Running head: DIVERSITY TRAINING 1 DIVERSITY TRAINING 2 How Strategic Management and Finance Affect Diversity in the Army: Literature Review National Guard Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction The United States army is increasingly becoming diversified. However, it still lacks a comprehensive talent management system that takes into account the need for integrating, recruiting, coaching, mentoring, and training personnel on diversity. Some of the key factors that have been identified as important in the implementation of diversity training programs in the Army include strategic management and finance. While the influence of strategic management and finance on diversity training is an issue that has extensively been explored by researchers in other fields of management, there still exists a dearth in knowledge that relate these findings to the military, especially the Army (McDonald & Parks, 2013). In view of the above, there is need to conduct a comprehensive literature assessment on the effects of strategic management and finance on diversity training in the Army, especially with respect to talent development, encouragement of inclusivity, and reduction of discrimination. Literature Review Research on the effects of strategic management and finance on diversity training in the Army has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. For instance, in his bid to explore the elements of strategic management that promote diversity training in the Army, Reyes (2006) identified success factors for attaining a diversified military. They include: leadership commitment, strategic planning, accountability, employee involvement, and training and mentoring of employees. Reyes (2006) adds that strategic management efforts that seek to address workforce diversity in the Army must place its attention on establishing measurable methods through which diversity training can be utilized to support direction, goals, and objectives of companies. A case in point is the development of a Balanced Workforce Strategy, which involves the tracking of workers’ population and the creation of long-term goals and yearly targets. This plays an integral role in putting managers to account for the upsurge in mobility. Most significantly, Reyes (2006) asserts that strategic management efforts that seek to enhance diversity training must place emphasis on monitoring and coaching candidates from marginalized groups that are poised for senior assignments. Participants must also make use of their promotional prospects in the organization through capitalizing on their training. While Reyes (2006) stresses on the need to develop a diversity strategic plan and monitor, track, and coach candidates from marginalized groups, the Department of Defense (2012)state that strategic management efforts must be placed on developing, mentoring, and retaining top talents from across the total force. This means that people from different cultural, religious, and gender groups must ...

1. Running head: DIVERSITY TRAINING 1
DIVERSITY TRAINING 2
How Strategic Management and Finance Affect Diversity in the
Army: Literature Review
National Guard
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
The United States army is increasingly becoming
diversified. However, it still lacks a comprehensive talent
management system that takes into account the need for
integrating, recruiting, coaching, mentoring, and training
personnel on diversity. Some of the key factors that have been
identified as important in the implementation of diversity
training programs in the Army include strategic management
and finance. While the influence of strategic management and
finance on diversity training is an issue that has extensively
been explored by researchers in other fields of management,
there still exists a dearth in knowledge that relate these findings
to the military, especially the Army (McDonald & Parks, 2013).
In view of the above, there is need to conduct a comprehensive
literature assessment on the effects of strategic management and
finance on diversity training in the Army, especially with
respect to talent development, encouragement of inclusivity,

2. and reduction of discrimination.
Literature Review
Research on the effects of strategic management and finance on
diversity training in the Army has attracted a lot of scholarly
attention. For instance, in his bid to explore the elements of
strategic management that promote diversity training in the
Army, Reyes (2006) identified success factors for attaining a
diversified military. They include: leadership commitment,
strategic planning, accountability, employee involvement, and
training and mentoring of employees. Reyes (2006) adds that
strategic management efforts that seek to address workforce
diversity in the Army must place its attention on establishing
measurable methods through which diversity training can be
utilized to support direction, goals, and objectives of
companies. A case in point is the development of a Balanced
Workforce Strategy, which involves the tracking of workers’
population and the creation of long-term goals and yearly
targets. This plays an integral role in putting managers to
account for the upsurge in mobility. Most significantly, Reyes
(2006) asserts that strategic management efforts that seek to
enhance diversity training must place emphasis on monitoring
and coaching candidates from marginalized groups that are
poised for senior assignments. Participants must also make use
of their promotional prospects in the organization through
capitalizing on their training.
While Reyes (2006) stresses on the need to develop a
diversity strategic plan and monitor, track, and coach candidates
from marginalized groups, the Department of Defense
(2012)state that strategic management efforts must be placed on
developing, mentoring, and retaining top talents from across the
total force. This means that people from different cultural,
religious, and gender groups must be included in the training
programs. To realize this objective, the Army must establish a
policy framework that makes it an employer of choice through
the creation of a merit-based workforce life-cycle that
emphasizes on individual and professional development via

3. training, education, and the development of employment
flexibility that is essential to the retention of highly-skilled and
talented workforce from different multicultural groups.
According to the Department of Defense (2012) strategic
management initiatives should also be channeled towards
ensuring that the recruitment practices in the Army effectively
reach out to all the segments of the social system. This includes
the need to evaluate the efficacy of the present branding and
recruitment programs for all demographic groups and markets in
order to ascertain actionable measures to increase the access
and positioning of training initiatives. Moreover, the
Department of Defense (2012) recommends that a framework
needs to be developed to gather, review, and assess the
applicants’ flow data and recruiting trends. This must be
compared to relevant civilian labor force data and eligible
applicant pool in order to identify gaps.
Taking an entirely different position, Begeç and Saruhan
(2013) argue that strategic management concepts should
approach the idea of diversity training in the Army by
embracing global thinking. Begeç and Saruhan (2013) note that
in common cases, diversities are often approached in personal,
organizational and managerial perspectives. To them, global
reasoning affects strategic management and organization
systems. Strategic management provides diversity training a
place to active leadership. In a study composed of participants
who are mainly from foreign countries in the Army, Begeç and
Saruhan (2013) revealed that the diversities that face the
managers are mostly in the individual, organizational and
managerial areas. In addition, globalization of information has
highly influenced diversity in management. Individual
diversities of people who work in the management procedures
are not stumbling blocks for Army managers, but they serve as
coercive powers for the increment in the rate of success. In
addition, the researchers state that all the functional and
structural assets of an organization are not different. As a
matter of fact, they form significant components of a whole.

4. Thus, the political, authoritarian, power, coupled with the
strategic managerial diversities provides benefits.
Begeç and Saruhan (2013) argue that military officers and
top managers have the task of meeting the necessities of their
subordinates and improve the methods that cause satisfaction
and dissatisfaction. Dissatisfied feeling may stem from response
to immediate situations or overall responses to series of
circumstances and experiences. They range from pay,
opportunities for marginalized groups, and the nature of the
work itself. Therefore, when training programs on diversity are
offered, army officials and managers need to ensure that
subordinates fulfill the missions within the framework of the
UN or NATO in economically and socially underdeveloped
nations such as Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This provides
them with an opportunity to draw comparison of the conditions
in such nations with their own country. Such a comparison can
make the participants to appreciate diversity. Moreover,
managers need to internalize diversity management and training
in order to use the information management process in an
efficient and effective manner.
Strategic management informs the process of utilizing
diversity to strengthen an organization. To this end, Zoogah et
al. (2011) draws upon the previous works done on the strategic
alliances, teams, and diversity. Zoogah et al. (2011) note that
strategic alliances are long-term participative programs between
two or more parties to execute specific transactions for the
common good, and to improve performance via cost reductions,
acquisition of knowledge, as well as market extension. They
vary with respect to location, rivalry, and investment. Bearing
in mind the extensive literature in organizational behavior
relating to diversity issues in groups, and the significance of
strategic alliance groups in realizing desired results, the
authors’ stress that diversity is important in competitive teams.
This is especially true with respect to nationality, gender, as
well as functional backgrounds. Zoogah et al. (2011) observe
that the importance of diversity in strategic management comes

5. in two different ways. First, teams often suffer from distinct
challenges that can affect their outcomes, such as
communication, conflicts, and collaboration. Thus, nationality
diversity is important in ensuring that teams attain partner
goals. Gender diversity also affects interactions and alliance
results. When teams are made up of different members, they are
most likely to function efficiently and effectively.
Management of finance also affects how the Army carries
out its diversity training initiative. In connection to that, Moore
(2012) maintains that diversity programs are heavily reliant on
the availability of finance and other resources. In a
comprehensive discussion of women in the Army, Moore (2012)
argues that the United States Army has been assigning women
the role of serving in combat service support units from the
onset of the Second World War. For these units to continue, the
Army must offer supports that come in the form of finance,
transportation, and medical assistance. On top of that, Moore
(2012) observes that management must set priorities on where
to allocate funds in order to ensure that diversity training
programs continue. Measures such as introducing policies that
remove barriers that deter women and other marginalized groups
from entering the Army help planners to allocate funds into
diversity programs. For instance, Moore (2012) lauds the steps
taken by congress to repeal the Naval exclusion law in order to
accommodate more marginalized groups such as women in the
military.
Philips and Sherman (2015) stress on the importance of
finance in supporting strategic decision-making processes that
are related to diversity training in the Army. These researchers
state that since the onset of humanity, financial power has often
played a strategic role in expanding military might through
multicultural diversity. In that respect, territorial expansions
within and beyond Europe was mainly catapulted by the scissors
effect that raised the military expenses and stagnant or
dwindling cash revenues allocated on all the larger regimes such
as European and non-European. In the United States, the

6. imperatives of military finance has driven states to strengthen
internal controls and to focus on including diverse groups of
people from external conquest. In the modern world, such forces
presently operate within a globalized reach and they are
reinforced through means of deployment of people, knowledge,
and control over physical resources. Financial capabilities are at
the heart of military competition for ideas and innovation.
Therefore, an organization that welcomes diversity is ready to
allocate a lot of money for recruiting different groups of people,
from diverse cultures, genders, religious, and nationalism into
its workforce. This enables it to generate innovative ideas that
are supportive of growth and military might.
References
Begeç, S., & Saruhan, Ş. C. (2013). More Effective
Management Perspective by Using
Diversities: In The Army Examples. Journal of Yasar
University, 30(8), 5009-5020.
Department of Defense. (2012). Diversity and Inclusion
Strategic Plan 2012-2017. Department
of Defense. Retrieved from
http://diversity.defense.gov/Portals/51/Documents/DoD_Diversi
ty_Strategic_Plan_%20fi
nal_as%20of%2019%20Apr%2012%5B1%5D.pdf
McDonald, D. P., & Parks, K. M. (Eds.). (2013). Managing
diversity in the military: The value of
inclusion in a culture of uniformity. New York: Routledge.
Moore, B. L. (2012). Army women assigned to combat units:

7. Perceptions of the military equal
opportunity climate. Managing Diversity in the Military:
Research Perspectives from the
Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, 351.
Phillips, A., & Sharman, J. C. (2015). International order in
diversity: War, trade and rule in the
Indian Ocean (Vol. 137). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Reyes, A. D. (2006). Strategic Options for Managing Diversity
in the US Army. Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies Inc Washington DC.
Zoogah, D. B., Vora, D., Richard, O., & Peng, M. W. (2011).
Strategic alliance team diversity,
coordination, and effectiveness. The International Journal of
Human Resource
Management, 22(03), 510-529.