Ethics Essay For Business Values, Rules, And Regulations

Introduction to Business Ethics

Discuss about the Ethics Essay for Values, Rules and Regulations.

Business ethics refers to the ethics and principles applied in a business organization. These ethics and principles are responsible to scrutinize all ethical problems of the business organizations. Organizational ethics includes the values, rules and regulations that encourage the business organization to achieve the organizational goal in ethical manner. Business ethics are considered as the set of norms that control the business organization, the behavior of the employees and help the management to avoid any kind of unethical practices. Every organization preserves some ethics and norms to run the organization in appropriate manner. According to some report, business organization must not concentrate only on making profits, to run the business successfully it is important to follow some rules and maintain a clean image among the society (Sammarco et al., 2013). Business ethics enhances the goodwill and reputation of a business organization. Business ethics is highly responsible to influence the behavior of the consumers and stakeholders towards the organization. Ethical practices maximize the positive impact of a business organization among the society. Business ethics are one of the key elements of every business organization and their organizational strategy. All the employees of a business organization are expected to follow these rules to avoid any kind of unlawful practices. Prevention of unfair activities will help the organization to earn desired reputation in the society as well as it will promote the brand image of the company among the consumers. There are many organizations that have faced various kinds of ethical issues. One of the exemplary examples is the Gulf Oil Spill or BP oil spill. The Gulf Oil Spill is known as the one of the worst incident in the history of Unit States. The explosion occurred in 2010. Eleven people were died and seventeen people were injured in this incident. After the explosion staff members of BP and Transocean and government has tried to stop the spread of oil into the ocean and save the marine life and eco system through floating booms. According to some reports, approximately 200 million gallons of oil was spread into the Gulf of Mexico and a large area of coastline including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida was affected due to this awful occurrence. The below mentioned article has enlightened all the aspects of Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico to explain the ethical issues related to the incident (Kleinnijenhuis et al., 2015).

The Impact of Business Ethics

British Petroleum (BP) Oil and Gas Group has started its journey in 1908. Headquarter of BP is situated in London, England. It is known as world’s sixth major Oil and Gas Company. This organization covers all the areas of oil and gas industry, such as- exploration, production, distribution, marketing, power generating, trading. It also produces renewable energy from biofuels and wind power. British Petroleum is associated with seventy countries in all over world. It preserves a huge work force of 92,000 employee worldwide (“bp.com”, 2017).

In 2010, over the course of eighty seven days one of the damaged wellhead called Macondo which was situated around five thousand feet under ocean, leaked approximately 130 million gallons oil into the Mexico Gulf. The oil was spilled into the water from three major cracks. It is considered one of the biggest disasters in the history of Oil and Gas industry as well as in the history of oil spill. The oil easily spread into the sea water due to the wind and harmed the marine life and eco system. Initially eleven people killed and seventeen people were tremendously injured into this incident. The effect of the oil spill was so strong that even after the long time of the incident oil still used to wash up on the seashores which caused health hazards for many people lived in the coastline. The former president Barack Obama had stated that BP oil spill was the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. Lousiana and Florida Government had declared state of emergency after the oil spill (Lamendella et al., 2015). Marine life was greatly harmed due to this oil spill. The death of dolphin and sea turtles increased significantly. According to some report, almost sixty two dolphins died in the following month of the oil spill. Sea birds also faced serious problem due to this massacre. A small amount of oil on their wings can spoil their ability to fly. After this disaster the whole ocean was covered by the crude oil. Due to this spill the death of sea birds also increased during this time. The disaster has put a long term impact on the on the marine life. The spill was harmful for the fish community of the Gulf of Mexico. This disaster has spoiled the developing larvae of sea fishes. However, the growth of some fish has increased after the occurrence. The incident worked as bliss for the some fish community due to the rapid growth of the foods in the form of oil-eating microbes.

The BP Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

The BP oil spill has led the British Petroleum to face an unwelcomed consequence. The occurrence did not only harm the marine life or eco system or human lives, the incident had influenced the development of British Petroleum in a negative manner. The whole reputation of BP was destroyed due to this incident. Being one of the largest Oil and Gas Company of the world, British Petroleum possesses a large chain of stakeholders. This chain of BP includes the employees, suppliers, residents, investors, government (Osofsky et al., 2016). These stakeholders were greatly affected by the incident. Due to lack of ethics, the decision makers of BP and other management was trying the easiest way to resolve the issue, which resulted in disaster. The management avoided all decision of their stakeholders and led the organization towards the disaster. Customers also wants deal with the organization that possesses ethical value and run the organization in appropriate manner, so after these types of unethical practices the organization lost a large number of consumers. Almost all the stakeholders were hurt due to the carelessness of British Petroleum authority.

The management of British Petroleum was not considering their social responsibility while creating their decision. They were aware of the fact that the easy method they were applying it would harm the environment as well as their organizational image, but they still took the decision. According to some report, the main objective of the board of directors of British Petroleum was to resolve the issue as early as possible (Ritchie et a., 2014). This objective was the main reason for the organizational loss. The decisions taken by the organization was harmful not only for the animal and human, but also for other several industries. Many industries that is dependent on the marine life and human faced various challenges due to BP. The management wanted to save money by using cheap techniques to clean oil from the sea water. The organization failed to fight against the crisis due to this chap tactics. Instead of, saving the money the organization faced several other challenges. The management could save the reputation of the organization and stop the spill by adopting the valuable suggestion they were receiving from their stakeholders. These ideas would have been beneficial for the organization to save money as well.

The BP oil spill occurred due to the negligence by the authority of British Petroleum. There were many loopholes in organizational structure (Sharkey, 2016). Lack of supervision has led the organization to meet the massacre. The supervisory team was unable to identify the weak points of the pipes. Later on, the oil started coming out from those cracks. Even after the disaster occurred, the organizational management did not care about organizational reputation and about their stakeholders. They were failed to understand that the incident was harmful for the society and as well as for their reputation. The management decided to ignore all the suggestion of their stakeholders and manage the whole thing according to their own decision. This ignorance from the British Petroleum authority had put the whole environment into danger and the existence of marine life at stake.  Although the disaster did not occur intentionally, but the risk taken by the authority was intentionally (Wilson et al., 2015).

The Consequences of the BP Oil Spill

The management of British Petroleum has set an example of unintelligent and unskilled leadership by taking some inefficient decisions. They ignored the decision of the experts they had hired for cost management. The team had provided them some useful suggestion to beat the crisis. The management has been explained to take the right path to fight against the crisis. However, the management did not follow the guidance of their experts (King et al., 2015). Such behavior from the management spoiled the organizational culture and the social culture. The organization did not communicate about their issues with their employees and stakeholders. It led them to lose the faith of the employees and other stake holders. Transparent communication is considered as one of the key element of every organization. All most all the leading organizations in the world implement strategic communication technique to maintain a strong relationship within the organization and as well as outside the organization. However, the management of British Petroleum did not allow their employees to share their opinion on the issue and they did not take the suggestion of other experts as well (Osofsky et al., 2016).

According to many theories, organization must take such decisions which will be beneficial for the worst off in society (Michel et al., 2013). The management of BP did not follow this theory while making their decision. Their decision was not useful or beneficial for the worst off in the society. The poverty stricken people who live in the coastal areas have the only way to eat by catching fish from the ocean. This disaster had destroyed their whole food system as the marine life was spoiled due to this oil spill. There are many people who used to rely on tourism industry, British Petroleum Company, fishing industry to earn money to serve their family. The disaster had blocked their way as well to earn money. Many families went through a rough patch due to this massacre. The leaders of BP required controlling the situation with lot more sincerity. The management was aware of the fact that the occurrence could harm the human life that were based on ocean, but instead of playing the role of a responsible citizen the organization chose the path of ignorance. Which spread a chaotic situation within the organization and as well as outside of the organization. It spoiled the reputation of the organization among the society. The organizational ethics helps every organization to maintain the reputation in the society and promotes a clean and transparent image of the organization. However, due to these unethical practices the organization has spoiled their image among the consumers (Peres et al., 2016).

Lack of Ethics in the BP Oil Spill

It was not the first time British Petroleum Company was facing crisis. Earlier in 2005, an explosion took place in BP’s Texas City refinery, BP did not learn any lesson from their earlier mistakes and the authority did not make any changes in their system. The primary objective of BP was to make profits. BP was known for spending smaller amount of money for their maintenance and safety issue. The management could prevent the risk by taking some efficient steps at initial stage, but the management preferred to take easier step instead of safer one. The lack of efficient leader was the main reason of this BP oil spill. The lack of efficient guidance led the organization towards this massive disaster. The organization has experienced the crisis due to the lack of effective planning. According to many reports, there was a huge communication gap between the stakeholders and the management of British Petroleum (Morgan et al., 2014). Being a leading organization in the world of Oil and Gas industry, it preserves a huge work force and a long chain of stakeholders. It is difficult to maintain communication with them without any proper planning. To achieve the organizational goal and earn the reputation in the society it is important to maintain the active communication with the employees and stakeholders. Weak organizational ethics and policies have influenced the organization to meet this disaster (Mason et al., 2014).

As per the previous discussion, it can be stated that due to weak organizational leadership and unethical practices British Petroleum has faced this massacre. The management had to take some efficient steps to prevent the crisis to occur, but they concentrated on profit making instead of saving the earth and the lives related to the ocean. In fact, they did not even care about the organizational reputation and ignored the suggestion of the cost management experts and followed the easy path to escape from the crisis. In spite of playing the role of sincere citizen they chose to ignore the problems of the society and their social responsibility. There are several methods that the organization could follow to avoid the problem. The organization could choose the safe way instead of easy and cheap method. The organization had to establish a strong and effective planning to fight against the crisis. They could follow an effective communication strategy to interact with their team as well as the stakeholders. They could conduct group discussion to  know the opinion of their team and their stake holders over this crisis, they could implement the effective recommendation provided by their stake holders and their other team members. They could appoint some more effective and skilled employees for supervision and maintenance purpose. Talented employees can help the organization to fight against any kind of crisis. The organizational management must realize that making profit must not be the only motive of a business organization. Every organization must spent quality amount for maintenance and safety issue. This must be an integral part of organizational strategy. Such practices help the organization to fight against many crises. Every organization must encompass some policies to and ethics into their rulebook. Such policies and ethics help the organization to avoid any kind of unethical practices. Organizations must provide training to their employees regarding the organizational ethics to guide them towards the right path to achieve the organizational goal. Ethics plays a crucial role in shaping the behavior of the employees and prevent any kind of unlawful practices. It helps the organization to maintain the reputation among the consumers and other stakeholders. The behavior of the leaders and employees is highly responsible for the growth of the employees. Leaders and employees must be aware of their responsibility towards the organizations. Ethics are considered as an important tool to increase the loyality level of the employees and leaders towards the organization. As per the case study o British Petroleum, it can be stated that there is a lack of corporate social responsibility initiatives. The organization must be aware of the fact they are responsible towards the society. The management of British Petroleum did not play any duty of being a responsible citizen of the society. Organization must realize that they cannot harm the environment through their activity. The management must conduct training development programs to increase the sense of responsibility among the employees. These programs will give long-term benefit to the organization. Organization will be able to maintain their image in the society and achieve the organizational goal. BP could appoint a disaster management team to help them to fight against the disaster.  It will be helpful for them to concentrate on achieving the target as well as to maintain the faith of the stakeholders.

Lessons Learned from the BP Oil Spill

Reference:

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