Blueprint for Sustainable Change in Diversity Management and Cultural Competence

Abstract

How can healthcare leaders build a sustainable infrastructure to leverage workforce diversity and deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate care to patients? To answer that question, two health systems participated in the National Center for Healthcare Leadership's diversity leadership demonstration project, November 2008 to December 2013. Each system provided one intervention hospital and one control hospital.The control hospital in each system participated in pre- and postassessments but received no preassessment feedback and no intervention support. Each intervention hospital's C-suite leadership and demonstration project manager worked with a diversity coach provided by the National Center for Healthcare Leadership to design and implement an action plan to improve diversity and cultural competence practices and build a sustainable infrastructure. Plans explored areas of strength and areas for improvement that were identified through preintervention assessments. The assessments focused on five competencies of strategic diversity management and culturally and linguistically appropriate care: diversity leadership, strategic human resource management, organizational climate, diversity climate, and patient cultural competence.This article describes each intervention hospital's success in action plan implementation and reports results of postintervention interviews with leadership to provide a blueprint for sustainable change.

Reflection of Digitalization on Business Values: The Results of Examining Values of People Management in a Digital Age

“…Fundamental changes in the demographic development of the digital age are uncontrollable, but they introduce several challenges in social-economic systems [2]. Here, the phenomenon of diversity is being formed, which is the logical consequence of globalization tendencies and an increase in the intensity of the interconnection and digitalization of the world [18,[68][69][70]. The phenomenon, which forms the future world of work, is the change of values resulting from an increase in the diversity of the social system.…”

Diversity Management as a Tool for Sustainable Development of Health Care Facilities

“…The existing literature defines diversity management as a multifaceted concept, encompassing managerial activities that promote workforce diversity, recognize diversity as an important organizational goal, build cultural awareness, and ultimately adopt and implement formal diversity programs [29]. Dreachslin et al [30] identifies three key areas related to the definition of diversity management. According to them, diversity must be recognized, at the same time it must be managed, and reducing disparities can improve organizational performance.…”

“…Healthcare systems distinguish between two concepts-diversity management and cultural competency. Dreachslin et al [30], Watters, Bergstrom, Sandefer [49], and Weech-Maldonado et al [31], see this difference in the fact that diversity management is generally concerned with the management of human resources and other practices related to the recruitment and retention of the workforce, while cultural competence in health care concerns the ability of systems, organizations, and staff to meet the needs of diverse patients, families, and communities. In other industries, both concepts are being merged into one system with focus on internal customers-employees, but also on external customers [50].…”

How to Develop Diversity Management Competencies in the Private Sector in Saudi Arabia

“…Thus, what is sought here is adequate competency to manage and understand this process. Dreachslin et al (2017) present three key areas within an exhaustive definition of diversity management. For those researchers, to manage diversity, it must first be recognized in the organization, and subsequently be managed to reduce disparities and improve performance.…”