Diversity in board composition and healthcare team innovation: an empirical review

Diversity in Healthcare

Pechersky, A. (2016). Diversity in Board of Directors: Review of Diversity as a Factor to Enhance Board Performance. Studia Commercialia Bratislavensia, 9(33), 88. doi:10.1515/stcb-2016-0009

Pechersky (2016) carried out a thorough analysis of previous experiments which focused on the way factors like diversity and structure of a Board of Directors affects their main functions. The analysed experiments use samples of boards operating in a number of nations. This paper gives a general outline of how diversity in gender, professional experience and ethnicity could cause a significant increase in a board\'s effectiveness. It utilizes the technique called secondary data analysis in locating the current trend using the findings of the previous research on the effect of diversity on effectiveness. Moreso, some of the experiments studied by the paper focused on diversity in sex among board members located in Europe and how this has developed with time. With inferences drawn from the results of this analysis, Pechersky (2016) gives conclusive evidence on the influence and benefits of diversity and it also provides a further list of guidelines to this effect.

A general background on a board of directors and the major factors which affect a company\'s success can be found in this paper. Some of these identified factors are gender, number and schedule. Equally, Pechersky (2016) gives a detailed write-up of the positive influence diversity of board members can has on the success of a firm. From the conclusions of the paper, it is clear that gender diversity alone has a marked positive affect on a firm\'s success especially those in the medical and social landscape.

Furthermore, this paper reveals that gender stigmatization has a significantly adverse influence. It also brings our attention back to previous experimental deductions and the importance of incorporating a special group of factors referred to as country readiness factors. This paper rounds up by stating that, from an experimental standpoint, a diverse board of directors has significant positive influence in the business world and the leadership of developed nations, which are popularly known for high population of females with previous records of welfare-aimed service. Despite this, there hasn\'t been any conclusive experimental finding which applies to every area of the world, so it is safe to say that this diversity could be situation-based and its benefits might remain only theoretical on the global financial stage.

Mitchell, R., & Boyle, B. (2015). Professional diversity, identity salience and team innovation: The moderating role of open-mindedness norms. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(6), 873-894. doi:10.1002/job.2009

Mitchell and Boyle (2015), with the aim of attaining a higher level of knowledge on the topic of ingenuity among teams of diverse medical specialists, examined the effect of introducing an intermediary whose job would be to identify obvious traits that are common between team novelty and variety in medical specialty. Those who took part in this research were UK-based medical personnel. The choices were made based on two factors; the team members had to carry out a member\'s survey while their leader did the same with a leader\'s survey. The database used was made up of all the teams and was hosted on a server belonging to a research services firm. A total of 122 teams were invited to take part with 76 teams giving an active response, a 62% response. The selected teams were based in a variety of healthcare services firms all operating in the UK. 15 of the teams (21.4%) specialized in developing and overseeing clinics and clinical operations while the other 55 (78.6%) stated their major objectives as providing solutions to complicated patient problems, and they gave an example of patients who recently had tracheostomies and needs proper care in order not to suffer a relapse, which could be very costly. In order to determine if the database considered team influences, we applied the ANOVA technique to evaluate the teams. Another ANOVA was carried out, this time in order to check for any considerable differences among the teams. This paper believes that salience on the part of the specialists is adequate enough to point out both favourable and adverse effects of diversity among professionals, with emphasis on the upholding of impartial values. The results obtained from examining the data gotten from over 70 selected medical teams gives conclusive evidence of the accuracy of our model and confirms that professional salience has a double-sided effect on team ingenuity and the major effect enjoyed is dependent on how impartial the team is.

Moore, C. L., Washington, A. L., Ningning, W., Johnson, J., Davis, D., Eugene-Cross, K., &. .. Quinn, J. (2015). Disability, Health, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research Leaders from Traditionally Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Populations: Career Development and Success Factors. Journal of Rehabilitation, 81(1), 19-33.

Moore et al. (2015) gives a broad description of the available research capabilities and infrastructure as well as the leadership training programs which renowned researchers hailing from commonly side-lined ethnic origins and regions (i.e. Asians, Native Americans, African-Americans and Latinos) exploit. This paper focuses on the part of these resources which focus on the fields of success, health, disability, career rehabilitation and independent living. Applying the literature review format, this paper blends all previous research works and writings e.g. white papers, government technical reports, monographs etc. as well as policy guidelines on available research programs and infrastructure which foremost researchers in the fields of independent living, disability and health could make use of, most especially the researchers suffering from disabilities and those from commonly side-lined ethnic populations in the US. Theories pulled from the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCML) were used as the basis of this study, which gave proper insight into the lean group of top researchers and the major factors which enhances the successes they enjoy. This findings of this study make it clear that more research is needed to properly identify the connection between these identified factors and the career bliss enjoyed by researchers from these ethnic origins. The paper specifically calls for further studies which could answer these questions. First, which precise research as well as leadership capacity development factors majorly influences the career bliss enjoyed by foremost researchers hailing from well-known side-lined ethnic regions? Second, what precise research facilities and programs help promote research and leadership capacity development in foremost researchers hailing from these regions?

Chisholm-Burns, M. A., Spivey, C. A., Hagemann, T., & Josephson, M. A. (2017). Women in leadership and the bewildering glass ceiling. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 74(5), 312-324. doi:10.2146/ajhp160930

Chisholm-Burns et al. (2017) considers the standing of the foremost women specifically in the American pharmaceutical, medical and educational worlds, a study which is even more needed considering the failure of a foremost politician, Hillary Clinton to secure the seat of the Presidency ahead of a politically inexperienced man, Donald Trump. Chisholm-Burns et al. (2017) doesn\'t have an easily identifiable method, still, we can say that this paper used a literature review format modelled as a commentary which tries to throw some light on its basic theme via;

• Analysis of how much women have been able to reach the top of their respective corporate worlds

• Enumeration of the advantages of a female leadership as well as the obstacles preventing women from attaining leadership levels

• Thoroughly explaining mechanisms which could help take down all obstacles on their path to the top.

Due to the inadequate amount of writings focused on leading women in the pharmaceutical world, this paper studies the available database concerning other careers and then relates their findings to the female pharmacy world with the aim of identifying viable methods of boosting leadership openings and yearnings among them.

Chisholm-Burns et al. (2017) finalizes by stating that, though there has been massive improvement in the number of working females, attainment of leadership ranks especially in industries like the medical and pharmaceutical still remains an elusive achievement. In order to change this, mechanisms such as improvement of gender equality, leadership capacity building meetings, an effective mentoring and sponsoring network as well as modifications to laws guarding family origins should be put in place at the personal, organizational, institutional and community levels.

Lowe, F. f. (2013). Keeping Leadership White: Invisible Blocks to Black Leadership and Its Denial in White Organizations. Journal of Social Work Practice, 27(2), 149-162.

This research paper studies an unsettling and yet uncontested trend in the leadership of Britain, specifically its higher levels where only whites are allowed to grace. Lowe (2013) argues that under the public stance of equality for all held by the leadership, a lot of age-long and involuntary beliefs often exert themselves keeping the leadership white, a situation which points to a class system based on colour. It further states that these factors blocking blacks and other smaller ethnic populations from reaching leadership ranks in companies are mostly immaterial and exist mainly in the traditions of most white companies, the mentalities of the shot-callers and also due to the effect the above have on the aspirations of the blacks and the ethnic minority workers as well. Lowe (2013) can be called a literature review with a number of instances backing it up. It believes that these obstacles preventing black leaders from emerging in the present-day companies are more psychological than material and some of them are; involuntary racial discrimination, traditional beliefs of whites and how this affects those of the BME staff, use of blacks in enhancing the whites\' statuses, expected actions from leaders as well as the mental picture of leaders and their prototype characteristics. Lowe (2013) concludes by stating that, putting a stop to this could call for a drastic political and judicial battle.

Boekhorst, J. A. (2015). The Role of Authentic Leadership in Fostering Workplace Inclusion: A Social Information Processing Perspective. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 241. doi:10.1002/hrm.21669

Boekhorst (2015) tries to shed more light on the way inclusion could become a basic feature of the work landscape by using a basis of social information processing. The paper gives a theoretical mechanism which elaborates on the reasons true leaders tend to dish out social information which has noticeable effects on an environment for inclusion. In order to achieve this, Boekhorst (2015) drafts a basic literature review which lacked emphasis to location or religion. True leaders are expected to pass across social information related to the crucial nature of the presence of an atmosphere of inclusion in the office by giving definite examples themselves, according to the social information processing theory. Establishing a system which gives benefits to pro-inclusion practices can lead to a faster embracing of this trend by other workers. It is much easier for a follower to find openings he/she can take advantage of in learning how inclusion works in an expansive workgroup. A combined effort on the part of the leaders and the followers in creating a pro-inclusion atmosphere could cause a faster remote learning of pro-inclusion conduct by other followers, thus helping both sides achieve their aims. Boekhorst (2015) suggests a comprehensive effort in a firm in which workgroups, workgroup size, reward mechanisms, leaders and a leader-follower collaboration all push for the benefits associated with workplace inclusion to be known to all. This would help bring about a work atmosphere that allows everyone bring their personal ideas and approaches to assignments, processes and tasks.

Kakabadse, N. K., Figueira, C., Nicolopoulou, K., Hong Yang, J., Kakabadse, A. P., & Ozbilgin, M. F. (2015). Gender Diversity and Board Performance: Women\'s Experiences and Perspectives. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 265. doi:10.1002/hrm.21694

Kakabadse et al. (2015) aims to give a clearer insight into the workings that exist between the gender distribution and the leadership of a board. The paper bases its research on a previous study which 30 female directors of companies across Ghana, America and The United Kingdom took part in. With this, we analyse just how gender variety across the board and corporate leadership functions. Kakabadse et al. (2015) focuses its research on the largest 50 public firms located in the United States, Ghana and the United Kingdom. Female directors whose personal and office addresses had been acquired by a variety of means were questioned by the researchers, each interview running for an average of an hour. They were aimed at having an understanding of the opinion a female director has concerning her importance on the board based on her experience. The interviewed directors boasted experiences ranging from 4 to 14 years. Common themes were identified in the interview transcripts and from these; we could deduce five major effects of female board members on the board\'s functions and activities, these are; official relations among board members, boardroom responsibility distribution, board effectiveness and participation, crucial needs and general board growth. These data reveals that having lesser women than men among the board members does not directly affect the board\'s effectiveness. Nevertheless, the office of the chairperson is quite important especially when there is a need for changes in the criteria for recruiting new members based on their ability and their dedication and also factoring in the need for diversity and effective management.

Ghosh-Dastidar, U., & Liou-Mark, J. (2014). BRIDGING PATHWAYS THROUGH RESEARCH AND LEADERSHIP FOR UNDERREPRESENTED STUDENTS IN STEM. Mathematics & Computer Education, 48(3), 214.

This research, Ghosh-Dastidar &Liou-Mark (2014), studies just how important proper mentoring could be in raising the determination, mental strength and proactivity of underrepresented minority students (URMs) studying Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. In order to thoroughly carry out their research, the paper\'s authors follow the format of methodology and literature review with some case studies. They select the New York City College of Technology also known as City Tech which currently runs a three-phased mentoring plan as their case study. New York City College of Technology originally focused on Hispanics and is the tech college of the prestigious City University of New York (CUNY). City Tech boasts of over 16000 students with 33.8%, 20%, 0.6%, 2.8% and 11.3% of its students being Hispanic, Asian/Pacific origins, Native Americans, other origins and Caucasians respectively. Of this number, 61% of them claimed their families do not earn up to $30,000 with 80% of all freshmen taking advantage of the need-based financial support option. The three-phased mentoring plan run by the school includes;

• Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) Leadership Training

• Research Scholars, and • Graduate Studies Preparation.

The Peer Leaders, 74 in number, who took part in the 2008 autumn\'s first phase of the mentoring program, finished well and continued in their STEM fields i.e. their majors as well as liberal arts and science, a special course. Among the students who got bachelor degree, 24 (32.4%) of them, three (12.5%) of them enrolled in either pharmacy or medical school, 12 (50%) of them were processing their graduate studies, four (16.7%) of them landed jobs in their fields, four (16.7%) were already running their graduate studies and just one (4.2%) of them has gotten a graduate honours with a job in a STEM field. Ghosh-Dastidar &Liou-Mark (2014) concluded by listing the various obstacles which URMs have to contend with and which adversely affects their schoolwork. Some of the identified factors are money problems, unpreparedness for college, poor backing from family, occupational commitments and data needed for the application procedure.