Health Service Managers in Australia Part 4: hours worked, marital status, country of birth and Indigenous status

Abstract

This fourth article adds to the findings of the three previous articles in a four-part series. These articles are concerned with the composition and characteristics of health service managers in Australia. The data and analyses present factual bases with a bearing on policy formulation and planning of the health labour force in Australia and the training of managers. The first article provided analyses on the specific characteristics of service, geographical and category distributions of health service managers, the second on age and sex, and the third on fields of study, level of education and income characteristics of health service managers. This fourth article investigates hours worked, marital status, country of birth and Indigenous status of health service managers in Australia. Findings confirm that a large proportion of health service managers worked part time and female managers more so than males. Partly as a result of this difference, male managers worked on average longer hours than females, but even full-time female managers worked on average shorter hours than males. The average hours worked was lower than the average for managers in all industries in Australia. When adjusted for differences in age from the average for all industries, a larger proportion of health service managers than average had never married and were divorced or widowed. Conversely, a lower proportion than average were married. More than the average proportion of managers in hospitals were born in Australia, while the inverse was the situation in medical and other health services. The share of Australian-born was about average in aged care residential services. Indigenous health service managers constituted a larger percentage of managers than the average in all industries. Their participation in hospitals was lower than in medical and health services; and about the average for all industries in aged care residential services. In all cases, their participation in the management of health services was lower than their proportion in the adult population. The article presents challenges in policy formulation regarding working conditions and the participation of varied segments of society in the management of health services. It also points to a related research agenda.