Career Progression of Equality and Diversity Professionals in NHS Organisations: A Knowledge Review

Career Progression of Equality and Diversity
    Professionals in NHS Organisations:
           A Knowledge Review

     A knowledge review carried out by the Centre for
  Inclusion and Diversity, University of Bradford on behalf
      of NHS Employers and NHS Leadership Academy

          Professor Uduak Archibong, Dr Brendon Harvey
      Centre for Inclusion and Diversity, University of Bradford
                                                                   03/07/2012
                                                                         1

Overview

 Background

 Aim and Objectives of study

 Methodology

 Findings

 Summary and Conclusion 2      03/07/2012

Background

 Funded by the NHS Leadership Academy in collaboration with NHS
  Employers

 Equality and Diversity (E & D) career - compartmentalised and lacking distinct
  career path[Learning and Skills Council, 2007]

 Organisations are not taking advantage of the wealth of skill, insights,
  experience and the transferable skills that E & D professionals possess
  [Archibong and Darr 2010].

 Accelerating pace of change in organisations

 ‘Boundaryless’ organisations/careers aiding sense-making

 Cross-functional, inter and intra-organizational and multi-level contexts
                                       3

Aim and Objectives

 Build the evidence base on career progression of ED
  professionals within the NHS

 Identify national and international published and grey research
  on career progression of ED professionals

 Conduct both an expert panel and advisory board to review
  gaps in literature

 Identify an appropriate research focus for other phases of the
  study to develop good practice and to inform policy
                                4                            03/07/2012

Methodology

 Multi-dimensional methodological approach
    o A literature review
    o Expert panel - consultation with experts and
    o Documentary analysis of job adverts

 A project advisory board for guidance and oversight of the
  direction, quality and efficiency of the study

                                   5                       03/07/2012

Expert panel

 CfID Researchers: Prof. Udy Archibong
                    Dr Brendon Harvey

 Prof. Mustafa Ozbilgin, Professor Organisational Behaviour – Brunel
  University

 Dr Julie Prowse, Senior Lecturer in Health Management - University of
  Bradford

 Dr Diane Bebbington, Diversity Advisor for Leadership Foundation for
  Higher Education

 Lynne Carter, Equality and Diversity Manager – NHS Trust [Bradford and
  Airedale]
                                     6                                  03/07/2012
 Dr Amy Kahn, Chief Diversity Officer, University of the Rockies

Findings

Career and Career Progression
 Constant shifts, redefinitions/revisions of the concepts of career, broadens
  career development beyond the traditional linear career pathways/
  progression/ hierarchies and erodes the certainty of tenure (Tolbert 1996)

 Responsibility for career management? Employers > individuals; subjective
  career : emergence of ‘boundaryless career’ (Templar and Causey1996;
  Mallon 1999)

 Subjective career led to shift in psychological contract between employee
  and employer; behavioural flexibility and strategic flexibility now to fore
  (Iles, et al.,1996)
                                       7                                  03/07/2012

Career and Career Progression
                 contd.
 ‘Boundaryless’ careers placed greater emphasis on the individual, but
  organisations still have a role to play in career management,
  hierarchical structures still exist and some career systems operate
  within them; the adoption of flatter structures has not always hastened
  the end of traditional linear careers (Baruch 2003)

 Though the NHS has been identified as ‘post-bureaucratic’ – displaying
  rapid rates of change, loss of conventional organizational boundaries,
  but complex new structures and ways of working do not supplant
  totally the old(Morris and Farrell 2007; Pollitt, 2009; Hamori, 2010;
  Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011);

 The emphasis on the individual ignores the context, which shapes, and
  is shaped by, the career choices enacted - career and context cannot be
                                      8                                 03/07/2012
  separated (Gunz et al., 2011)

E & D Practitioners

 E&D professionals find themselves often fragmented
  with a lack of career pathway (LSC, 2007) E&D is still viewed as a
  compartmentalised career

 The complex identity of E&D practitioners (Tatli 2011)

 Dominant discourses

 E&D practitioners lack the boundaries that often
  demarcate other occupational groups (Tatli, 2011)
                                         9                             03/07/2012

E & D Practitioners contd.

 E&D workforce comprise : the ‘originators’ drawn from black or other
  ethnic minority groups, and the ‘recent entrants’ - predominantly
  White British (LSC 2007)

 E&D roles being part of a wider HR brief and the profession having a
  number of constituents at different levels, carrying out different roles
  - mixed bag of diversity professionals introduces further complexity
  (Kirton et al., 2007)

 Lack of a standard set of professional skills and criteria that are
  ‘recognised, valued and sought for’ by employers, influences others
  perception of the role (Tatli, 2011).
                                     10                                  03/07/2012

Organisational context

        Initiative to try and identify job profiles for E&D practitioners using a
         competency framework (NHS North West 2011) linked to the NHS
         Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF), the Leadership Qualities
         Framework (LQF) and the NHS Leadership Framework

      Using the lens of the boundaryless career to interpret the criterion for
       career progression of E&D practitioners:
    1. ‘the opportunity’ (Weick, 1996)

    2.    will such a move ‘add value? (Iles, et. al., 1996)

    3.    how motivated is the employee to progress and move potentially out of
          immediate role and cross boundaries? (Arthur, 2008).

    4. both within the immediate organisational
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                                                   context and beyond, are there
                                                                              03/07/2012
       the capabilities to make it happen? (Iles et al 1996).

Organisational context contd.

 Transformation of UK public sector organizational cultures as they move towards more
  flexible organisations (DH,2008b; DH, 2010; Exworthy and Halford, 1999)

 Health and Social Care Act (2012) - different arrangements for delivering services

 Greater budgetary cuts concerns (Gainsbury and Neville, 2012) and that reform and
  reorganisation may not lead to improvement (Konteh et.al., 2011; Taylor-Gooby and
  Wallace, 2009; Davies, 2012)

 Widespread strategic change involving shifting and integrating NHS organisational
  cultures as the lever of change (Fuhl, 2012)

 Blurring of Clinical professionals/managers identity as professionals practice embraces
  more managerial responsibilities

 Reform and reconfiguration - different management structure? (InPharm, 2012) ,
  demands for greater clarity of roles and responsibilities (Kings Fund, 2012)

 Individuals + professional bodies making boundaries decisions, and consequent
                                            12                                         03/07/2012
  identities determine the culture

Recommendations for Future Research

Knowledge review insights applied to real-life NHS settings using both
qualitative and quantitative methodologies:
 E&D practitioners’ lived experiences, capacity to cross boundaries, professional
  development/employability needs

 Understanding of the beliefs, opinions and values NHS E&D practitioners hold towards their
  career progression

 Making sense of the situatedness of E&D practitioners

 Relationality of E&D practitioners

 Identifying how the sense of career, situatedness and relationality, is manifested in what E&D
  practitioners ‘do’ in terms of adding value across the NHS through boundary crossing

Two further avenues of research to be aligned with each of the above:
 Linking and adding to the existing competence development work for NHS E&D practitioners

 To learn from successful strategies already employed by engaging positive role models of
  boundary crossers within NHS settings, both within
                                                13   E&D and other professional settings.
                                                                         03/07/2012