Multicultural and Global Public Relations

In 1995, Stephen Banks defined multicultural public relations as “the successful negotiation of multiple meanings that result in positive outcomes in any communication activity” (p. 42). Five years later, the author improved his definition to take diversity into consideration.

Banks (2000) wrote: “Multicultural public relations can be defined as the management of formal communication between organizations and their relevant publics to create and maintain communities of interest and action that favor the organization, taking full account of the normal human variation in the systems of meaning by which groups understand and enact their everyday lives."

Multicultural public relations helps the profession see diversity as part of its daily practice that connects with an organization’s values, according to Dean Mundy (2016). The multicultural perspective also removes the “western-centric, corporate-centric lens” and helps an organization forge meaningful relationships with diverse stakeholders.

While some public relations scholars have separate definitions for each approach to public relations, Juan-Carlos Molleda and Sarab Kochhar (2019) combined the definition of global and multicultural public relations:

“A strategic and dynamic process that cultivates shared understanding, relationships, and goodwill among organizations and a combination of their culturally heterogeneous home, host, and transnational stakeholders, with the aim of achieving and maintaining a consistent reputation and established legitimation.”

Molleda and Kochhar note that all types of organizations practice global and multicultural public relations, including government and nongovernmental organizations and agencies. The authors also note that public relations programs become more complex when organizations operate across borders.