Interviews with more than two dozen employees past and present, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, suggest that in its drive to elevate the station’s profile, management developed a blind spot at the nexus of gender, race, power and personnel.

The station’s human resources practices had not kept pace with its growth, employees said. One person noted that there was so much turnover that “we literally didn’t know who we could go to for benefits.”

Nor does it help, several people said, that the head of human resources occupies a glass office adjacent to Mr. Cappello’s. “It feels like you’re in the principal’s office and everybody can see you,” said one current employee.

Mr. Cappello is also closely associated with “The Takeaway,” which he said in an internal staff memo announcing Mr. Hockenberry’s sudden retirement in July was “a show that’s even more necessary today than it was when we launched.” The news release announcing the retirement noted that Mr. Cappello “observed John’s work up close every day.”

That show has become emblematic of one of the biggest complaints about the station’s management — that even as audio journalism has diversified, the station’s broadcast lineup remained overwhelmingly white and male. Kristen Meinzer, a former producer of “The Takeaway,” said that the dichotomy was obvious: men got the shows, women got the podcasts. “If you want to be on air, you’re a white man,” she said.

Ms. Walker declined to be interviewed or address specifics, but in a statement, she said: “As a woman leader of a public media organization, I know what’s at stake. We need to take a deep look inward at our organizational structure and our culture, to ensure that we will live up to the values of respect, equity and inclusion that we espouse in our work every day.”

No matter what ultimately happens, Ms. Walker, 60, has left an indelible mark on public radio and the arts. A former broadcast journalist and executive at the Sesame Workshop, she helped WNYC win its independence in 1997 from New York City. In 2008, the station moved out of its drab quarters in the Municipal Building into a former printing building on Varick Street that now includes WNYC Studios, which produces popular audio series like “Radiolab” and “Death, Sex and Money,” and the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, which hosts live events. A perennial contender to lead major nonprofit or news organizations in the city, Ms. Walker signed a contract earlier this year to become the president of Pratt Institute, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations who spoke anonymously to preserve the confidentiality of the process. But she did not ultimately take the job.