Internal Barriers to Implementing Diversity Management in the Air Force

A number of factors in the Air Force's external environment provide a clear rationale for implementing diversity management. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the internal environment is as well understood; and this lack of knowledge about barriers and facilitators of change is problematic for program developers. This project examined one part of internal environmental analysis, the likely barriers to implementing diversity, to provide Air Force planners a set of considerations for effective program development. A review of literature revealed four common reasons for diversity management failure: 1) Failure to understand and articulate the relationship between discrimination and diversity management, 2) The belief that sameness and difference are mutually exclusive, 3) Failure to understand the legacy of fairness programs, and 4) Failure to create and articulate a valid framework for evaluating which differences should be leveraged and which should be rejected. Each barrier to implementation is presented as a conversation with a typical airman, to introduce the basic issues. Each conversation is followed by an analysis of the issue for planners, which includes decisions that need to be made in the planning process.