Factors Hindering Diversity

Abstract

Over the last several years, we have seen tremendous efforts to try and bring diversity and inclusion to the forefront of everyone’s minds. Corporations such as Google, Amazon, Intel, and many other Fortune 500 companies have started initiatives to ensure that they integrate inclusion and diversity into every aspect of their business. Creating a more diverse organization is relatively straightforward. That isn’t to suggest that building a truly diverse team of people is easy. Rather, building a diverse team is quantitative and tangible in nature. It is about numbers. Inclusion, on the other hand, is not. It is qualitative in nature and comprises a more complex set of issues that are at times tough to pinpoint, and in many cases even harder to get right. Those working in this area know that it can, at times, feel as if we are climbing over an insurmountable wall, with every one step forward, we take two steps back. Perhaps this is indicative of our efforts in this space being in its infancy. Perhaps it is because, while we all, in theory, agree that these efforts are good and should be pursued, most of us aren’t familiar with the vast body of research that informs motivation, best practices, and pitfalls. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the motivation and broad strokes at issues hindering inclusion and diversity.