As communication professionals, we play a pivotal role in how organizations formulate messaging, frame stories, and shape corporate culture and public perceptions. Today, knowledge of and skills in inclusive communication strategies are indispensable qualifications for practitioners and leaders in the industry.
The call to action should not only focus on the current industry standards, but we must take a frank look at how we prepare future communication leaders to be global critical thinkers and culturally sensitive communicators amid divisive politics and cultural resistance.
While prevailing moral and business arguments for workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are far from new or radical concepts, progress has been alarmingly plodding; success followed by backlash.
Historical Context for DEI
In 1987, U.S. Secretary of Labor William Brock commissioned a study to examine emerging economic and demographic trends, which resulted in the Workforce 2000: Work and Workers for the 21st Century report. Shifting demographic trends, Brock predicted, were shaping a vastly different racial and ethnic makeup of the workforce in the coming decades.
To remain prosperous as a country, according to Brock, policymakers—political and corporate—needed to pay greater attention to the diverse needs and rights of all citizens and employees alike. While the report received positive recognition for its objective analysis, there was significant pushback—similar to responses seen during the 1960s civil rights and anti-discrimination legislative movements.
The tragic murder of George Floyd in 2020 was another pivotal event that captured the nation’s attention, re-energizing and re-affirming the urgency to push DEI programs to the top of corporate agendas.
In our industry, 2020 also brought the founding of the industry-wide non-profit Diversity Action Alliance (DAA) recognizing the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in our field. Not surprisingly, post-pandemic economic uncertainties, along with today’s shifting political climates, produced yet another wave of DEI pushback.
Public debates and high-profile court cases have re-energized anti-DEI proponents, and investments in DEI-focused communications support are reportedly down. Yet the social, business, and human imperatives have never been more urgent to foster an industry that is diverse, inclusive, and equitable at all levels. It’s never been more critical for corporate messaging to work to build common ground internally and externally instead of promoting divisiveness. It’s never been more vital to educate professionals to be culturally inclusive communicators.
Dick Martin, AT&T Corp Chief Communications Officer (Retired) and Chair of The Museum of Public Relations said, “Identity politics and polarization around cultural issues have created a new urgency to increase the diversity of thought in our organizations. We need to bring to the table voices that reflect the world the way it is, not the way we wish it was. That’s essential if we want to hone our skills to engage productively with people who aren’t just like us and even might not agree with us.”
The bottom line is: What we do as communicators matters. Not only to our organizations and/or clients, but also to fostering a society that acknowledges, celebrates, and values diverse perspectives. Not an easy charge. Never an easy process.
Industry Leaders Recognize the Issue, but Remain Less Diverse
In 2023, the Page Society published a report where Chief Communication Officers (CCOs) reported DEI is both a concern and an opportunity. Twenty-five percent of CCOs identified trust and division—including racism and DEI—as top business risks, while 32% viewed employees and culture (i.e., engagement, retention, and DEI) as a key opportunity for growth.
According to the DAA, 75 percent of employees in public relations and strategic communication were white in 2020 with 25 percent being racially diverse. In 2021, diversity increased 8 percent across all organizations and position levels.
(Source: Diversity Action Alliance, “Race and Ethnicity in Public Relations and Communications” Benchmark Report, May 2023.)
In terms of leadership, organizations were less ethnically diverse at the executive and top levels of leadership but became increasingly diverse moving down the ladder into the mid-level, entry-level and administrative classifications.
For example, in 2020, 93 percent of top communication or agency leaders were white, which fell to 81 percent in 2021. Eighteen percent of executive and 25 percent of mid-level employees were racially diverse in 2021. That percentage was even greater for entry-level (34 percent were racially diverse and 42 percent of administrative positions were racially diverse).
Clearly, 81 percent of employees promoted in 2020 and 2021 were white and 19 percent were ethnically diverse. The need to continue to support inclusive environments for women across industries and racial/ethnic experiences also remains a key DEI priority.
(Source: Diversity Action Alliance, “Race and Ethnicity in Public Relations and Communications” Benchmark Report, May 2023.)
Higher Education’s Role
In the last 24 months alone, state legislatures have been challenging higher education’s role in larger industry DEI efforts. However, Lee Bush, Professor of Strategic Communication at Elon University and co-author of the forthcoming textbook Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Strategic Communicators: Becoming Culturally Competent Communicators (Routledge, 2024) notes that “In the most recent report from the Commission on Publish Relations, industry practitioners report valuing job candidates with a multicultural lens, but this perspective is often lacking in entry-level participants.” To continue to build DEI from the very foundation of our field, it’s essential to share positive case studies of programs challenging this norm within the public relations and strategic communication industry.
A case in point is graduate education in Baruch College’s Weissman School of Arts and Sciences. Here, one of the hallmarks of its MA in Corporate Communication program is a diverse student body comprised of individuals from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, and professional backgrounds. The degree program’s curricular efforts prepare students for industry leadership positions, while embracing varied student life experiences, perspectives, and career aspirations.
This celebration of inclusiveness, diversity, and cross-cultural understanding creates skilled, thoughtful leaders who are equipped to drive positive change within their organizations and beyond. Courses such as “Power, Privilege and Difference in Organizations” and “Communication in Global Organizations,” among others, encourage students to challenge cultural assumptions of the workplace and the work we do as communicators.
Meet the New, Diverse Leaders in Corporate Communication
According to Martin, the listening and analysis aspect of public relations that helps practitioners put decisions into a sound context has grown in importance. “We really can’t do that unless we grow our capacity to understand and deal with the ‘other.’ There was a time when the ‘other’ was primarily the immigrant at home, the stranger abroad. But today’s multicultural society is even more complicated.”
At Baruch, you can find the diversity of perspectives and backgrounds in our students. Meet a few of our current students and alums who are making a difference in the field.
Current Students:
- Gloria Saldana: Inspired by her Peruvian single mother, Saldana overcame a fear of public speaking at Baruch and discovered the impact of facial expressions on communication. She aims to pursue a career in brand marketing and event management.
- Eric Martinez-Valerio: A first-generation student from a Mexican immigrant family, Martinez-Valerio aspires to specialize in digital media campaigns, believing that organizations must harness this medium to drive engagement.
Alumni:
- Tanisha Mallett: After a 20-year career in journalism, Mallett became the first Chief Content Officer at Queensborough Community College while studying at Baruch. She plans to leverage her graduate studies to drive communications strategy in her role.
- Mariana Braz: A Brazilian journalist who discovered her love for PR during her graduate studies at Baruch. She has built a career in Brazil in Health PR working for several pharmaceutical companies and today she is a press officer for Merz Aesthetics Latam.
- Sabina Mehmood: Sabina is an expert on sustainability, social impact, and workplace equality. Sabina is a bi-racial Muslim American who has leveraged her degree in various roles including her current position as Head of Market Advocacy & Education – Fair Pay and Workplace Equality at Brightmine (Formerly XpertHR), a LexisNexis Risk Solutions Brand.
Shaping the Future of Communication
Businesses and organizations need to recruit and bring together individuals from diverse ethnicities and professional backgrounds to create an environment that incorporates cross-cultural understanding and cultivate future leaders. Educators must value the life experiences and voices of all students to help prepare culturally sensitive communicators.
The future of DEI in the communications industry is in our hands as educators, practitioners, and industry leaders. How organizations speak (and listen) to their stakeholders affects our workplace, social and political climates. It is up to us to continue to learn, evolve, and ensure that progress takes hold.
