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STUDY MOTIVATION

Pandemic aftershocks have continued to disrupt global economies in 2023, but many organizations have gained resilience through strategic management. The key challenges to organizational growth are mostly within the system, specifically among workforces, so leaders need to analyse their internal business environments to make purposeful decisions based on how their employees feel about the corporate culture. The power culture at BBC Nigeria is, perhaps, the major cause of high turnover. In comparison, BBC UK is characterized by a toxic ‘cut-throat’ culture that breeds internal competition for promotion, and fierce rivalry with other companies to attract high-paying clients (Tkachenko et al, 2022).

Although the BBC Charter is a guide for business activities at BBC offices in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, studies show that the UK segment has clear procedures for internal reporting—a crucial governance structure lacking in Nigeria. Therefore, the motivation for this study is driven by a quest to identify culture-related factors increasing turnover rates in Nigeria. Findings will be mirrored against standards set by the BBC Charter, workplace realities at BBC UK, and the management approach sustaining award-winning journalistic professionalism in global media organizations like Cable News Network (CNN), Sky News, Aljazeera etc (Jathol & Rüling, 2019).

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE

Although global engagement and wellbeing of employees have stabilized in 2023, data-based studies indicate that results are still low in many countries and organizations like BBC Nigeria. According to the lasted report from Shortlister titled “The Great Employment Turnover Statistics in 2023,” one out of every three employees will most likely quit their job after six months. This implies that employers are not only losing talents but facing a difficult challenge of attracting, retaining, and engaging new employees regularly. The high turnover and management-related problems indicate this study has strong implications for managers, corporate leaders, HR professionals, and scholars who would use the research findings and recommendations to improve body of knowledge in employee retention strategies (Tkachenko et al, 2022).

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Organizations conduct performance reviews to determine employees’ strengths, weaknesses, and current productivity levels. Results from such evaluations are used to identify potentials, reward individuals/groups based on their contributions to organizational growth, motivate the workforce, and design needs-based training and development programs. The problem is that most performance reviews focus on employees and ignore managers whose personality traits and culture dimensions have a significant impact on organizational performance. At BBC Nigeria, managers are not scrutinized against standards set by the BBC Charter, so there are no verifiable indicators of how they are creating a conducive workspace or destroying employee motivation with toxic attitudes. Further, unlike the United Kingdom, where The Times legally obtained HR data/reports on workplace incidents relating to abuse and negligence of company values, Nigeria has systemic challenges to implementing employment laws. Like many West African countries where BBC operates its broadcasting business, corporate governance in Nigeria is clogged with corruption, abuse of power, and unreliable data (Usherwood & Usherwooj, 2021; Jathol & Rüling, 2019).

This qualitative research examining the link between corporate culture and employee turnover will face challenges from the inaccessibility of HR records at BBC Nigeria, and the UK. However, the author will scrutinize (for validity and reliability) primary data sourced from former and current BBC employees in both countries to ascertain the impact of culture on employees’ stress level, wellbeing, motivation, engagement, and productivity—with brief analyses of theoretical concepts in strategic management.

RESEARCH AIM

The main aim of this research is to examine how corporate culture influences employee turnover at BBC UK, and Nigeria.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The key objectives of this paper are as follows:

1. To analyse relevant research, concepts and theories relating to corporate culture and turnover, as well as employee attraction, retention, and engagement.
2. To identify the link between corporate culture and employee turnover.
3. To examine underlying reasons for the high turnover rate within BBC Nigeria workforce.
4. To recommend innovative HR management solutions to the Country Manager at BBC (Nigeria).