British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon disaster
Deepwater Horizon disaster is the largest marine oil spill in the history. The oil spill resulted in hazardous chemicals in the seawater and killed thousands of marine creatures. The oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico region on 20 April 2010 due to Deepwater Horizon rig that was operated by Transocean and leased by British Petroleum. In response to the oil Deepwater Horizon oil spill, British Petroleum took actions to overcome the after effects of the disaster and made further changes in the code of conduct to avoid oil spills in future. Veil, Sellnow and Wickline (2013) criticize British Petroleum’s ethical position that lacked communicative response and violated business ethics. The pre-planning was not adequate that lead to the event.
Regardless the response of British Petroleum, it responsibly cleans up the region working in agreement with the federal government to compensate the people who were affected. The event damaged the environment to a great extent. However, British Petroleum still made efforts and invested in improving the living conditions of the affected people. However, Veil, Sellnow and Wickline (2013) raise an argument based on the inadequate communicative response of British Petroleum. British Petroleum was undergoing a challenging situation, and finding out the reasons that had lead to this event needed time to investigate which caused a delay in communication. Hence, the ethical orientation of British Petroleum could be considered insufficient by the organization took efforts to overcome the after effects. Also, the organization has altered its code of conduct to bring improvement in its pre-planning and field operations that denotes that the organization has taken responsible actions and consideration to overcome such situations.
In a decision-making capacity, when the two different ethical arguments are raised including British Petroleum and Veil, Sellnow, & Wickline (2013), the strategy that can be adopted to respond and make decisions by the two partners is to support their actions with coherent evidence and sources. The use of defending code can be used as the organization’s current motives and actions can be highlighted to support the ethical positioning of British Petroleum rather than Veil, Sellnow, & Wickline (2013).
Reference
Veil, S. R., Sellnow, T. L., & Wickline, M. C. (2013). British petroleum: an egregious violation of the ethic of first and second things. Business Society Review, 118(3), 361-381.
