Purpose

The objective of this study is to gather qualitative and quantitative data on the experiences and perceptions of multicultural public relations practitioners regarding diversity within the industry and workplace in order to identify critical issues and to develop actionable steps the public relations profession should take to increase diversity in the profession. This independent study was conducted by Lynn Appelbaum, APR, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Media & Communications Arts at The City College of New York, and Rochelle Ford, Ph.D., APR, Assistant Professor, Advertising and PR Sequence Coordinator, Howard University. It was developed in part using published academic and industry reports and studies.

Background and Challenges

Although diverse practitioners have been working in the public relations industry since the 1800s (Hill and Farrell, 1988; Lilienthal, S., 1999; Tillery-Larkin, 1999), the population of African American, Asian American, Hispanic and Native American (ALANA*) PR practitioners has always been small relative to the multicultural population in the United States (Grunig, Toth & Hon, 2001; Hannon, 1997; Hill and Farrell, 1988, Hon, & Brunner, 2000; Kern-Foxworth, 1990; Tillery-Larkin, 1999). The public relations industry has made various efforts to increase diversity by offering programs of related study at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other schools with high enrollments of ALANAs, establishing committees within professional organizations to address diversity issues, and beginning affinity public relations organizations such as the Black Public Relations Society and the Hispanic Public Relations Association. Yet diversity recruitment and retention continues to be a challenge.

Both researchers of this study, who teach primarily ALANA students, agree that these efforts have helped diversify the industry somewhat, but recognize that more needs to be done towards increasing diversity in the PR profession. However, to achieve significant changes in the racial and ethnic composition of the public relations industry, a greater understanding of ALANAs’ experiences and perceptions of the industry is necessary.

Historically, ALANA practitioners experience multiple challenges in the industry, including being pigeonholed in race-related projects, feeling they are victims of racism in the workplace, and feeling relegated to slow moving tracks, menial tasks or entry-level/technician roles (Diggs-Brown & Zaharna, 1995; Ferreira, 1993; Hon, & Brunner, 2000; Kern-Foxworth, 1989a; 1989b; Kern-Foxworth, Gandy, Hines & Miller, 1994; Mallett, 1995; Len-Rios, 1998; 2002; Pompper, 2004; Tillery-Larkin, 1999; Wise, 1995; Yamashita, 1992; Zerbinos & Clanton, 1993).

Public relations scholars have addressed practitioner experiences primarily from qualitative approaches because of the difficulty in obtaining large samples of ALANAs (Grunig, Toth & Hon, 2001). Many of these studies focused on cities where there are large populations of Asian, Hispanic and African American practitioners (Grunig, Toth & Hon, 2001). The existing quantitative studies have small samples of ALANAs ranging from 54 Black females (Kern-Foxworth, Gandy, Hines & Miller, 1994) to about 119** in the PRSA Diversity study to 364 in Tillery-Larkin’s (1999) national study of African Americans in public relations.

Recently, public relations professional organizations have begun studying diversity through quantitative measures, but those studies focus primarily on experiences and perceptions of Caucasian Americans who represent the majority of the practitioners and of ALANA practitioners who belong to particular professional societies (PRSA, 2003; PR Coalition, 2004).

This study includes practitioners from around the US who may or may not have been involved in professional organizations. More details about the quantitative sampling are presented later.

As Grunig, Toth and Hon (2001) explain, the strength of these studies on diversity and public relations is their theoretical foundation and application to theory. While these studies lack strong statistical reference ability due to sample issues, they offer important qualitative feedback from participants to complement the quantitative data. This study attempts to use the same theoretical framework and build upon previous research.

Research Design

This study aims to analyze diversity in public relations both quantitatively and qualitatively through a voluntary web-based survey and pre- and post-survey discussion groups. The aim of the pre-survey discussion group is to understand practitioner experiences and perceptions and to refine the on-line questionnaire. The national web-based survey’s purpose is to obtain quantitative data regarding the perceptions and experiences of ALANAs and qualitative data regarding recommendations to improve industry’s and employers’ diversity efforts. Finally, the post-discussion group offers an opportunity to expand upon the survey’s findings and to obtain additional information on what practitioners have done, or might do, to handle or defuse some of the problems uncovered by the survey. After analyzing the quantitative data using SPSS, the research team analyzed the discussion group recordings and transcripts. They looked for key themes, similarities and differences among survey responses and discussion members’ comments. All of the results have been compiled and are presented as integrated findings.

Pre-survey Discussion Group Method

Participants were recruited to participate in the pre-survey discussion group through outreach to the Council of PR Firms, PRSA-New York Chapter, City College communications alumni and several professional contacts of the researchers. In August 2004, nine practitioners (eight female, one male) participated in the pre-survey discussion. A public relations agency leader moderated the group using a discussion guide prepared by the research team. The session was audio taped to assist with data analysis.

Three of the participants were independent/solo practitioners and the other six worked at PR agencies. Most of the practitioners had corporate, non-profit or government experience in addition to agency/consulting work. They represented all professional levels. Three were Asian and six were Black, including three from the Caribbean. Participants were served beverages and light refreshments.

The discussion group began with each practitioner completing a printed version of the survey, followed by a discussion of the survey questions’ strengths and weaknesses and the questions’ relevance to multicultural practitioner experiences and perceptions. Questionnaire responses remain confidential, with only the DC-based researcher having access to them. These survey responses were analyzed for informational purposes only and were not included in the on-line survey report. The group’s comments regarding the survey were used to amend the on-line questionnaire and to gain insights into their practitioner experiences.

Survey Method

E-mail invitations were sent to U.S. public relations practitioners who are non-Caucasian Americans to complete an anonymous web-based survey. Special outreach to encourage participation was made to the National Black Public Relations Society and its New York, Washington, DC, Chicago and Atlanta chapters; Hispanic Marketing Communication Association Miami Chapter; the Los Angeles chapter of the Hispanic Public Relations Society; Howard University alumni; faculty of the Black College Communications Association; and PRSA’s Multicultural Communication Section members. Email invitations were also sent to practitioners listed in the Directory of Multicultural Public Relations Professionals and Firms (Hines, 2000). The research team attempted to distribute the survey to communications professionals with Asian background but were unsuccessful. Recipients were invited to forward the survey to non-member multicultural practitioners. The incentive for participating was a $1 donation to be given to their choice of organizations: PRSA’s Multicultural Affairs Scholarship, National Black Public Relations Society Scholarship, or the Hispanic Marketing Communication Association Scholarship.

Between October 2004 and January 2005, 132 practitioners, including both men and women, completed the study. The survey included a screening question that only allowed practitioners who spend 50% or more of their time in public relations to complete the survey***. Of the initial respondents, 33% indicated that less than 50% of their work time was spent doing public relations, and therefore, they were not permitted to take the entire survey. In hindsight, this condition was found to be too limiting in terms of the size of the ultimate sample.

Despite these additional outreach efforts, incentives and one extension of the on-line survey deadline, the sample size was smaller than the researchers desired. The pre- and post-survey discussion groups were designed to qualitatively supplement the quantitative results. Because the survey invitation was distributed through e-mail and allowed invited recipients to forward the invitation to other multicultural practitioners, it’s difficult to determine how many individuals actually received the survey invitation. The researchers estimate that the sample of 132 represents an approximate 10% return rate. Of the 132, 88 respondents completed all or most of the survey questions.

Blacks (African, Caribbean, African-American) represented 75% of the 88 respondents; 22.7% were Hispanic and 1.1% were Asian****. Respondents’ ages ranged between 21 and 69, and salaries ranged from under $20,000 to more than $100,000. Approximately 30% were employed by public relations agencies; 18% by corporations, 19% were independent consultants; 10% were employed by educational institutions; and 23% by non profits, associations or the government. About 39% were middle management level; the remainder were entry level (27%), senior level (29.5%) or didn’t report (4.5%).

Survey Design

The survey was designed to provide feedback on multicultural PR practitioners’ experience in the workplace, to assess discrimination issues and the PR industry’s diversity initiatives, and to identify strengths and weaknesses of membership in race-neutral professional organizations, such as the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), compared to racially-based membership groups, such as the Black Public Relations Society (BPRS) or the Hispanic Public Relations Society (HPRS). The survey also sought ideas from multicultural practitioners to help the industry chart a plan of action to improve diversity within the PR industry. The web-based questionnaire contained 60 items. Respondents were promised anonymity, and no names or company affiliations were collected.

Post-Survey Discussion Group Method

To augment our survey findings, we convened a post-survey discussion group comprised of six multicultural PR practitioners at RF Binder Public Relations, New York, on Thursday, March 17, 2005. The purpose was to get reactions to the on-line survey findings, to gain additional insight into their experiences in the workplace, and to generate tangible actions that both industry leaders and practitioners can take to address key diversity issues.

E-mail invitations were sent to multicultural PR practitioners in the New York area, who work for agencies, corporations, non-profits or government or as independent practitioners. The list was comprised of mid and senior level multicultural practitioners who are alumni of City College and Howard University, who are leaders in public relations professional organizations, and who were referred by human resource professionals at public relations agencies. The group discussion was conducted by an independent leader and was recorded by the research team. Participants were guaranteed confidentiality. The six group discussion members were all mid and senior level practitioners of Black/African American and Asian heritage. Two were independent consultants, one owned his own agency, two worked for large agencies and one worked for a mid-size minority owned agency. Respondents were asked to respond to a series of statements derived from the survey responses as a means of determining the validity of the survey findings; likewise they were asked to give recommendations to practitioners and employers regarding the findings. Comments were recorded and have been anonymously incorporated into the findings.

Conclusion

While the survey findings are not derived from as a large a sample as one might have wished, the researchers believe that the results, taken in conjunction with the discussion group feedback, shed light on important issues concerning diversity initiatives in the PR industry. This information and the recommended actions should help further the industry’s initiatives to cultivate a more inclusive multicultural profession.

*The term ALANA was coined by Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, as a means of combining the most populous racial/ethnic minority groups in the US.

**In PRSA’s Diversity study, race and ethnicity were asked in two separate questions. Approximately 84 respondents identified themselves as African American or Black and in a separate question about 72 respondents identified themselves as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin. From the research report provided by Equation Research, it is unclear what racial identity the Hispanic respondents were.

***It is possible that practitioners who worked in public affairs, promotions or other PR specializations did not complete the survey because they did not feel 50% of their job was public relations when others might have viewed it as such.

****Although members of the Asian American Advertising and Public Relations Alliance were asked to participate, the organization’s president forewarned the two researchers that few were likely to participate because they are over surveyed and do not have the time to complete such items. Unfortunately, this was correct.