Diversity training in the United States Marine Corps
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 100
Subjects: INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; ATTITUDES (PSYCHOLOGY)
Description: In recent years, the Marine Corps has become a very racially, ethnically, religiously, and gender diverse organization, and demographic trends indicate that this diversity will become even more pronounced in the future. Such diversity can have a strong, positive influence on productivity. This thesis examines problems the Marine Corps has had in accepting diversity within its ranks, analyses the Marine Corps' plans for addressing diversity issues now and in the future, and evaluates several coalition building workshops for their applicability to the Marine Corps. A literature review on diversity issues such as power, privilege, social conditioning, and racism is combined with the results of a survey of Navy and Marine Corps officers who participated in a graduate-level seminar on managing diversity in the military and with workshop assessments to develop a plan for diversity training in the Marine Corps. This plan incorporates highly interactive exercises, role-playing scenarios, personal experience, enlightened lectures, and other forms of instruction consistent with Adult Learning Theory to offer the Marine Corps a better chance of creating a cultural change around diversity issues. This training program should be facilitated by highly trained and dedicated instructors and it should be taught at career-level schools where small groups of racially, ethically, and gender diverse students can learn in a peer environment. This program must be given the same degree of attention as other important factors affecting readiness.
Notes: Thesis advisors, George W. Thomas, Alice Crawford.

AD-A331 782.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-97).