Artifact

How Strategic Management and Finance Affect Diversity in the

Pennsylvania Army National Guard

Literature Review

Abstract

Organizations utilize strategic management concepts and their financial capabilities to manage diversity programs. This is especially true with governmental organizations such as the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. In an effort to understand this relationship, a comprehensive literature review was carried out. The literature review revealed that strategic management plays an important role in managing diversity in the military since it is utilized in ways such as talent management, fair recruitment practices, and matching skills based on capabilities as opposed to race, gender, and religious discrimination. Finance comes into play since diversity programs must be funded for them to bear fruits.

Key Words: strategic resources, defense’s financial management, leadership in diversity, strategic leadership, National Guard financial management awareness, National Guard diversity strategic plan and training

How Strategic Management and Finance Affect Diversity in the

Pennsylvania Army National Guard

Introduction

The Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard (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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard, 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard, 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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.

Global Strategic Management Thinking

Taking an entirely different position, Begeç and Saruhan (2013) argue that strategic management concepts should approach the idea of diversity training in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 the Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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. 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 United Nation 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, Vora, Richard, & Peng (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. Considering the extensive literature in organizational behavior relating to diversity in firms, and the significance of strategic alliance groups in realizing the desired results, the authors assert 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 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.

Finance Strategic Decision Making

Management of finance also affects how the Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Moore (2012) argues that the Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard 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 Pennsylvania Army National Guard. 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 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.

Conclusion

With the coexistence of workers from different backgrounds in the workplace, diversity remains one of the vital assets that determine the performance and success of an entity. Organizations that have a diversified workforce enjoy competitive advantage over their rivals. This is because such firms encourage sharing of ideas and creativity from different groups of people, thereby promoting an innovative culture. For instance, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard is one of the most diversified organizations in the country. Nonetheless, the success of diversity in an organization is hinged on the presence of supportive practices within the company. Strategic management practices and financial factors have enabled this institution to effectively implement policies on diversity.

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_Diversity_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: 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.