whose managers are registered nurses (2) and supervisors are also registered nurses (2). The rest of the leaders in our building may come from similar facilities, but are not medically trained.
Although our campus defies gender norms when it comes to leadership, our culture is very much in line with that of the rest of the United States. In terms of individualism versus collectivism, our culture leans heavily towards individualism. Even though our mission dictates a common goal of all departments, that they are extremely motivated to follow, the process on how to achieve that goal creates conflict. Each employee that walks through our door every day truly believes that they are there to provide excellent service to the residents that live in our buildings. However, there is much conflict between departments. As a member of Human Resources, I am constantly having to mediate discussions between departments. Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2012) discuss the Social Identity Theory and share that on assumption of the theory is that people want to feel good about themselves, and about the group that they belong to. Potential for conflict exists when individuals or groups notice differences between their group and another and an “us versus them” sets in. This mentality prevents the groups from being able to work together towards their common goal.
Coalition building would be a great step towards reducing conflict between the departments. We have an employee led committee that plans campus-wide events for all employees. These events promote acquaintance potential allowing people from different groups to socialize and get to know each other on a personal level while doing something entertaining. It would also be in our best interest to try to develop cooperative activities for the groups to do to meet the same goal together.
References
Center for American Women and Politics (2018). Women in the U.S. Congress 2018. Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. Retrieved from: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-congress-2018
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2018). PSYCH 424 Lesson 6: Intergroup Relations/Diversity. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1924488/modules/items/23682591
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
World Health Organization. (2008). Gender and Health Workforce Statistics. Spotlight on Statistics. A fact file on health workforce statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/hrh/statistics/spotlight_2.pdf