Power, Control and Resistance Are Key Determinants of Organizational Life

Oil covered everything: beaches, animals, plants, bottoms of boats. Approximately 205.8 million gallons of oil leaked into the ocean and toward the Louisiana shoreline. To put the amount in perspective, that oil could be used to drive a Toyota Prius around the earth 184,181 times (Repanich). All of this pollution and destruction because of one singular company: British Petroleum. Needless to say, the image of BP was tarnished because of this. What can a company do to come back from such a serious setback? This was the question that was faced by the company in 2010 (when the spill occurred), and is still being wrestled with today. By analyzing BP’s “Commitment to the Gulf” ad campaign, the brand’s desired identity is made very apparent. When it comes to oil, nearly all consumers are involved. However, BP does take specific steps in order to narrow down a target audience when it comes to advertising its product. Despite the hardships faced by BP stemming from the spill, consumers still have an addiction to oil. BP, the fourth largest oil company in the world (“Biggest Oil”), has such a firm hold on consumer society that it is a necessity in today’s consumer landscape. By pushing the brand’s identity to its target audience, BP used branding to overcome a severe controversy and rebuild the image it hoped to convey to consumers.

The Gulf Oil Spill was and still is a issues for BP that require both its legal team and media relations department to work quick and together to both address the issues and protect the image of the company. In times of scandal or crisis companies have a plan of action to help resolve the issues and reduce how much of media frenzy it becomes. From who speaks at interviews, gives public statements, legal advising, and executing a solution. For BP this meant work with wildlife rescues groups, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment, and environmentalist. For BP getting the waters clean was important not only to them but for the environment and those who depended on the waters for survival in term of the sea life. So the concepts of social responsibility by Milton Friedman would play a part of BP ensuring the companies further survival.

British Petroleum, BP, began as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the beginning of the 1900’s. The founder, William D’Arcy, risked his entire fortune at the hopes that oil would be discovered in Persia. He was success on May 28, 1908. The business struggled in the early years, but ultimately found success. BP has become a global leader in the energy business. Beginning in 2000 and in the years to follow BP has focused not only on oil, but also on oil alternatives such as; solar, wind, natural gas, and biofuels (British Petroleum, 2015).

Simply put, BP pretended like there wasn’t a problem in the way they were handling things, and when they came under fire they would lie about it or put the blame on someone else. What they did was they tried to control the message the public was giving them via a method known as ‘corporate greenwashing’, which is a way of giving off the perception that a company’s business model is environmentally friendly, so it can be thought of as putting more money towards advertising how green a company is instead of using it to pursue such practices that would make it so. BP gambled on this and ultimately lost when the Oil Spill occurred; rather than actively doing something about it, they blamed subordinates and contractors to try and take pressure off of themselves while simultaneously showing minimal regard to the impact that their mistake had on the environment. They only made the problem of them getting a bad reputation even worse when they weren’t listening to the public and ultimately paid the price, losing $80 billion and an additional $1.3 billion on criminal

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.

The company was on the right track, far as it trying to change the reputation of the company. The first step BP took to repair the image of the company was to repair the image. And by doing that, they their name from British Petroleum to simply BP. The next step was for BP to launch its Alternative Energy business in 2005. BP also seen fit for the company to continue “going green” efforts. This is in efforts for it to become more profitable. Their next step in restoring their reputation was to establish a code of conduct. The company code entitled “Our Commitment to Integrity”. BP seeks to unite its diverse employees. This code of conduct was the largest mass communications exercise ever attempted at BP.

Back in 2010 BP had an oil spill, in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused serve damage. BP, also referred to by its former name British Petroleum, it is one of the world's seven "supermajor" oil and gas companies. BP is known worldwide because it’s in around 70 different countries. Some of those include Angola, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Trinidad, the UAE, the UK, and the U.S. The slogan suggests an environmentally friendly company undergoing a change toward alternative energy sources like solar and wind. BP before the oil spill invested $4 billion

The global span of ExxonMobil makes the importance of ethical behaviour paramount; however, this has not always been the case. Investigations (Banerjee 2015 & Various 2015) have revealed that ExxonMobil discovered the link between human activity and climate change years before it became a public issue. Instead of adapting its business model

There are very few aspects of how a company behaves as a corporate citizen that do not apply to a company of the size and nature of BP. The most significant of these are the sheer environmental impact - not simply of the extraction of oil and the energy use of BP's own operation, but more significantly of the impact on climate change of the actual use of all the oil by BP's customers. The state of current scientific evidence raises serious question marks over whether or not human society can actually afford to burn all the hydrocarbons whose existence we have already identified - never mind potential future discoveries. Twenty years ago, people worried that one day the oil would run out. Now, it is the case that the real issue has been identified as one of emissions.

In its Annual General Meeting in 2011, BP faced protests against BP’s executive’s remunerations and voiced their injustice (Webb & McVeigh, 2011). Facebook pages such as “Boycott BP” and RIP Spongebob, who died in an oil spill cause of BP” have been set up by activists, and have garnered 847,730 and 468,157 likes respectively (Jarvis, 2010). Hence, the impacts on these stakeholders have varying degrees, but are nonetheless affected one way or another by BP’s mistake.

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. This reputation is even more critical when a business has is known globally with holdings and operations around the world. Such is the case with British Petroleum (BP) as it actively explores for oil in 26 countries around the world. BP is renowned as an industry leader in oil production and the refinement of oil related products such as gasoline, kerosene and motor oil products. In 1999, BP acquired American Oil Company, also

British Petroleum (BP) is the world largest retailer of gasoline in the United States. It ranks at the top of three global oil and gas industry. From the corporate watch website (2009), it pointed out that almost 70% of the profits are gained from the US and Europe. In addition, BP is also devoted for aviation fuels and shipping aspects. It is reported that about 900 ports and more than 1400 airports have been supplied by the BP’s lubricants and fuels. Meanwhile, BP has operated on other countries such as Asia and South America in order to expand its market and explorations.

In terms of依据 MNE corporate philosophy企业理念 and stakeholder strategy BP has been “ranked as被认为 one of the more environmentally responsive环保响应 and socially aware社会意识 companies” Rugman and Collingson (2006, 4th Ed, p635). Explore this ranking in the light of根据，鉴于，依据 recent events in the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) is a multinational oil and gas corporation. Founded in 1907 ("Who We Are" 2016) Royal Dutch Shell has been a leading member of the oil and gas industry for many years, and as of 2015 is ranked sixth in the world. Shell, along with many other oil and gas companies, has been criticised greatly for their social performance regarding their fulfilment of society’s expectations. Shell has been put under the microscope for their work both for and against the environment. Issues such as the Brent Spar in the mid-1990s and oil spills in Nigeria are relevant to society’s criticism. But their work in sustainable energy has increased as Jeroen van der Veer, the former CEO of Shell, stated in 1997: “we work with a finite hydrocarbon resource and want to make sustainable development a reality” (Van Der Veer 1997, quoted in Frynas 2010, 281). Shell Canada is a vital subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell that has been making vast improvements in sustainable development since the 1980s. Royal Dutch Shell’s environmental performance has impacted on the company’s actions on society and stakeholders greatly over the years. This essay serves to discuss the implications on stakeholders in regards to Shell’s performance in the aspect of the environment in past years.

Beyond Petroleum (BP) is one of the world’s largest energy industries, involved in all activities which are associated with the oil and gas industry. This includes “exploring, producing, refining, distributing and marketing of these products” to a global market (1). BP operates in around 80 countries with over 83,000 employees, producing 3.2 million barrels of oil daily and an economic value of $403.3