Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

In the current era of healthcare, organizations have to look beyond traditional patient care in order to be successful. Organizations place a high emphasis on diversity in clinical providers, but that diversity is often not reflected in leadership of healthcare organizations. The organizational culture of healthcare organizations is often a culprit of this lack of diversity. Prior research has shown that male, caucasian healthcare executives are most predominantly represented in healthcare leadership, and are compensated significantly higher than females and other races. With recent focus on changing the culture of organizations in healthcare, it remains to be seen whether there have been actual changes in these disparities over time. This study explores issues related to organizational culture that have plagued human culture for centuries, namely gender and racial discrimination, in the context of healthcare administration. The purpose of this study is to explore gender, racial, and other disparities in hospital executives, and how those disparities impact the culture of organizations. Statistical analysis of data from obtained hospital compensation databases was conducted to examine the significance of the differences. Results indicated that while there have been improvements in disparities among some ethnicities, gender disparities remain the largest gap. The implications of this study are significant for the field of healthcare administration as disparities can affect both social dynamics and organizational culture. Understanding where disparities lie is the first step towards bridging the gap and reducing barriers for improving diversity and organizational culture within healthcare administration.