London Boroughs

Multicultural London! Anyone for our class??? Imagine the number of variables :) Do you think University Of Westminster targeted us differently or is it easier for educational institutions?

Effectiveness of Multicultural Public Relations

Effectiveness in multicultural public relations is assessed by the degree to which communication
1. Affirms participants’ cultural identities
2. Aspects the diversity of interpretation
3. Reinforces participants’ self concepts
4. Enhances the parties’ relationship
5. Embraces the constitutive nature of communication
6. Recognises the contextual nature of communication.

The social interpretative theory of multicultural public relations incorporates the immense necessity of cultural sensitivity on the part of the PR practitioner. But the debate arises in the area where the PR practitioner himself may be biased due to his cultural background or the misinterpretation of the receivers’.

The counter arguement would be the extended training in cultural intelligence. The appropriate method to tackle this problem would be to have representatives of different cultures. But this might not boost the effectiveness of the functioning of the organization which in the end aims to heighten the bottom line.

Lighter side of PR and Culture

Culture, according to Lustig and Koester (1993), is learnt in the sense of gaining understandings that are handed down in group experience; its transmitted through interaction with socializing agents.

PR in a culture educating environment.

The Great Wheel of Culture in Society

Culture is an indispensible part of every society. The three main systems common to any human group or society are

• a Cultural system of ideas


• a Social system of actions
  
• a Material system of physical artefacts.

Adopting the theories of societal communication by Karl Rosengren, we come across the 'Great Wheel of Culture in society' that aims to explain the typology of basic societal institutions grouped under two value orientations:

1. Expressive versus Instrumental value orientation.

2. Cognitive versus Normative value orientation.

The great wheel of culture visually explains that culture is interconnected to the other eight subsystems in the society which are : Religion, Poilitics, Economy, Technology, Science, Scholarship, Literature, and Art.

These subsystems give raise to the complexity of the communication. Therefore the crux of all inter personal communication and the use of public relations needs to incorporate the importance of culture in every society, individual.

Cyclic effect- future of mulitcultural PR?

Public Relations practitioners in the immediate future are going to face great cahllenges in understanding the emerging relationship between different cultures and still retaining their individual core culture. According to David. A. Victor, cultural retrenchment- the insistence on cultural differentiation- is a defence against being absorbed in to a global consumer identity. He expresses the trend of the consumer as wanting to retain their distinct culture in communication preferences and uniformity in consumer preferences. (Banks, 1995) This can be related to the concept of globalization of culture, in popular terms, the homogenity of culture in a global scale (Antony.D.King, 1991)

The turf war, in my opinion will occur between the globalization of culture and its fall out due to increase in need for individualism in culture. The people are now becoming atuned to the homogenous culture in the same society and the concept of globalization is growing. This phenomenon can be seen in the 'McDonaldization' around the world.

The next step, would be the completion of the circle where all the cultures will get differentiated like they existed before. Distinct in their own ways and have an unique identity.

Practice of PR in a multicultural world

With growing number of industries adopting ‘equal opportunities’ to project themselves as secular and multi-culture tolerant the question of which model of public relations model, to suit the interests of all the stakeholders, arises. This concept builds a strong relationship as the phenomenon of multicultural co-existing in a single work place is stressed on. According to Donnalyn Pompper, failure to fully incorporate "ethnic diversity" in organizations hinders the ability to practice two-way symmetry.

However, condemning the two-way symmetrical model as only academic theory, Vasquez (1996) described that the two-way symmetrical model conceptualizes public relations as a negotiation situation in which parties hold or perceive they hold compatible, goals. In other words, the compatible goal is a shared mission of social progress.

These above two concepts can be better understood when taking in to account the area of conflict resolution in public relations. It explains that symmetry in public relations really is about balancing the interests of organizations and publics, of balancing advocacy and accommodation (Cameron et al.,). As future public relations practitioners, the core idea to be remembered is that now public relations has truly developed in to building relationships and reconstruction of older models of communication is of utmost necessary.

Organizations and Societal Culture

Organizations in the past few decades have had the neccessity to drastically change their outlook towards the global society where the heterogeneous mixture of culture has created a niche market place for every type of consumer or individual in the broader sense.
Culture is now not only about the race, ethnicity or which part of the world you hail from but also the beliefs and values you uphold, the environment you have been raised and education.
It is seen that power distance, individualism, masculinity and uncertanity avoidance are some of the key factors that affect the functioning of an independent organization where power to implement decisions are distributed equally.

A good book to read on this topic is Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind by Geert Hofstede.

In a way, public relations in an organization needs to play the role of a psychologist and anthropologist, understanding the background or the culture of the civilization and individual.