Os profissionais de relações públicas e comunicação: competências para a diversidade
Authors: Persigo Patricia Milano , Athaydes Andreia Silveira , Alves Gehysa Guimaraes 
Published: June 2020

In the past two decades, discussions on diversity have broadened. In the Brazilian context, especially in the private sector, the importance of this agenda is noticeable. For instance, the Brazilian newspaper “Folha de São Paulo” addressed the theme on the article “Diversity is the champion: What the World Cup and profitable companies can teach about inclusion” (FSP. July 23, 2018). In this article, Liliane Rocha, who is the founder and CEO of Kairós Management – Sustainability and Diversity Consultancy, explains that discussions about diversity within organizations started from the idea of sustainability, which became even broader when understood not only from an environmental basis, but also from a social impact perspective. In February 2019, the social networking website Facebook launched the Ads 4 Equality tool. By using algorithms, the advertising campaigns of agencies and advertisers are analyzed as to the representativeness of their characters in relation to the Brazilian population in terms of sex, race and body type (Coletiva.Net, 2019). The examples previously mentioned, in addition to the diversity initiatives in organizations, reveal that some reflections on the relationship with such diverse social groups are necessary. By doing so, it is believed that organizations can achieve their goals and contribute to the development of their social environment. Therefore, it is necessary to know to what extent the knowledge, skills and attitudes (Fleury & Fleury, 2001; Durand, 1998; Fawkes et al. 2018) of professionals in the communication market contribute to the practice of diversity in organizations (Fleury, 2000; Serrano, 2007; Thomas, 1999). With this in mind, we have developed an exploratory research based on a structured questionnaire with 33 questions. This tool was applied via Google forms to a non-probabilistic sample by accessibility (Weber & Persigo, 2017).). We obtained 191 participants and, based on the results, it was found that the majority reaffirm the importance of the theme, however only a few have actually worked on it. With regard to the effective development of diversity, knowledge on the issues of gender, race and accessibility, for example, was the least mentioned by these professionals as being necessary for communication activities, such as planning and mapping audiences, which are essential for any communicative structure. There is also evidence that the organizations involved in the research are not yet in the diversity management stage (Serrano, 2007). In theory, this situation would explain why certain competences, such as knowing how to learn and knowing how to engage to have a strategic vision (Fleury & Fleury, 2001), did not seem to be properly mobilized by the interviewed professionals. One of the most mentioned competences was precisely the mapping of audiences, whereas the others, related to individual diversity (race, religion, gender, and so on), were not recognized as those used by professionals on a daily basis. This perspective can help us somehow explain why diversity is still often practiced at the discursive (image gain) and utilitarian (profitability) levels. As a result, this study reveals a path to be followed by these professionals with a view to a more inclusive society.