Inequalities Rampant Among the DOD and Associated Agencies: An Analysis of Affirmative Action Efforts in the Military and Civilian Workforce There have been numerous initiatives in recent years targeted at eliminating discrimination and under-representation among minorities and the disabled in the civilian workforce. However within the Department of Defense/Navy and other branches of the military, there is still a discrepancy of representation with regard to minority candidates. Today the DOD is working together with multiple agencies in order to establish affirmative action oriented recruitment, retaining and promotions programs that will specifically attract minority and disabled candidates, in an attempt to eliminate the discrepancies that currently exist with regard to representation. There have been numerous articles and reports that have analyzed the DOD's and Navy's combined efforts to improve representation, two of which are closely examined below.

Analysis of DOD and Civilian Workforce Initiatives

There is ample evidence that suggests that up until recent years the military has done little to resolve under-representation among the civilian workforce and among official staff. However of late there have been numerous initiatives that have particularly focused on reversing previous under-representation particularly among minority and disabled populations. It appears that both in the civilian and in the high ranking workforce, agents are discovering that the more diversity that exists, the better for everyone.

The Department of Defense issued a directive in 1987 with the intent of establishing a Civilian Equal Employment Opportunity Program, whose initiatives included affirmative action that was consistent with guidelines set forth by the EEOC and Office of Personnel Management (DOD, 2003). The directive also established special emphasis employment programs for the following groups: women, Hispanics, people with disabilities, people of Asian/Pacific Island descent, Indian/Alaskan Natives and an African-American employment program. The directive was instituted in part to help recognize a need for equal opportunity programs and affirmative action programs as "essential elements of readiness that are vital to the accomplishment of the DOD national security mission" (DOD, 2003).

The objective of supplemental...

The initiative clearly shows that the DOD is aware of past inequalities and is currently working to prohibit discrimination that is prohibited by law, which includes discrimination of an individual on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, mental or physical disability and age (DOD, 2003).
Part of the push to pass such initiatives include recent realizations that there are many groups within the military and civilian workforce that are under-represented. Often the reasons for lack of representation include inadequate recruitment and retention methods (Bowling, 1995). For minority candidates to acquire adequate representation, they must first be pursued with the same vigorous enthusiasm that has been traditionally flowered upon potential candidates for DOD/Navy and other agency positions.

In a related article, the DOD including branches of the Army and Navy are actively working to recruit minority candidates on campuses across the nation (Sample, 2003). Whereas in times of old recruitment programs were more generic and broad reaching in nature, modern society and past inequalities dictate that the DOD and other agencies must actively work to recruit candidates from diverse backgrounds. As such the DOD and other agencies are fine tuning their EEO programs and implementing affirmative action type recruitment and retention strategies that include visiting minority campuses to recruit the kinds of candidates that have not been represented or aggressively sought out in the past. The biggest challenge for military and civilian agencies has been identifying what exactly will attract these candidates to an organization which has largely in the past, ignored their potential contributions.

Changes in Recruitment and Retention Strategies

The DOD is working hard however to correct past wrongs and let minority candidates know that promotions opportunities and stable careers are something that minority and disabled candidates have to look forward to if they decide to participate in new programs. The DOD is letting candidates know that the future in a traditional corporate or business workforce is uncertain, however is…