Deepwater Horizon Biases

Decision making biases played a devastating role in the Deepwater Disaster. The biases that were present are; representativeness heuristic, overconfidence bias, confirmation bias and escalation of commitment bias. Based on my findings, to some extent, each of the following biases contributed to the Deepwater Disaster.

In terms of the anchoring bias, regularly revisit of the original decision based on the newly gathered data needs to be set up within the organization. Additionally, the decision maker should avoid the Confirmation Trap in which Bazerman and Moore (2009) argues that people tend to seek information that confirms their expectations and hypotheses. To recognize the bias, Mike Francis could

In the text, Kreitner and Kinicki (2013) states that decision making is one of the primary responsibilities of a manager, and the quality of one’s decisions can have serious consequences. As the title of this cause study shows Faulty Decision Making is the Cause of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. Faulty decision making or lack of any decision making is the key to this disaster.

Two phenomena- hindsight bias and judgmental overconfidence- illustrate why we can’t rely solely on intuition and common sense.

In Chapter 3, there were 12 areas of bias spread across the 3 areas of heuristics. The main theme of the text was to prove that we are predisposed to certain outcomes. As we make important decisions we rely on our memory, or a number of past events, or even ignoring facts. Overall, we are biased in many ways when it comes to making decisions, or predicting outcomes of a particular event.

Representative bias: assessing the likelihood of an occurrence by inappropriately considering the current situation as identical to ones in the past

In addition to being warned by Halliburton a company designated to fix the cement, BP would opt out to continue on with the mission. This would be one of several key factors that would soon indicate a series of problematic events that would transpire on that dreadful day in April 20, 2010. The Deepwater Horizon has a series of steps to complete in

When humans make a decision, it often turns out to be “predictably irrational” (Ariely, 2009). They always deviate systematically from expected decision rather show an inclination towards a certain way of thinking. This consistency of behavioral or decision bias can be very helpful to identify consequences or outcomes in a different

The key takeaways from this case are the importance of having a decision making process in place, as well as not relying on bias to fix a situation. There should have been policies and procedures in place so that when disaster strikes there are guidelines to follow. The model for rational decision making could have been followed. The problem should have been identified, general alternative solutions should have been discussed, evaluate alternatives and select a solutions, and then finally implement and evaluate the solution that was chosen. Had BP and Transocean had effective communication the oil rig may not have caused such a disaster (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

Margaret Brown's take a glance at the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil fix disaster and its continuous impacts along the Gulf Coast is a dry out, it records the angering record of corporate eagerly desirous of the people,the the residents of the Gulf of Mexico, show to be really affected and has gone up against their natural lives and wanting to survive.

Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform had the explosion and sink into the ocean on April 22, 2010. This is one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. The initial oilrig explosion killed 11 people and injured 17 others1.In this accident, over 4.9 million barrels1 of crude oil, which is 205.8 million gallons of oil been released into the Gulf of Mexico1. The oil has made a serious damage to the ocean, surrounding lands, marshes and beaches. It will also have a long-term effect on the nearby creatures including human beings. After that, about 1.84 million1 of dispersant was used in this accident. Initially, the dispersant Corexit 9527 was used, and when existing stocks of that formulation were exhausted, Corexit 9500 was used.

Personal decision making is influenced by a range of biases, many of which we are unconscious of. Being more aware of these biases reveals how individual decision making can be improved. (Reference…)

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also referred to as the BP oil spill, began on April 20th, 2010, with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform. This spill is regarded as the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. More than 200 million gallons of crude oil was pumped into the Gulf of Mexico for a total of 87 days. The accident was caused by a well integrity failure (“Deepwater Horizon Accident”) and a loss of hydrostatic control of the well. The oil that was released, nicknamed ‘Louisiana light, sweet crude’, was mixed with natural gas. Fortunately, natural gas is a mixture primarily of methane, with varying amounts of higher alkanes, which is easier for microbes to degrade. The spilled hydrocarbons are made up of over 150 different molecules.

The difficulties that were accompanied with this approach led to deviation from the rational model. Complexity of modern organizations and the limited cognitive ability of decision makers were most influencing factors in the deviation . The decision makers were unable to operate under perfect rationality conditions. The information about a decision was mostly unavailable or unclear, and open to different interpretations. Also, the criteria of evaluating alternative solutions were not agreed upon. It also required very long time and a lot of energy of the decision makers to pursue a maximizing outcome. These constrains led to a conclusion that the absolute rational model is unreachable.

Yes, there were cognitive biases at Level 3 and other companies as well as the investors during 1997-2001. The biases were…