This book explores the opportunities, challenges, and effective approaches to organizational change regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Featuring application-based case studies and practical guidelines for meaningful organizational change, this book problematizes some of the current DEI initiatives in today’s organizations. It examines multiple forms of diversity (e.g., race, age, mental health) from a variety of perspectives (e.g., leadership, employee), with case studies that demonstrate how changemaking efforts can be reimagined and implemented in better, more nuanced, and more sustainable ways to produce meaningful organizational change. Through these case studies, readers learn from organizations’ successes and failures in their attempts to implement DEI practices. Each chapter concludes with explicit practical implications and/or actionable recommendations for organizational changemaking. This text will make an impactful addition to courses in communication and diversity or organizational communication/change at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level and will be an essential guide for professionals wishing to lead change in their organizations.

Featuring contributed chapters from established and emerging communication theorists with varied cultural backgrounds and identities, Communication Theory: Racially Diverse and Inclusive Perspectives decenters traditional views of communication by highlighting perspectives from the global majority. The text deviates from a white-colonial-normative theoretical core to provide students with a more holistic exploration of communication theory. The book helps readers understand how the communicative experiences of marginalized groups represent important theoretical frames necessary for a full, comprehensive view of communication. It offers innovative conceptions of communication theorizing centered in and through the perspectives of African American/Black, Latinx, Asian American, and Indigenous/First Nations people. Through the presentation of canonized theories alongside innovative, cutting-edge theories, the text challenges students to expand and enhance the ways in which they see, use, and apply communication theory. A unique feature of the text is the inclusion of storied reflections-personal narratives that reveal scholars at various stages of their careers ruminating on their own experiences with theory. These reflections demonstrate how ethnic and racialized standpoints can inform and advance scholarship within the discipline. Communication Theory presents an inclusive, holistic approach to communication theory and inspires continued exploration, research, and theory in the discipline. It can serve as a primary textbook as well as a companion volume to other textbooks on communication theory. Chapters and contributors include: Chapter 1 - Undocumented Critical Theory - Carlos Aguilar and Daniela Juarez Chapter 2 - Black Feminist Thought - Marnel Niles Goins and Jasmine T. Austin Chapter 3 - Cultural Contracts Theory - Ronald L. Jackson II and Gina Castle Bell Chapter 4 - Conflict Face-Negotiation Theory in Intercultural-Interpersonal Contexts - Stella Ting-Toomey Chapter 5 - Co-cultural Theory - Mark P. Orbe and Fatima Albrehi Chapter 6 - Ethnic Communication Theory - Uchenna Onuzulike Chapter 7 - Social Network Theory - Wenlin Liu Chapter 8 - Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Communication - Mackensie Minniear Chapter 9 - Strong Black Woman Collective Theory - Sharde M. Davis and Martinique K. Jones Chapter 10 - Theory of Differential Adaptation - Antonio Tomas De La. Garza Chapter 11 - Four-Faceted Model of Accelerating Leader Identity - Jeanetta D. Sims and Ed Cunliff Chapter 12 - Culture-Centered Approach to Communicating Health - Mohan J. Dutta Chapter 13 - Bilingual Health Communication (BHC) Model - Elaine Hsieh Chapter 14 - Complicity Theory - Mark Lawrence McPhail Chapter 15 - Womanist Rhetorical Theory - Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson Chapter 16 - Positive Deviance Approach - Arvind Singhal Chapter 17 - Stuart Hall and Cultural Studies - Isabel Molina-Guzman Chapter 18 - (Counter)Public Sphere Theory - Catherine R. Squires and Mark P. Orbe Chapter 19 - Critical Media Effects - Srividya "Srivi" Ramasubramanian Chapter 20 - Theory of Hyper(in)Visibility - Amber Johnson and Jade Petermon Storied reflections include: Living for This Stuff! - Mark P. Orbe "Humph, but not for long!" - Jasmine T. Austin Fascinations, Frameworks, and Knowledge Pauses - Jeanette D. Sims Does It Really Work Like That? - Britney N. Gilmore Black Masculinities Theory - Mark C. Hopson It Hasn't Been What I Imagined - Ashlee Lambert An Upward Journey and Sunwise Path - Dalaki Livingston Communication Modalities-Behavior in Search of Theory - Dorothy L. Pennington A Practitioner's Journey with Theory-Using Theories for Skill Building on the Frontlines of Organizations - Pavitra Kavya "I'm Blackity Black, and I'm Black Y'all!" - Ajia Meux The Magic of Mentors and Theory - Kristina Ruiz-Mesa Making Ourselves Visible - Nickesia S. Gordon Representation in Coming - Tianna L. Cobb The Push and Pull of Connection Making - Scott E. Branton Grappling with My Zonas Erroneas as a Double Outsider - Wilfredo Alvarez Connecting and Disconnecting through Proyectos e Investigaciones - Virginia Sanchez Hovering about Prevailing Theories - Alberto Gonzalez Returning Home - B. Liahnna Stanley Searching for Stuart Hall - Catherine R. Squires The (Mis)Education of Race - David Stamps Theory as Liberation - Elizabeth M. Lozano

This book explores the opportunities, challenges, and effective approaches to organizational change regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Featuring application-based case studies and practical guidelines for meaningful organizational change, this book problematizes some of the current DEI initiatives in today’s organizations. It examines multiple forms of diversity (e.g., race, age, mental health) from a variety of perspectives (e.g., leadership, employee), with case studies that demonstrate how changemaking efforts can be reimagined and implemented in better, more nuanced, and more sustainable ways to produce meaningful organizational change. Through these case studies, readers learn from organizations’ successes and failures in their attempts to implement DEI practices. Each chapter concludes with explicit practical implications and/or actionable recommendations for organizational changemaking. This text will make an impactful addition to courses in communication and diversity or organizational communication/change at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level and will be an essential guide for professionals wishing to lead change in their organizations.