Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 13)

Multicultural Community Relations

 by

 Charles Lamson 

 In the 21st century, serving one's community once again makes good business sense. The importance of being responsible to diverse, multicultural communities has, in fact, become a front-burner business mandate.

Today's society is increasingly multicultural. America has always been a melting pot, attracting freedom-seeking immigrants from countries throughout the world. Never has this been more true than today, as America's face continues to change.

Such is the multicultural diversity found today by America and the world. The implications for organizations are profound.

As the arbiters of communications and their organizations, public relations people must be sensitive to society's new multicultural realities. This is a particular challenge with respect to an increasingly disenfranchised Muslim community. Dealing in an enlightened manner with multicultural diversity and being sensitive to nuances in language and differences in style are logical extensions of the social responsibility that has been an accepted part of American organizational life since the 1960s. 

Community Social Responsibility

In light of the increasing diversity of U.S. society, both profit and non-profit organizations must become more diverse as well and must learn to deal and communicate with those who differ in work background, education, age, gender, race, ethnic origin, physical abilities, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and other perceived differences. It is important for organizations to build a reservoir of goodwill among all residents within their host communities. 

More and more, organizations acknowledge their responsibilities to the community: helping to maintain clean air and water, providing jobs for minorities, enforcing policies in the interests of all employees, and, in general, enhance everyone's quality of life. This concept of social responsibility has become widely accepted among enlightened organizations. 

For example, most companies today donate a percentage of their profits to nonprofit organizations---schools, hospitals, social welfare institutions, and others.

Corporate philanthropy and social responsibility have historically been uniquely American concepts. U.S. firms feel an obligation to support thousands of community-based groups working to expand affordable housing, create economic opportunity, improve public schools, and protect the environment. 

Increasingly, corporate leaders---long absent from the public dialogue on community issues---have begun again to take an active stance in confronting societal challenges.

Another element of “ giving back to the community” is volunteerism. Many firms, which have given generously to their communities, have become more directly involved by actively encouraging executives and employees to roll up their sleeves and volunteer to help out in their communities. 

Such initiatives reject the oft-quoted notion of University of Chicago economics professor Milton Friedman that a corporation's only responsibility is to make money and sell products so that people can be hired and paid. It is the job of the individual, not the company, Friedman argued, to serve society through philanthropy. Most companies today flatly reject the Friedman argument. They understand that in the 21st century an organization must be a citizen of the community in every respect and accept its role as an agent for social change in the community. 

Community Relations Expectations 

For an organization to coexist peacefully in its community, three skills in particular are required: (1) determining what the community knows and thinks about the organization, (2) informing the community of the organization's point of view, and (3) negotiating or mediating between the organization and the community and its constituents should there be a significant discrepancy. 

Basically, every organization wants to foster positive reactions in its community. This becomes increasingly difficult in the face of protests from and disagreements with community activists. Community relations, therefore---to analyze the community, help understand it's makeup and expectations, and communicate the organization's story in an understandable and uninterrupted way---are critical. 

The community of an organization can vary widely, depending on the size and nature of the business. The 7-Eleven convenience store may have a community of only a few city blocks, the community of a Buick assembly plant may be the city where the plant is located, and the community of a multinational corporation may embrace much of the world. 

What the Community Expects

Communities expect from resident organizations such tangible commodities as wages, employment, and taxes. But communities have come to expect intangible contributions too:

• Appearance. The community hopes that the firm will contribute positively to life in the area. It expects facilities to  be attractive, with care spent on the grounds and structures. Increasingly, community neighbors object to plants that belch smoke and pollute water and air. Occasionally, neighbors organize to oppose the entrance of factories, coal mines, oil wells, drug treatment centers, and other facilities suspected of being harmful to the community's environment. NIMBY, "not in my backyard," is their rallying cry.

• Participation. As a citizen of the community, an organization is expected to participate responsibly in community affairs, such as civic functions, park and recreational activities, education, welfare, and support of religious institutions.

• Stability. A business that fluctuates sharply in volume of business, number of employees, and taxes paid can adversely affect the community through its impact on municipal services, school loads, public facilities, and tax revenues. Communities prefer stable organizations that will grow with the area. Conversely, they want to keep out short-term operations that could create temporary boom conditions and leave ghost towns in their wake. 

• Pride. Any organization that can help put the community on the map simply by being there is usually a valuable addition. Communities want firms that are proud to be residents. For instance, to most Americans, Battle Creek, Michigan, means cereal; Armonk, New York, means IBM; and Hershey, Pennsylvania, means chocolate. That is why the residents of Hershey were fearful when, in 2002, Nestle USA offered to buy the pride of Hershey for $11.5 billion. Organizations that help build the town generally become revered symbols of pride. 

What the Organization Expects

Organizations, in turn, expect to be provided with adequate municipal services, fair taxation, good living conditions for employees, a good labor supply, and a reasonable degree of support for the business and its products. When some of these ingredients are missing, organizations may move to communities where such benefits are more readily available.

The great inner-city exodus of the 1970s is a case in point. New York city experienced a substantial exodus of corporations when firms fled to neighboring Connecticut and New Jersey, as well as to the Sun Belt states of the Southeast and Southwest. New York's state and city legislatures responded to the challenge by working more closely with business residents on such issues as corporate taxation. By the new century, not only had the corporate flight to the Sun Belt been arrested, but with business-oriented billionaire Michael Bloomberg as mayor, many firms reconsidered the Big Apple and returned to the now more business-friendly city and state.

The issue for most urban areas faced with steadily eroding tax bases is to find a formula that meets the concerns of business corporations while accommodating the needs of other members of the community. 

*THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, 243-248*

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