“If you want to be an ally, what is stopping you?” Mapping the landscape of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual barriers to allyship in the workplace using ecological systems theory

Many claim to be allies to marginalized groups, yet few actively engage in allyship behaviors. To better understand this discrepancy, we applied Ecological Systems Theory (EST) to map contextual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal barriers to allyship from the perspectives of potential allies in their workplaces. Open-ended responses from two representative samples of employed individuals (Sample 1, n = 778; Sample 2, n = 973) were analyzed. Results were consistent across samples, showing that 19% of barriers to allyship concerned features of the organizational context (e.g., lack of resources), 16% pertained to interpersonal dynamics (e.g., lack of trust from coworkers), and 25% referred to intrapersonal barriers (e.g., lack of knowledge about how to be an ally). Many (27.5%) claimed no barriers. We interpret findings using EST to theorize potential interactions among barriers and explore four promising organizational actions that target multiple barriers across levels of the ecological system: (1) expand opportunities for allyship, (2) diversify allyship strategies, (3) facilitate coalition-building between employee resource groups, and (4) tailor interventions to fit organizations’ unique barriers. Our analysis illustrates the practical value of a systems approach to enhancing allyship while moving away from narratives that primarily assign blame to individuals for inaction.