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The findings for this section are listed below.

The purpose of this section of the study is to understand how multicultural practitioners feel about the diversity practices of their current organizations and or business. This section covers perceptions of the sample regarding diversity management (recruitment and retention), current practitioner experiences within organizations, and differences of experiences between ownership type. Findings are derived from pre- and post-discussion groups and the on-line survey. Figures may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Where Practitioners Work

In this study, more practitioners work for public relations agencies (29.5%) than any other type of organization.

• About 40% of respondents work for female-owned or managed businesses

• About 41% of the employers are minority-owned or managed organizations

• Nearly 39% of the practitioners are middle managers

• No one industry was significantly represented, with 36.4% listing “Other” as 1their practice area

• 54.5% practice media relations as their main function

• About 47% of those surveyed made between $30,000 and $60,000.

Organization size ranged from solo practitioners to 360,000 employees; and multicultural representation within public relations departments or teams ranged from 1% to 100%.

Type of business respondents currently work for:

Is respondents’ organization minority-owned/managed?

Is respondents’ organization owned/managed by a woman?

Pick the category that best describes respondents’ current position.

Which of the following best describes respondents’ area of practice?

What of the following best describes respondents’ position or job function?

Salary Range:

Diversity Management

In general, the survey participants feel that their employers have some success or great success in recruiting a more diverse workforce (55%) and about 57% of those surveyed think their organizations have great success or some success in retaining diverse employees. There was no significant difference in attitudes toward recruitment and retention between types of organizations (firms, organizations) or the ownership of organizations. However, women-owned/managed and minority-owned/managed firms tended to have a significantly larger percentage of multicultural PR practitioners working for them than male or white owned/managed organizations (respectively).

How do respondents describe their organization’s hiring practices to RECRUIT a more diverse workforce?

Although our survey findings indicate that practitioners feel somewhat positive about the PR industry’s multicultural recruitment efforts, this panel was far more negative about PR industry efforts. At the outset of hiring a practitioner at any level, industry must be committed to nurturing and cultivating multicultural practitioners, or as one practitioner put it “bending over backwards to help ensure it works out.” Helpful steps include the establishment of a mentoring relationship led by committed professionals at the outset of employment and continuing through their career at a company. Multicultural practitioners also benefit from connecting with others to enhance their network and mentor connections.

Respondent Comments:

“From an agency perspective, while the industry is somewhat successful, agencies have not done a good job recruiting and it seems to getting worse. HR people claim, ‘We can’t find the talent.’”

“Agencies should be embarrassed. I’m the only multicultural senior practitioner in a major agency.”

“My agency’s headquarters are based in Japan, so there is a more diverse workforce.”

“When I look around my agency. I thought the (recruitment) number would be much lower. It doesn’t reflect the lack of diversity in the major agencies.”

How do respondents describe their organization’s hiring practices in RETAINING a more diverse workforce?

Respondent Comments:

At the outset of hiring a practitioner at any level, industry must be committed to nurturing and cultivating multicultural practitioners, or as one practitioner put it “bending over backwards to help ensure it works out.” Helpful steps include the establishment of a mentoring relationship led by committed professionals at the outset of employment and continuing through their career at a company. Multicultural practitioners also benefit from connecting with others to enhance their network and mentor connections.

“When a junior multicultural practitioner joins an organization, they do not feel like a member of ‘the club.’ Making practitioners feel included is the kind of think that often falls by the wayside, unless businesses makes it a priority.”

“Businesses must first value the multicultural employees they have and view them as an important partner in their agency’s success.”

“Diversity initiatives do not mean affirmative action. You have to treat people with respect and make diversity something beyond just getting the necessary numbers to appear committed to diverse staff pools.”

“Businesses need to promote the advancement of the multicultural professionals they have on board. These individuals will then serve as the face of the organization in attracting younger and new multicultural individuals.”

“Multicultural practitioners do not want to wear their race on their sleeve and be seen as overly sensitive to race issues. But, people of color must be careful what questions they ask and who they ask.”

“People of color can’t be too aggressive, or you’ll be shown the door.”

“If there’s no one else who looks like you, how can you recognize if you’ve been put on a slow moving track (compared to a white practitioner), unless someone tells you something is askew here. Unless you live it, it’s hard to recognize that this is a problem.”

“A lot of agencies don’t make sure there’s progression and promotion in someone’s career after they are hired. Practitioners must be nurtured through the process. There needs to be systems in place.”

“Agencies should take it upon themselves to take someone new under their wing at both the junior and senior levels. Even as a senior practitioner, I often wonder if I’m being stalled in my career, just because senior management doesn’t seem to know what to do with me.”

“Diversity workshops that everyone has to attend are generally not taken seriously. Someone must mind the store’s focus on diversity.”

“Businesses have to genuinely and sincerely reach out to people of color by identifying those with potential and place them in situations where they will get the guidance and opportunity to make a difference. Based on my experience, you would think that mentoring for people of color is a foreign concept. No one seems to recall the ‘old boy’ network, where individuals were taken under the wing of a successful experienced person and groomed for greater responsibilities. In my more than 30 years in the business, it has been sink or swim. I can’t even count the number of times comments have been made assuming that I got some unfair break through a ‘training program’ when I earned my position by experience and merit.”

Gender of Ownership and Diversity within the PR Department/Firm

Race/Ethnicity of Ownership and Diversity within the PR Department/Firm

Respondent Comments:

Discussion group respondents said that often minority practitioners feel isolated because there are few if any other practitioners of color in their organizations. “No one will come out and say, ‘You’re on your own,’ ”said one participant. “There’s no one to be your champion but you. Practitioners need to learn early on that you have to do your own PR.”

Current Position & Experiences

Survey results indicate that job satisfaction for Black and Latino professionals is lower than for the general PR practitioner population, with only 45.8% of the respondents feeling satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs, all things considered. Black practitioners’ level of job satisfaction is lower than levels reported in Tillery-Larkin’s 1999 study of African American practitioners, although the difference is not statistically significant. Additionally, Hispanic practitioners experience significantly lower levels of job satisfaction than Blacks. Using a scale of 1 meaning very dissatisfied and 5 meaning very satisfied, the Hispanic mean score was 2.67, and Blacks mean was 3.47 (t=2.41; p=.018).

In agreement with the Tillery-Larkin (1999) study on pigeonholing, the majority of those surveyed do not report being pigeonholed into doing race-related projects (70%). Likewise 67% of those surveyed are working on projects that receive a lot of external attention by the organizational publics.

Respondents feel satisfied with their job, all things considered.

On a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), the overall Job Satisfaction mean was 3.3 (sd=1.20); Hispanic’s mean was 2.67 (sd= .84) and Black’s mean was 3.47 (sd=1.00). This difference between Blacks and Hispanics job satisfaction is significant (t=2.61; p<.05).

Respondent Comments:

Both the survey respondents and the group discussion participants report that workplace challenges, such as being put on slow moving tracks, spending more time in entry-level positions, being overlooked for promotions and being relegated to menial tasks occurred frequently the industry. Group discussion participants said that such experiences often make multicultural practitioners feel like outsiders in the workplace—not a welcome part of the corporate culture.

However, the discussion group participants said that addressing these issues can be a challenge because practitioners do not want to “wear their race on their sleeve” and, therefore, be perceived as being overly sensitive about race issues considering difference in treatment. Some practitioners are constantly aware of differences to the point where one practitioner commented, “People of color must be careful what questions they ask or who they ask, for fear of being seen in a negative light.”

Respondents are just as likely to be given mainstream projects as they are to work on projects related to ethnic publics or organizations.

Respondent Comments:

“Agencies need to allow non-white minorities the opportunity to manage accounts that aren’t multicultural.”

“I was brought in as a freelance to work on a black account, because there were no black people employed at my agency.”

Work on projects that receive a lot of attention with publics outside respondent’s organization.

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