ABSTRACT
Corporate Reputation Management (CRM), a multi-disciplinary concept in Public Relations
practice, is an important management function in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. Its five
major strategies namely strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, corporate social
responsibility (CSR), events & protocols management, as well as issues & crisis management
have been employed in building, sustaining, promoting, projecting and repairing the reputation
of selected oil and gas companies since the middle 1990s. However, the companies have
continued to suffer from hostile community agitations, bitter public complaints, sabotage of oil
facilities, negative media publicity and other reputational defects despite huge budgets to these
areas.
This has prompted the need to evaluate the effectiveness of the CRM strategies. The study
had the objectives to: (i) ascertain if international oil companies operating in Nigeria have
significantly adopted CRM strategies, (ii) find out whether the CRM strategies identified were
effective in building and sustaining the reputation of the selected oil companies, (iii) assess if
evaluative research about the effectiveness of CRM strategies was usually carried out in the
Public Relations operations of the selected oil companies in Nigeria, (iv) ascertain the level of
knowledge of the culture of CRM in the selected oil companies and (v) determine the level of
relationship between CRM and successful business operations in the oil and gas industry in
Nigeria. This study adopted a survey design methodology. The five hypotheses formulated in the
study were tested appropriately. The findings show that the CRM strategies are highly effective
but they have been poorly applied in the selected oil and gas companies namely Shell Petroleum
Development Corporation (SPDC), Chevron Nigeria Limited, ExxonMobil Corporation and
Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited.
The findings also show that CRM is not strategically
positioned in top management hierarchy of the companies to participate in policy formulation
and playing its leading role in building positive image for the organisations. The study has made
various recommendations to address and redress these anomalies so that the oil and gas industry
in Nigeria would build better relationships with critical stakeholders based on mutual
understanding and benefits. Most importantly, the study recommended full and optimal
application of the five CRM strategies, and a new model in stakeholder engagement called
“Partnership and Participation in Community Relations and Development (PPCRD)” while
corporate reputation management should be located in the top management hierarchy so that it
could be given the attention it deserves in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
