Ethics in Business 1. Discuss the ethical, negligence, and environmental issues you see in this case. BP’s negligence resulted in severe repercussions for the company, employees, and the environment. After being advised on multiple occasions of the issues concerning maintenance of pipelines, BP’s behavior in the issue of the Prudhoe Bay pipeline can be seen as unethical because it did not meet its social responsibilities/obligations to the community or its employees. Ignoring these obligations resulted in the busting of a BP pipeline that put the health and safety of its employees at risk and endangered lives of persons and wildlife in the immediate community. In addition to this BP also violated the trust of both the local and global …show more content…
There would of course be fines charged for not adhering to the established policies and procedures and testing for erosion, defects, and safety would be performed at regular intervals as determined by the government officials. In addition to this annual reports on safety and maintenance would be submitted revealing any areas for concern and what would be done to meet guidelines and make improvements. The problem to be investigated is how reducing cost in pipeline maintenance and refinery safety impacted the business’ stakeholders. Reducing cost in any business is at times necessary, however as with all decisions there must be a balance maintained as this could have implications to both internal and external stakeholders. In this case, BP developed a business culture known for intense efforts to reduce cost that had impact on both environmental safety and employee safety. This paper will give a brief overview of the decisions made by BP that resulted in events that affected various stakeholders as well as the company itself. BP had experienced several setbacks from January 2005 through 2006. An explosion in Texas City, Texas that killed fifteen employees and injured hundreds of others at a refinery in 2005 as well as other events tarnished the BP’s public image (Jennings, M. 2009). In March 2006 the Prudhoe Bay pipeline burst spilling over 267,000 gallons of oil. It was discovered that the pipeline leak was due to severe corrosion and resulted in both
Cultivating an organizational culture applies essentially to all industries. For a company such as Chevron, it is imperative that their employees know how much their utmost safety means to them. This is evident in the company’s principles when it comes to practicing safety first, being supportive and looking out for team members (Rossi,
Finally, I believe is important for companies to follow ethical standards that could assist them to make responsible decisions. The ISO 26000 standards is a document that addresses responsible practices related to organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement and development (Ajeti, S. R., 2016, para. 2-4). for example, When Chevron faces difficult situations, they try to resolve them by answering four questions: (1) is it legal? (2) Is it consistent with the company policy, including human rights policy? (3) is it consistent with the chevron’s core values? (4) if it were made public, would be I be comfortable? (Chevron, 2015, p.
BP has also been accused of violating human rights. In 2005, one of BP’s refineries in Texas exploded, caused 15 deaths and 180 injuries. The explosion was largely a result of safety cuts to reduce costs (Baker et al., 2007). From 2006 to 2008, three workers were killed at BP’s Texas refinery due to equipment failure (Collette, 2008).
As this case shows Human Rights violation BP, The company was lacking operational decisions, such as ensuring that safety standards are appropriate for employees; rather than pursuing additional profits and hiding behind a mask of public relations. Viewed from this perspective, ‘calculated casualties’ don’t provide the greatest amount of good; it simply highlights an unethical and ruthless pursuit of profits and hence environmental destruction and human deaths would widely be considered unethical.
When it comes to BP and the changes that were made in the post-crisis era since the oil spill it is very important to reference their history of safety violations. The oil spill of project Deepwater Horizon was one largest examples of their previous lack of care and respect to safety and the earth. Previous to the spill they have been in trouble with the authorities for illegal dumping of waste products in northern Alaska as well as being fined $13 million by OSHA for failing to comply with safety violations four years after an explosion at a Texas refinery in 2005. BP has a notable track record for paying out billions of dollars to offer compensation for accidents or slight
BP tends to make bets that others don’t which is most likely why the disastrous deep water horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico five years ago. The fire burned for 36 hours while hydrocarbons leaked into the gulf before the well was sealed, unfortunately eleven individuals died. It has been difficult for BP to be the best company right now since this falling and they have been in reparation mode since this catastrophe. However, BP is now incorporating high safety and showed everyone that they are very reliable on the recovery of this hardship of BP trying to mix oil with water. BP came together to control the situation, cleanup, and diminish as much contamination as possible into the gulf. In addition, they are devoted long term to improve the Gulf of Mexico’s bionetwork and promise to be more careful so this will not happen again.
BP has had a long history of ethical and legal violations because BP chose to put profits above all else. In the past twenty years, BP subsidiaries were convicted of environmental crimes in Texas and Alaska. In addition, BP received the biggest fine in US history regarding safety violations. Although BP accepted responsibility, their record showed questionable and illegal behavior for twenty years. One of BP's major issues happened in a Texas refinery close to Galveston in 2005 (Jennings, 2009). This explosion took the lives of fifteen workers and injured five hundred people and caused residents nearby to become sheltered in their homes (Jennings, 2009). The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation board concluded that BP had
Business Ethics can be defined as the critical and structured examination of how people & institutions should behave in the commerce world. Furthermore, it particularises the involvement of examining appropriate limitations upon the pursuit of complete self-interest; however, this may also apply for firm profits when the actions of each individual or firm affects others in some form. If the business really has no ethics, it can be concluded that the environment will suffer since the intention of business growth is far greater than environmental responsibility.
The BP Oil Spill An Introductory Background - One of the most controversial ecological disasters in recent history focused on multinational British Petroleum and their Gulf of Mexico Operations. The Deepwater Oil Disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil platform, killing 11, injuring 17. It was not until July 15th, however, that the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead, after releasing almost 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil, or 53,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was not until September 19th that the relief well process was complete and the U.S. Government, EPA, and Coast Guard agencies declared the well breach effectively stopped (Cavnar, 2010).
BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, is the third largest oil and gas producer in the world, producing almost 3.8 million barrels per day. BP was founded in 1908 by William Knox D’Arcy in London, United Kingdom. The company operates worldwide in several sectors of the oil and gas industry such as generating low carbon energy, moving oil and gas, and off and onshore oil and gas extraction (BP, 2014). However, the offshore Deepwater Horizon oil spill that happened on April 20th, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the greatest oil spills that took place in history. The disaster caused the loss of the lives of 11 workers, severely injuring 17 workers, and the aftermath had a great impact on the environment in the Gulf of Mexico.
On April 20, the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history. As a result, a huge loss of money and life was caused and affected serious environmental damage to wild animals and water pollution. BP was accused of their irresponsibility that it took 87 days before the well was closed and sealed. BP’s shares
Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).
A unique set of principles, vision, and discipline drives corporate behavior and culture. Robbins and Judge (2014) describe culture as, “shared meaning held by the members” (p.465). The culture guides the employee motivation and their behavior towards customers and the external world. One of the management skills is supporting individual and team by understanding and communicating with them. Ability to analyze and diagnose complex scenario is also a management skill. Various levels of diversity bring rich skills to organization such as creativity, interpersonal views. BP leaders constantly demonstrated poor leadership qualities by acting the way they wanted. Displaying of one’s emotions in the workplace has greater impact on collaboration and productivity. Let us examine how BP culture contributed to the oil disaster.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 resulted in considerable damage to the environment, economy and human livelihoods. While BP, as one of the parties involved in the operation of the oil drilling on Deepwater Horizon rig, suffered huge financial loss and reputation loss, it was found to be the one to be mostly blamed due to its lack of risk management. As poor risk management can lead to an astonishing disaster like this, it appears to be necessary for every business to learn from BP’s mistakes and try the best to prevent such disaster from happening again. This report studies this case, focusing on two issues identified in BP’s risk management practices, namely its sloppy preparation for risks and its inappropriate communication strategy after the crisis happened. No evidence showed that BP had a sufficient emergency plan for the worst-case deep-water oil spill although the depth of the oil drilling was one of the deepest. BP’s unseriousness towards safety was also indicated in their attempt to shift blames to its contractors and the unaccountability shown by the words of BP’s executives during interviews. Based on the examination of BP’s deficiency in risk management, the lessons that can be learned from it are discussed. In brief, firstly, accurate risk assessment and appropriate emergency plan should be available before the operation is started. Secondly, post-crisis communication should show the world that the company cares and is accountable
The image as well as the operational business reputation of a corporation is critical to the survivability of the corporation in today’s business world. Today we will put our focus on one of UK’s largest multinational oils company’s. In the case with British Petroleum (BP) as it actively explores oil in 26 countries around the world, due to BP’s lack of focus on the safety issues presented in the 2004 Telos Group report coupled with the oversight and control to correct safety hazards, the Texas plant experienced a disastrous fire and explosion killing 15 workers and injuring 180 other personnel as stated by Halbert and Ingulli (2012, pg. 185) An investigation by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board released a report in 2007 that revealed process safety leadership issues starting with senior management as well as disregarding safety concerns throughout BP. This paper will attempt to look at various details of the Critical Success Factor of British Petroleum (BP). We will then determine how these factors impact the success of the firm through project benefits, risk culture and organizational readiness. In this paper we will also provide project risk recommendations that will allow companies to plan accordingly when dealing with risk management task this way they will focus more on responsibilities, safety activities and budget. Lastly, we will create and identify checklist based on the categories of risk.