Implications of Age Diversity for Healthcare Team Management

This dissertation investigates the implications of age diversity for the management of healthcare professionals in multicultural teams. The study begins with an introduction outlining the research aim, scope, literature review, and methodology. The literature review explores various aspects of diversity, including gender, culture, disability, sexual orientation, and, most importantly, age, within the context of the workplace. The research methodology is detailed, encompassing the research design, philosophy, approaches, strategy, and data collection methods. The results and discussion chapter presents the findings, followed by recommendations and conclusions. The research focuses on health professional managers’ perceptions of multicultural teams, specifically examining age as a variable and its influence on team management. The study aims to establish the importance of different diversity aspects, assess potential conflicts, investigate age stereotyping, and determine the impact of training in diversity management. The scope is set within the private healthcare sector in the United Kingdom, using a case study approach, to evaluate managers' acceptance of diversity when the manager is younger than their team members. The findings are compared with company’s policies and evaluation if new policy review and implementation will determine and required.

DISSERTATION
Age Diversity: The
Implications for the
Management of Healthcare
Professionals
in Multicultural Teams.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................1
1.1 Title ......................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Research Aim .......................................................................................................................1
1.3 Scope.....................................................................................................................................2
1.4 Literature Review..................................................................................................................2
1.5 Methodology.........................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................3
2.1 Diversity................................................................................................................................3
2.1.1 Gender................................................................................................................................4
2.1.2 Culture................................................................................................................................4
2.1.3 Disability............................................................................................................................5
2.1.4 Sexual Orientation..............................................................................................................5
2.1.5 Age.....................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Diversity in Workplace.........................................................................................................6
2.3 Diversity Management..........................................................................................................8
2.4 Management..........................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................................10
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................10
3.1 Overview.............................................................................................................................10
3.2 Research design...................................................................................................................11
3.3 Research philosophy...........................................................................................................12
3.4 Research Approaches .........................................................................................................14
3.5 Research Strategy................................................................................................................15
3.6 Choice ................................................................................................................................17
3.7 Time Horizon......................................................................................................................17
3.8 Data collection and analysis................................................................................................18
3.9 Data Analysis .....................................................................................................................18
3.10 Sampling ..........................................................................................................................18

3.11 Ethical consideration.........................................................................................................20
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.............................................................................20
4.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................................20
4.2 Result and Discussion.........................................................................................................21
CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION......................................................33
Summary...................................................................................................................................33
Limitation..................................................................................................................................36
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................36

INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Title
Age Diversity: The implications for the management of healthcare professionals in multicultural
teams.
1.2 Research Aim
In the recent years, globalization has increased around the world. One of the effect of the
globalization is the creation of cultural diversity in healthcare sector such as the National
Healthcare Service (NHS) and Private institutions in the United Kingdom. add reference!
Managers have the responsibility to create a cohesive team where the team members are working
efficiently and are well integrated together within an organization. The aim of the study is to
explore health professional managers’ perceptions of multicultural teams, and its effect on
managing those teams, with a specific focus on age. The study will explore whether age is a
variable that influences the management of multicultural teams.
Research Objectives
The main aim of this research is to explore health professional managers’ perceptions of
diversity and its effect on multicultural teams, exploa age as a variable. The study will look at
teams’ differences in diversity and the potential cultural issues that managers face on a daily
basis in work situations. The aim will be accomplished by achieving different research objectives
and research questions (RQ) outlined below.
I. To establish the relative importance of different aspects of diversity when managing
multicultural teams.
RQ: Which aspects of diversity are important in managing a multicultural team?
RQ: How do different aspects of diversity influence managers’ perceptions when managing
multicultural teams?
II. To assess potential conflicts managers face in managing multicultural teams.
RQ: What type of conflicts do managers face in managing multicultural teams?
RQ: How do managers prevent and resolve conflict in multicultural teams?
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III. To investigate the extent of age stereotyping by managers and their perception of their
ability to manage a multicultural team.
RQ: How does age stereotyping influence managers’ perceptions of their ability to manage a
multicultural team?
IV. To investigate the effect of age on team members’ perceptions of their manager’s ability
to manage a multicultural team.
RQ: How does age stereotyping influence team members’ perceptions of their manager’s ability
to manage a multicultural team?
V. To investigate if training in diversity management improves the management of
multicultural teams.
RQ: How can training in diversity management improve the management of a multicultural
team?
1.3 Scope
The scope of this study sets out to research managers’ acceptance of diversity when the
manager is in a minority age giving compared to the rest of the team. The research focuses on the
manager’s acceptance, divided in three steps. First the study will focus on managers in three
areas inside the healthcare organization, Imaging, Pharmacy, and Nursing. Finally the findings
will be compared with company’s policies and evaluation if new policy review and
implementation will determine and required. The Will be set within the private healthcare sector
in the United Kingdom, and will focus on a simple case study organization.
1.4 Literature Review
The NHS and its diversity integration has been a subject of many studies in terms of
discrimination against Black, Minority and Ethnic (BME) and other groups including women,
people with disabilities, and religious groups (West, Dawson, and Kaur, 2015). A few studies
focused on evaluating strategies for implementing diversity at a senior level in NHS, and staff
inequality against the black and minority populations (Esmail, Kalra and Abel, 2005). The NHS
represents the biggest workforce in the UK. It composes a numbers of diverse groups, as where
in the case of NHS in London, the institution is as diverse as the city’s population reference here.
For this reason, it is relative easy to find cases of reported discrimination against other staff
members in the NHS (Kline, 2014). Some studies have paid attention to managers and their
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mediating role in performance, relationship with and among the followers, team work,
outstanding performance, and the team’s ability to integrate different ethnic backgrounds. The
literature shows discrimination and inequality of staff in lower positions, but little research, has
focused on age discrimination reference here.
1.5 Methodology
The most important decision that a researcher has to make is the selection of the best
research methodology, because the report and the results are strictly connected to the choice of
methodology. There are two approaches that can be used in research methods; qualitative or
quantitative. For this single case study, qualitative approach is the best approach. The data
collection will be come out via interviews of between eight to ten senior staff who belong to the
Imaging, Pharmacy, and Nursing departments. The questionnaires will be first approved by the
research supervisor. The study is not intended to cause harm or offend any of the subjects
involved in the research. Also, the collected data will be kept anonymous and treated with high
confidentiality. The data will be processed with Microsoft Word software.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will focus on an overview of current literature on multiple aspects of
diversity such as, gender, culture, age, disability and sexual orientation. Then, the literature will
further look into diversity specifically in workplace, diversity management, and management
more generally
2.1 Diversity
The term diversity refers to a range of people that are very different to each other.
O’Reilly et al (1998) refer to diversity as a group formed of individuals who have different
characteristics and social identities (O’Reilly et al, 1998). Hubbard and other researchers divide
diversity into primary and secondary groups. In the primary group race, age, physical abilities,
and gender are included. The secondary group includes socioeconomic status, education, religion
and geographical affiliation, first language, work experience, organizational role and level, and
communication style, which are less visible. The primary group can be connected to the essential
self-image views of the world. The second group is connected to the dimensions that effect our
self-definition (Hubbard et al, 2004).
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2.1.1 Gender
Gender diversity is the centre of diversity in literature, divided into different levels. One
area of gender diversity in the literature is related to pay
discrimination. Brynin and Güveli’s 2012 study shows that there is no association between
gender and lower pay. On the other hand, Woodhams, Lupton and Cowling (2013) argue that
there are associations between gender and lower pay, which require additional studies focused on
pay measures. The second area of gender diversity considers discrimination in corporate boards.
According to Dobbin and Jung (2011) the effect of corporate performance per gender presence in
corporate leadership was found to be inconclusive, as there are insufficient studies to support
correlation between performance and gender differences in leadership. Mavin, Grandy, and
Williams (2014), view the effect of cultural diversity, and the number of women on corporate
director’s role in a positive way. Another aspect of gender diversity interaction among team
members inside the organization. . Gender diversity has positive consequences for company,
while individual and isolation is not much helpful (Dwyer, Richard, and Chadwick, 2003)
2.1.2 Culture
Cultural diversity relates to racial and ethnic diversity Cultural diversity can have
influence on the individual and group outcomes. There are some debates about positive or
negative effects of cultural diversity in workplace. Cox, Lobel and McLeod (1991) states that
cultural diversity can increase learning and problem solving. The learning process has a
positive consequence on individual, group and organization of outcomes; diverse work teams
make better decisions than homogeneous teams. But Dahilin, Weingart and Hinds (2005)
propose a negative aspect of cultural diversity in the workplace, such as social categorization
associated with national diversity. Negative stereotypes can affect group functioning. This is a
problem for managers or leaders forced to use different types of communication that can
facilitate the integration of the entire team. Mitchell, Parker and Giles (2011) identified diversity
as a potential source of conflict and has, as a consequence, poor performance. Despite some
negative opinions about cultural diversity in a work setting, the majority of the studies see
diversity as having positive outcomes. Gelfand, Erez and Aycan (2007) found the effects of
cultural differences on the performance of group and individuals inside an organization to be
inconclusive. All the findings are inquiry of critical role that manager or leader has in the team
performance.
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2.1.3 Disability
According to Bell (2011), disability is the main area of diversity. Schur et al., (2009)
support that even consider different type of disability, in the literature disability is a negative
factor. Which include prejudice, discrimination and stereotype. The positive aspect is that
managers recognise their role is to attract and integrate different workforce characteristics inside
the workplace (Ball, Monaco, Schmeling, Shartz and Blank, 2005). The organization focus is to
establish an environment where employees with disabilities are well-integrated. To create the
condition where the talent of employee with disability can be make best use of. Baumgärtner et
al. (2014) focused on the need to have adjustments in the workplace and flexible schedules to
meet the needs of employees with disabilities. According to Kulkarni and Lengnick-Hall (2011)
the flexibility inside an organization plays a strong role in the participation of people with
disabilities within a team. In this context we need to pay attention to functional role of managers.
They have the abilities to support or depress with attitudes and actions the integration of people
with disabilities. In the same way, managers play an important role when considering the
different needs of the disabled employees within the rest of the team. The manager can generate
policies that can increase the gratification of the employees with disability. reference
2.1.4 Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation diversity can create many stereotypes inside the organization. For this
reason, according to Ozturk and Rumens (2014), employees frequently hide gay, lesbian and
bisexual orientation. In the literature sexual orientation diversity individuals inside a company
can be victims of practice of heterosexism and discrimination. High stress levels is one of the
consequences of heterosexism, followed by less opportunity for career progression and lower
pay for gay men by Berg and Lien (2002). The freedom to decide to expose their sexual
orientation could have as the effect of directing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) in
a lower pay sector. To aim of higher paying job, for the sexual diversity employees must keep
their sexuality hidden. The Equality Act and anti-discrimination legislation, have been developed
to help and support the LGBT employees. On the other hand Wang and Schwarz (2010) support
that in many countries these legislations are not developed and the sexual diversity is still
considered as negative aspect for some organizations Reference here!.
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2.1.5 Age
The research on age diversity is not developed to the same extent as race and gender
diversity. While many researches where focused on older employees and the type of stereotypes.
On the other hand not many studies have been performed when in organization there are
situation like the manager is younger of the subordinate. Not pay attention to the clash and
trouble that can happen inside the team. The traditional studies divide the organization’s age
structures with younger at lower level and the older at middle and top positions. According to
Shore et al. (2009) age diversity is considered to have negative implications and stereotyping
older workers tends to be negative - Burke, Cooper and Field (2013) state that older workers are
victims of stereotypes, with negative perceptions such as less flexible in learning and harder to
train and more resistant to change. According to Burke et al, these negative perception are more
evident when older employees are in minority related to younger employees Flinkelstein et al.
(1995) state that when younger and older applicants apply for the same position, the younger
applicant is typically better placed compared with the older applicant.
Age stereotyping is more prevalent in western countries. . In Asia ageing of the employees is
seen as adding value and is consider positive. (Leung, 2000). Morton et al (2005) also support
the negative aspect of age diversity and impact of older employees, who are seen as obstacles or
problems and not as positive assets. Schmidt and Boland (1986) highlight the negative
stereotypes of older employees as, mental decline, inability to handle change, and physical
decline. In contrast, stereotypes of t younger employees are usually positive, such as their ability
to be fast learners, work-motivated and ambitious. There are also negative stereotypes about
younger employees too. According to Gibson et al. (1993) the younger employees are seen as
less emotionally stable and loyal. Newton (2005) notes that younger employees are also victims,
of stereotype such as immaturity, non-loyal, not reliable, and change jobs quickly.
2.2 Diversity in Workplace
Workplace diversity can be linked to demographic attributes such as gender, sexual
orientation, age, physical abilities and ethnicity. According to Hubbard (2004), workforce
diversity is defined as group and employee identity not only based on, gender, ethnicity, religion
and sexual orientation but also on economic background and status, family status geographical
background and status. Hubbard divides diversity into primary and secondary groups. In the
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primary group he includes race, age, physical abilities and gender. The secondary group includes
socioeconomic status, education, religion and geographical affiliation, work experience,
language, lifestyle and communication. (Hubbard 2004). Workplace diversity can result in
positive or negative impacts this depends on the challenges that the team are dealing with. In the
literature, diversity is generally thought to have a positive impact supporting groups and teams.
These with shared cultural identity work better together because the employees share the same
language, heritage and values (Cox 1994, Ely and Thomas, 2001). Other researchers support
diversity in workplace has a negative impact inside an organization. This is due how different
group behaves and evaluate the ethnicity of the rest of team members. The consequence of this
type of behave is that the team work less a group and more as individual.
According to Cox et al. (1991) diversity inside an organization has positive effects, such as
attraction and retain of the finest talent. This is possible because, if the organizations support the
minority groups with career development and fair treatment the company gains advantages’
having qualified minority groups. A second advantage in having multicultural groups is to
increase customers and move towards a global markets. Such organizations can understand better
the legal, socio-cultural and economic situations in the new market area (Adler, 1991). Another
factor to support the importance of a multicultural teams is to be able to deal with complex issues
with better problem solving. This relates to having multiple perceptions and explanations.
Diversity in the workplace can present some negative aspects. It can generate confusion and
frustration, difficulty in finds agreement and conflicts. Typically conflict in diverse cultural
teams happens between the majority and minority groups. Conflict is usually resolve in favour of
majority of the group but this can result in more barriers and isolation for the minority groups.
This has consequences to detrimental to the company, such as turnover, absenteeism and less
cooperation within the team. Earley and Mosakowski (2000) state that members of homogeneous
groups have a tendency to show more attachment and share perceptions because of their similar
cultural background. Williams and O’Reilly (1998) state that cultural homogeneity increases the
level of cooperation and decreases emotional conflict. This situation has an influence in
managing groups too. To support the positive impact of an homogeneous group Blau (1977),
state that when there are no diversity in the group, there is more chances to find solidarity within
the team. It has been analysed that homogenous groups perform better than multicultural team,
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because unclear communications issues between the team members do not exist.
Communications can represent serious problems within diverse multicultural teams.
2.3 Diversity Management
According to Hubbard (2004) managers must be able to manage successfully with people
who are different from each other. Managers with no diversity knowledge are not able to work
with diverse workforces. Hubbard states that a manager’s diversity competence is an ongoing
learning process and it is important that mangers understand the need to their change behaviour
and knowledge. The only way to increase managers’ competencies related to diversity conflicts
is diversity training. Waight and Madera (2011) support the idea of increasing managers’
attention to diversity via training in diversity management. They also believe that the role of
diversity management training is to arm managers with knowledge to understand the needs and
demands of diverse workforces and act in the best way to manage them. The scope of diversity
management training when well designed is to reduce and eliminate different treatment towards
diverse employees. To influence manager attitudes to understanding diverse employees, diversity
management has two objectives. The first is to obtain competitive advantage, a better image and
the attraction and retention of employees. The second focus is on social justice with the support
of managers to include different employees and to give them equal opportunity. The
implementation of diversity management can be difficult and depends on local contexts.
However diversity implementation may un counts to local country homes For example the
special treatment of diverse individuals can be accepted under the rules of diversity management
but may be in conflict with local legislation on equal treatment. The consequences diverge
between local legislation and diversity management principles can create tensions between
managers and employees in relation to the implementations.! According to Bacchi (1990)
interpretation of equality in can be managed in three ways. The first concept is to treat equally
the diverse team’s members. This treatment suggests fairness and directs policies to protect the
marginalized groups. The second is to give different treatments as to produce equal outcomes
regarding group representation.. However this can create a sense of inequality among diverse
group.. The third approach is to pursue meritocracy. The principle is that all individuals are
treated equally but talent has extra support and favouritism within the company. This
interpretation can cause resentment between the individual members of the group, where equal
treatment is guaranteed only to employees with equal merits. Obviously the aim of different
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treatment is given only to achieve an equal outcome of each single member or group (Bacchi,
1990).
2.4 Management
Management’s role is to handle responsibility and provide career development and
rewards for employees. It is possible to consider separately aims for managers inside the private
and public sectors. Inside the private sector managers need to focus on profit, create value for the
shareholders, and on increasing productivity at reasonable cost. Inside the public sector,
managers need to make sure that the services provided to the community are adequate. A
Manager’s role is to plan, organise, motivate and control inside the organization where they
work. This is part of their daily bases work that are not always easy; sometimes problems and
unstable situations can occur. A Manager must be able to handle such situations, but also they
also have to focus on the future of the organization by working on the future plans and
developments. (Armstrong, 2016).
According to Fayol, the common functions of managers are planning, organizing, leading
and controlling. Planning is the most difficult duty of the manager, and it requires coordination
within different levels inside the organization, to respect time, and to implements as required. To
have a successful plan it is important that organizations support this with the resources necessary
and the support of the staff. Organizing is another responsibility of the manager. To comply with
this responsibility the managers need to make sure that they have enough funds for staff and raw
materials and that the company can work without problems. The managers also have the function
of command, where they give clear instructions on what it is required from the employees.
Managers need to give precise orders, and make sure that the orders are going to be carried out.
To be successful managers need to have excellent communications skills, integrity, and be able
to motivate their team to the take initiative. The coordinating function refers to when all the
activities work synchronised together. To see perfect coordination, it is vital to have a group of
employees motivated, where they are encouraged by their manager, with clear ability of
communication and direction. The manager’s controlling function ensures that everyone inside
the organization follows the plans and every single member knows exactly their duties.
Managers also need to take preventive and corrective action if required (Fayol, 2016).
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