The Role of Leadership in Building Inclusive Diversity in Public Relations

244 Pages·2022·5.233 MB·English

by  Nilanjana Bardhan, Karla Gower

“Bardhan and Gower synthesize theories and DEI literature from multiple disci-
plines to provide fresh perspectives and practical insights to address organizational
climate, diversity, and inclusion issues in public relations practice. This is a ‘must-
read’ book! Any leader in public relations and public relations faculty members
and students will find this book’s lessons useful – as the insights contained within
are a needed contribution and signpost to guide future ‘needle-moving’ efforts and
DEI pursuits in public relations education and practice.”
Damion Waymer, Professor and Chair of Advertising & Public
Relations, The University of Alabama, USA
“An artful balance of storytelling and data insights underpinned by academic rigor,
the contextual buildup with each chapter of this book culminates with an unprec-
edented, pragmatic Leadership Model for Inclusive Diversity in Public Relations.
It features recommended approaches for 1) accelerating DE&I progress and 2)
eroding the field’s glaring resistance to change, often masked by the cunning lip
service of skilled communicators. The authors’ findings are compelling for aspiring
and current industry leaders.”
Carmella Glover, President, Diversity Action Alliance, USA
“This book makes an enormous contribution toward addressing one of the most
important issues facing U.S. public relations professionals in the coming years: the
need for measurable, impactful, and faster progress on ‘building inclusive diversity’
in the PR profession. The authors make a compelling case that leaders embrace
the idea that ‘the horse of inclusion pulls the cart of diversity, and not the other
way around,’ and that leaders must be more responsible and accountable for actions
that foster inclusive, equitable internal cultures. Every PR leader should read this
and build on the model Bardhan and Gower propose for advancing the D&I
imperative facing all of us.”
Patrick Ford, Professional in Residence, College of Journalism
and Communications, University of Florida, USA

The Role of Leadership
in Building Inclusive Diversity
in Public Relations
This book focuses on the relationship between leadership and diversity,
inclusion and equity within the US public relations industry.
The authors argue that there is ample research evidence that diversity and
inclusion efforts cannot succeed without leadership support that commits to
and assumes responsibility and accountability for the structural and cultural
changes required. Drawing on literature from three different areas – public
relations, diversity and inclusion/equity in US societal and organizational
contexts and leadership – the authors build a conceptual framework and model
for inclusive leadership in public relations that addresses industry dynamics.
The book is timely as a resource for public relations scholars and as a
supplementary text for advanced courses in public relations principles, theory,
management, leadership and diversity. It also provides practitioners theo-
retical guidance on how to improve diversity, inclusion and equity in their
organizations.
Nilanjana Bardhan is a Professor in the Department of Communication
Studies at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, USA.
Karla Gower is a Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public
Relations at the University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa, USA.

The Role of Leadership
in Building Inclusive
Diversity in Public
Relations
Nilanjana Bardhan and Karla Gower
Cover image: © mangsaab / Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Nilanjana Bardhan and Karla Gower
The right of Nilanjana Bardhan and Karla Gower to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bardhan, Nilanjana, author. | Gower, Karla K., author.
Title: The role of leadership in building inclusive diversity in public
relations / Nilanjana Bardhan and Karla Gower.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers:
LCCN 2022004886 (print) | LCCN 2022004887 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Diversity in the workplace. |
Public relations--Management. | Leadership. Classification: LCC
HF5549.5.M5 B367 2023 (print) | LCC HF5549.5.M5 (ebook) |
DDC 658.3008--dc23/eng/20220421
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004886
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004887
ISBN: 978-0-367-77154-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-76964-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17002-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003170020
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
Foreword ix
Preface/Acknowledgments xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 Public Relations, Diversity and Inclusion: A Story
Unpacked with a Spotlight on Leadership 13
3 Diversity and Inclusion in the Context
of the United States 44
4 Leadership and D&I: Where Is Public Relations? 75
5 Mind the Gap: The Story of Lackluster
D&I Leadership in Public Relations 107
6 Digging Deeper: Practitioner/Educator/Student
Leaders Elaborate on D&I 126
viii Contents
7 A Leadership Model for Inclusive Diversity
in Public Relations 156
8 Conclusion: Looking Ahead 187
References 198
Index 224
Foreword
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are the topics of conversation in corporate,
association and nonprofit boardrooms. As with most trending organizational
topics, interest in these concepts waxes and wanes with the tides of industry
and the focus of the moment. For example, at the start of the pandemic in
2020, communication officers placed internal communications as the main
focus of their initiatives as societal institutions struggled to understand how
to operate in this new reality of masks, airborne diseases and unknown real-
ities. According to an Institute for Public Relations report, only 19 percent
of communicators saw the need to communicate about diversity. Some even
dismissed diversity, equity and inclusion as a concern or priority because they
were not hiring (Institute for Public Relations, 2020). The centrifugal forces
of COVID-19 messaging about safety and layoffs and beliefs that DEI does not
matter during a crisis pushed diversity away from the center of conversations,
although social inequities were amplified by the pandemic response, those
who died in the early waves, and the lingering effects of systemic racism in
healthcare (Jones, 2000; Kline & Quiroga, 2021).
Then, sparked by the recorded murder of George Floyd and the echoing
plea of “I can’t breathe” (a phrase that multiple men and women have said at
the hands of the police and vigilantes), collective action swelled to a crescendo
of marches, demonstrations and petitions as people acted to upend the status
quo and address discrimination, injustice and a myriad of other traumas
(Acosta, 2020; Becker, 2012; Krieger, 2020; Thomas et al., 2019). The inter-
national conversation switched to injustices within those same societal institu-
tions and their responses to their stakeholders. For example, multiple agencies
promoted or hired chief diversity officers, and many corporations, nonprofits
and public universities released bland statements about diversity and equity