The seventh major research question in the study addressed the barriers that have hindered the diversity initiatives in the corporations. The study participants were asked to identify the barriers that have hindered the diversity initiatives in their corporations. They were then asked to provide information on what they have done to prevent failure or eliminate barriers to diversity initiatives.
To analyze the data, the researchers developed three categories based on the barriers cited by the study participants. Barriers identified were classified under the following categories:
Barriers identified in each of the categories were ranked-ordered according to the frequency of mention in the interviews. The categories are described below.
In total, the study participants cited four major barriers that the researchers categorized under the category of barriers coming from within the corporations' work environments. Table 32 lists all the barriers coming from within corporations that were cited by the study participants. The most frequently mentioned barriers under this category were competing agendas and size and complexity of the corporation.
| Barriers | f | % |
| 1. Competing agendas | 6 | 75 |
| 2. Size and complexity of the corporation | 6 | 75 |
| 3. Economic changes | 4 | 50 |
| 4. Other policies interfering with diversity initiatives | 2 | 25 |
Having competing agendas is a corporate barrier that was identified by six of the study participants (75%). These corporations are engaged in many additional projects other than diversity, and all of them are perceived as important by the leaders of their corporations. Most of them are engaged in total quality management, process improvement, strategic planning, team development, and many other types of organizational development interventions. They all require time and resources. Therefore, financial support, human resources, and time have become very scarce for managers and employees. One of the study participants stated that "There is a constant struggling to get the most urgent done. People set their priorities and diversity issues are left behind because they are easier to put off."
Six of the study participants (75%) identified the size and complexity of the corporations as a big barrier hindering the development of diversity initiatives. All the corporations studied are very large with a number of divisions and branches inside and outside the United States. The complexity of their operations and their sizes make it difficult to effectively coordinate the overall process of diversity initiatives. Corporations' large number of units, branches, subcultures, and locations are barriers that do not allow diversity initiatives to be implemented easily. The importance each corporate unit gives to diversity also varies. This also leads some units or branches to adapt changes at differing speeds. Size of the organizations was also seen as a barrier because it interferes with conveying the diversity message to many people in a limited amount of time. In addition, corporate size makes it difficult to come to decisions and agreements in a reasonable time frame.
Half of the study participants identified changes in the economy of the corporations as an important barrier hindering the progress of diversity initiatives. These economic changes have forced corporations to decrease financial resources and to reduce the number of people working in corporations, causing excessive overload work schedules. Because of economic changes, corporations have less resources in general. Economic changes have led corporations to reduce, downsize, and flatten. This means that corporations have to function with fewer people, which, in turn, brings more pressure and overload work schedules for everyone in the organizations. Unfortunately, this leads to lack of time to devote to diversity initiatives. Therefore, they get easily postponed. Economic pressure has also affected the financial resources allocated to diversity initiatives. One study participant had this to say,
We have to run our organization with smaller budgets. Therefore, when I request an increase in my budget, corporate leaders are going to resist, not because they don't support diversity, but because they have so many other things to do and less money.
Two of the study participants (25%) identified other policies interfering with diversity initiatives as corporate barriers that hinder the development of diversity initiatives. These two corporations had experienced parallel policies that do not allow the proper implementation of diversity initiatives.
In total, the study participants cited seven barriers that the researchers categorized under the category of barriers of people in corporations. Table 33 lists all the barriers coming from the corporations that were cited by the study participants. The most frequently mentioned barriers under this category were people not understanding the value of diversity and people not fully supporting diversity.
| Barriers | f | % |
| 1. People not understanding the value of diversity | 7 | 88 |
| 2. People not fully supporting diversity | 3 | 38 |
| 3. Slow involvement | 2 | 25 |
| 4. Diversity management perceived as overwhelming | 1 | 12 |
| 5. Backlash | 1 | 13 |
| 6. Resistance to change | 1 | 13 |
| 7. Unwillingness to participate | 1 | 13 |
The most frequently mentioned barrier was people not understanding the value of diversity. Seven of the study participants (88%) cited this as a major barrier. The following notions are evidence of this barrier: people not understanding why diversity is important, people not seeing its value, lack of awareness of the value of diversity, people not knowing what to expect, people not understanding what impact diversity has on them personally, people with myopic thinking, lack of visionary people, and people not seeing the true value of diversity.
Not having full support for diversity initiatives was mentioned as another barrier by three of the study participants (38%). Not understanding the value of diversity and what it means for corporations and individuals can lead to this lack of support. However, some people may understand what diversity is and its value and still not support it. The most serious barrier in this context is when leaders in companies do not fully support diversity. One of the study participants put it this way: "I don't have, nor do I expect, complete buy in. We actually do not have total support from everybody in the corporation. However, the person who was the most important for the diversity strategy to work was the CEO."
Another barrier that was identified under this category of barriers was slow involvement. Two of the study participants (25%) identified slow involvement as a barrier. One of the participants described this barrier in the following way:
Some groups of people are much slower in reacting to change than others. That is a barrier that we encounter within the organization. If you have six business units, and two of them are slower than the others in implementing the diversity initiatives, people do observe and that is a double edged sword. It is especially negative when the slower ones represent business units with significant size.
Leaders being slow in implementing their diversity initiatives can create other obstacles, such as people within the business units complaining, missing work, becoming dissatisfied, and quitting and leaving the company.
Diversity management perceived as overwhelming, backlash, resistance to change, and unwillingness to participate or lack of cooperation were also perceived as barriers that interfere with the development of diversity initiatives by 13% of the study participants.
The study participants cited two barriers that the researchers categorized under barriers of diversity initiatives. Table 34 shows the two barriers that were cited by the study participants. The barriers mentioned under this category were (1) difficult to evaluate and (2) difficult to show return-on-investment.
| Barriers | f | % |
| 1. Difficult to evaluate | 2 | 25 |
| 2. Difficult to show return-on-investment | 2 | 25 |
Two of the study participants (25%) identified the difficulty to evaluate diversity initiatives as a barrier. According to the study participants, diversity initiatives are difficult to evaluate because many of them are long-term and cannot demonstrate their impact and effectiveness as easily as other types of business initiatives. Two of the study participants (25%) identified the difficulty of diversity initiatives to show return-on-investments as a barrier. According to the study participants, diversity initiatives may take a long time to show their impact; therefore, it is difficult to measure the financial gain that may have resulted from the money invested on them.
In total, the study participants cited 38 barriers hindering the success of diversity initiatives. Table 35 presents a summary of the number of barriers experienced by the corporations participating in the study. Barriers interfering with the development of diversity initiatives were classified into three different groups: (1) barriers of the work environment, (2) barriers of people in the corporations, and (3) barriers of diversity initiatives. Barriers coming from the work environment had the largest number of barriers hindering diversity initiatives. The next largest category was barriers of people in the corporations, followed by barriers of diversity initiatives, which was ranked third. Barriers of diversity initiatives were mentioned much less than barriers of the work environment and people.
| Barriers | f | % |
| 1. Barriers of the Work Environment | 18 | 47 |
| 2. Barriers of People in Corporations | 16 | 42 |
| 3. Barriers of Initiatives Themselves | 4 | 11 |
| Total | 38 | 100 |
In total, the study participants reported on 13 different barriers that have hindered their diversity initiatives. Table 36 lists the total number of barriers cited by the study participants. This table combines Tables 32, 33, and 34. The four barriers most frequently identified were (1) people not understanding the value of diversity, (2) competing agendas, (3) the size and complexity of the corporations, and (4) economic changes. These barriers were discussed in previous sections.
| Barriers | f | % | |
| 1. | People not understanding the value of diversity | 7 | 88 |
| 2. | Competing agendas | 6 | 75 |
| 3. | Size and complexity of the corporation | 6 | 75 |
| 4. | Economic changes | 4 | 50 |
| 5. | People not totally supporting diversity | 3 | 38 |
| 6. | Difficult to show return-on-investment | 2 | 25 |
| 7. | Slow involvement | 2 | 25 |
| 8. | Other policies interfering with diversity initiatives | 2 | 25 |
| 9. | Difficult to evaluate | 2 | 25 |
| 10. | Diversity management perceived as overwhelming | 1 | 13 |
| 11. | Backlash | 1 | 13 |
| 12. | Resistance to change | 1 | 13 |
| 13. | Unwillingness to participate | 1 | 13 |
After having identified the barriers that have hindered the progress of diversity initiatives, the study participants were asked to explain what they have done to prevent failure against these barriers. In total, the study participants together reported 11 different ways to prevent failure. Table 37 lists the total number and different ways in which companies have attempted to prevent failure of diversity initiatives.
Six of the study participants (75%) indicated that top management commitment was a way to avoid failure of diversity initiatives. Having top management support was seen as a way to prevent many of the corporate and people barriers that were discussed in the previous section (e.g., policies interfering with diversity initiatives, people not fully supporting diversity, and resistance to change). For example, a study participant stated, "Having executive leadership support makes a big difference. Having their participation and visual commitment helps avoid failures such as implementation of policies that can hinder the development of diversity initiatives."
| Preventing Failure | f | % | |
| 1. | Top management commitment | 6 | 75 |
| 2. | Treating diversity as a business issue | 5 | 63 |
| 3. | Diversity initiative planning | 4 | 50 |
| 4. | Providing diversity training and education | 3 | 38 |
| 5. | Communicating the value of diversity | 3 | 38 |
| 6. | Approach diversity as branches, units or corporations are being created | 2 | 25 |
| 7. | Avoiding parallel policies which harm diversity initiatives | 1 | 13 |
| 8. | Followed advice from the literature | 1 | 13 |
| 9. | Having steering committees | 1 | 13 |
| 10. | Never impose the initiatives | 1 | 13 |
| 11. | Partner with other business units | 1 | 13 |
Five of the study participants (63%) reported that, to prevent failure, diversity initiatives had to be considered a serious business issue. This meant that diversity initiatives had to be connected to the corporate business strategy. When diversity initiatives were treated as business strategies, corporate barriers such as competing agendas and economic changes were more likely to be eliminated.
Half of the study participants identified planning as an effective way to prevent failure. According to the study participants, it took much time and effort to develop effective diversity plans that were flexible, easy to understand, and linked to corporate strategic plans. Three of the study participants (38%) indicated that diversity training and education played an important role in avoiding potential failure of other diversity initiatives. Training and education was considered an effective tool to assist in removing barriers such as people not understanding the value of diversity, slow involvement, resistance to change, and unwillingness to participate. Diversity training was a way to communicate the importance of diversity and its impact on the organization. Communicating the value of diversity was reported by three of the study participants (38%), as a way of preventing failure of diversity initiatives.
Two of the study participants (25%) stated that an effective way to prevent failure and ensure success is by introducing diversity management as units, branches, or corporations are being created, formed, or transformed. One of the study participants put it this way:
The good news is that we are creating a new company. What we are doing at this point is addressing diversity as we are creating this new company, as opposed to going back and trying to change an organizational culture that has already been established. It is the most opportune time to be involved in diversity. Diversity is part of the three new policies and foundations that we are going to operate under. When diversity is integrated into the culture of an organization from the very beginning, people look at it through different eyes, which is really great.
Factors to prevent failure that were identified only once included avoiding parallel policies that block the development of diversity initiatives, following advice from diversity literature, having steering committees, never imposing, and partnering with other business units. One of the study participants recommended banning all those policies that interfere with the proper development of diversity initiatives. Another participant stated that he followed recommendations and advice identified in the diversity literature to prevent failure. He said, "There are some research studies dealing specifically with the criteria for successful diversity initiatives, and we are adopting those; so we have a good understanding of what it is going to take for us to be successful." Having clear guidelines and encouraging instead of imposing on people to participate tended to have better results and was another way that was mentioned in preventing failure. Another interesting strategy for preventing failure that was mentioned was creating partnerships with other business units within the corporation. A reason for having the diversity department work with other business units was that other units can assist in enhancing the diversity perspective throughout the organization.