Organizational diversity and multiple goals can be considered primary organizational barriers. Dawes (1996) establishes that "given the diverse costs of information sharing, it is probably unreasonable to expect an organization to share its information resources without an expectation that it will gain internal benefits, improve its public image, or expand its influence over others" (380). Conflicting organizational goals and priorities are also significant barriers for any collaborative IT project (Dawes and Pardo, 2002). Meyer and Gardner (1992), as well as Chengalur-Smith and Duchessi (1999) have identified other organizational characteristics as important factors of success such as: centralization, organizational culture, strategy, and size.

Building trust and collaboration across agencies with very diverse and, in some cases, competing goals, is a challenge many integration initiatives face. On one hand, the Justice community is formed by not only multiple agencies, but also by multiple levels of government, and by complex interactions between the different branches of government. This particular situation increases the difficulty of integration projects. On the other hand, professionals from different organizations might see the same problem in different ways. If these different perspectives are sought after, they can be used to inform integration decision making. Organizational culture shapes the way people deal with problems and how they make certain decisions. In general, each of the states and counties has developed its own strategy to overcome organizational diversity and differences among the organizations participating in the integration initiative.