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Managing for quality aged residential care with a migrant workforce*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Nyemudzai Esther Ngocha-Chaderopa*
Affiliation:
Department of Management, University of Otago, Dunedin Otago 9054, New Zealand
Bronwyn Boon
Affiliation:
Department of Management, University of Otago, Dunedin Otago 9054, New Zealand
*
Corresponding author: nchaderopa@hotmail.com

Abstract

Given the growing demand for aged residential care facilities in Western industrialised economies, the adequate staffing of these facilities is a growing concern. Increasingly migrant care workers are being employed to fill the local labour shortfall. In this paper we present findings of a qualitative study exploring how managers of aged residential care facilities work to ensure consistent delivery of quality care through their migrant care workers. The issues raised by the 16 managers cluster around three themes: communication and language barriers; racism by residents, families and managers; and underemployment of tertiary qualified migrant care workers. In addition to issues of quality care delivery, concerns around migrant employee well-being are seen to be difficult to avoid.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2015 

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Footnotes

*

The author confirms that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal.

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