Stakeholder power and organisational trust repair: The case of the BBC

In recent times many corporations have been accused of implementing polices that were discriminative against the female workers. The prominent among these policies was the gender pay differential. The one that came to the public relate to the British Broadcasting organisation [BBC]. This study aims to investigate the impact of stakeholder power on the management decisions at the BBC following the release of its 2017 gender pay gap report.
To achieve this objectives, we adopt the qualitative approach, obtaining data (tweets) from social media. This approach enabled us to provide an in-depth understanding of the broken trust as well as the proximity and connectedness of BBC stakeholders who, if not employees, are incidentally TV licence fee payers. This approach also enables an understanding of stakeholder reaction following trust damage actions taken by the BBC. We further analysed the information generated from the tweets thematically which was underpinned by the stakeholders’ theory.
We contribute to the body of knowledge with the following key results: (1) stakeholder proximity to gender pay differentials at the BBC was stronger and wider because of their triadic relationship with the corporation e.g. employee, British household and British public. (2) Where there is a strong shareholder proximity, stakeholder trust is quickly eroded by the negative actions of the organisation. (3) Exhibition of stronger stakeholder power forces management to engage in stakeholder trust repair at corporate and individual levels by acting to address their concerns.