Equal opportunity climate in the United States military: Are differences in the eye of the beholder?

Abstract

Two questions that have risen out of equal opportunity research are whether the level of harassment and discrimination differs for racial and ethnic groups and whether the concept of harassment and discrimination differs for these groups. The responses of 1000 randomly selected American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, and White United States military personnel to three scales from the Military Equal Opportunity Climate Survey were examined. Results confirmed results from previous studies that Whites viewed equal opportunity in the military more favourably than other ethnic/racial groups. Item response theory analyses suggested that the concept of harassment and discrimination is similar for all groups. The implications for equal opportunity in the military and in the larger American society are discussed.

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 44th annual conference of International Military Testing Association, Ottawa, Canada. Research for this article was conducted while the author was participating as summer faculty research fellow at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) under the Office of Naval Research – American Society for Engineering Education program. The author wishes to thank the personnel at DEOMI for their help in the preparation of this article. This article reflects his own view and should not be construed to represent official views of the United States Department of Defense or any of its agencies.

Notes

¹Use of the MEOCS has been phased out and replaced with the DEOMI Organizational Climate Survey (DEOCS). The DEOCS uses the best items of the MEOCS and its related surveys to produce a shorter yet psychometrically superior instrument.

²Averaged IRF curves are presented here for the sake of readability. The separate boundary function curves are available from the author.