Assignment 2: Addressing the Diversity Gap in Leadership

Due Week 9 and worth 250 points

Healthcare organizations face many unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Diversity is one of the major challenges that continues to overwhelm management teams. Gender, ethnicity, and race are most noticeably lacking in top leadership roles in healthcare. There is a documented need for diverse leadership teams with transformational leadership skills to successfully lead organizations. Remediation of this gap is critical to the advancement of healthcare delivery and systems. Senior management must consider the deficiency and develop a strategic process to invoke change.

Suppose you are the Executive Director of the hypothetical organization Better Health Today, LLC. The board of directors has informed you that the organization has missed out on major federal funding opportunities over the past three to five (3-5) years. The grant reviewer’s feedback describes the organization’s lack of diversity and community support to promote social change. The board of directors has asked you to review the issues noted in the reviewer’s feedback and provide recommendations to improve the reputation of the company. 

Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you:

1. Based on your knowledge of leadership theory, specify two (2) key competencies needed to improve community relations. Provide support for your rationale.
2. Examine the impact that the lack of diversity has on the community meeting national public health initiatives. Analyze two (2) of the major challenges the organization faces in improving diversity.
3. As a senior level manager, compose at least two (2) strategies designed to minimize the impact that lack of diversity may have on the organization. Recommend one (1) approach for implementing each suggested strategy. Provide support for your recommendations.
4. Design the key resources and main communication efforts required to implement the minimizing strategies that you suggested. Justify your position.
5. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia does not meet the requirement as a quality academic resource.
6. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:        
   1. Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
   2. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
   3. Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Assess how management theories and applications apply to public health departments and agencies.
• Develop a framework for efficient use of resources of public health departments and agencies that enables these organizations to maximize scarce resources.
• Evaluate talent selection practices of public health agencies in relation to the demands of modern public health realities.
• Evaluate the ways in which social media can be used to advance the administrative activities in the public health sector.
• Implement a quality management methodology to improve on a process or practice within a public health agency.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in public health management.
• Write clearly and concisely about public health management using proper writing mechanics.