Case study examines how Bp violated ethics and morality. In 2005 Bp had a refinery explode resulting in the deaths of fifteen employees. In 2007 Bp was charged with conspiracy to violate the Commodity Exchange Act. In 2010 an oil rig blew up because of more negligence by bp.
Case study examines how Bp violated ethics and morality. In 2005 Bp had a refinery explode resulting in the deaths of fifteen employees. In 2007 Bp was charged with conspiracy to violate the Commodity Exchange Act. In 2010 an oil rig blew up because of more negligence by bp.
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Case study examines how Bp violated ethics and morality. In 2005 Bp had a refinery explode resulting in the deaths of fifteen employees. In 2007 Bp was charged with conspiracy to violate the Commodity Exchange Act. In 2010 an oil rig blew up because of more negligence by bp.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
I. The article talks about the governments failure to dismiss Bp after many crucial signs they were not being properly run. The article goes on to expose Bp’s failure to operate according to not only their ethical code but the law. Ethics defined is discipline that examines one moral standards or moral standards of a society. Morality defined is the standards that an individual or group has about what is right and wrong good and evil. The law and ethics go hand in hand, if society deems an action morally and ethically irresponsible then the action is made illegal. The paper will examine how they violated ethics and morality. In 2005 Bp had a refinery in Texas explode resulting in the deaths of fifteen employees. The reason for the explosion was due to negligence and failure to keep the refinery up to safety code. In 2006, evidence was found Bp had corrosion in their pipelines. In the article it states how they cut back on precautionary measures to save money. The result of this was the largest oil spill on Alaska’s north slope. Then in 2007 Bp was charged with conspiracy to violate the Commodity Exchange Act. They were committing wire and mail fraud. Most recently in 2010 Bp had the oil spill in the Gulf coast when an oil rig blew up because of more negligence. All these instances prove Bp should be considered socially, morally, and ethically irresponsible if they don’t even work to protect their employees, employees and coworkers by nature are people one cares for and is to treat on a higher level then a stranger, according to the ethic of care, which Bp completely disregarded in allowing innocent workers to die. II. The major issue that is revealed by reading the article was how the corporation made choices, even though it was the wrong, to benefit themselves. In ethics it states a person is morally responsible for an injury or wrong if the person caused or helped cause the wrong, or failure to prevent it, a person did so knowing it was wrong, and a person did so of their own freewill. The evidence shows Bp is guilty of all three things proving they are morally responsible, or to blame, for the mistakes made within the corporation. Their choices led to deaths of people and countless animals, destruction to the environment, and even legal action for fraud. Their constant mishaps and negligence presents a question of ethics, because when you take a job and promise to perform it to the best of your abilities, according to the law of agency, you should do so especially if peoples lives are at risk. We find that when they used the utilitarian approach during thier cost benefit analysis they found it was ethical and right to fix the pipe and make sure no oil spill would occur, yet they still choose the opposite and wrong way when they picked to cut expenses by not ensuring safety codes. Even if the employee making the decision to commit the fraud did not know if it was ethical or not, they could have looked to the law. Instead the people chose to make the wrong decision and violated not only the law but the code of ethics our society runs on. Bp’s ignorance and failure to comply accordingly has left them in serious trouble. The constant legal trouble decreased one-third after the Gulf Coast oil spill, which is definitely not be helpful considering they might not be able to afford the fines issued to them. The overall problem is obvious, Bp’s continuous failure to cooperate with the law and to act socially, ethically, and morally responsible resulted in deaths of people, countless animals, and destruction of the environment. The issue within the organization is that they ignored the ethic of care and the law of agency. Ethic of care emphasizes caring for the concrete well being of those near us, the law of agency is a law that specifies the duties of a person who agrees to act on behalf of another party and who are authorized by an agreement to act accordingly. Bp acted unethically according to the ethic of care by deciding not to protect their employees and ignored the law of agency when they violated the agreement they made when taking the position saying they would keep safety codes up to regulation and follow the law in order to protect employees. III. It is important to see the reoccurring pattern in Bp’s history. As explained in I and II from 2005- 2010 Bp is yet to act ethically. They have constantly displayed actions that have had really negative consequences on not only just the corporation but all of society. IV. Bp is an excellent example of the ideas talked about in the textbook, because they disregarded almost every ethical code the chapters discussed. The goals of Bp are to clean up their current mess in the Gulf Coast and to make a change in their organization that results in better safety and wiser decisions. Bp has a major organizational issue, which is their cutting corners to try to save money. If they do not fix these issues within their organization they will not be able to function as a corporation for much longer, considering they are already being looked at for disbarment. V. The ethical frameworks are discussed in the paragraphs above. VI. If you refer to I, II, III and V, I talked about the ethical codes violated by Bp, they were law of agency and ethic of care. Corporate responsibility is several actions or omissions of many people. The traditional view of who is corporately responsible is those who knew about the wrong doing is where blame is placed. If you refer to my past paragraphs you will receive further information on how the case fits into the concepts from the textbook and chapters. VII. Some solutions the corporation can take are: To drill a hole into another gasoline providers pipeline. This would take the pressure and negative press away from Bp and show that other companies are negligent. Then they could have a plan set up to fix the damage the oil spill has had, and make them look like the good guy. Secondly, They could have bad bookkeeping to make it appear Bp has so more money, allowing them to fix the problems within the corporation by being able to afford better employees and better equipment. An ethical solution for the corporation is to implement a well thought out strategy for the organization to be more proactive in checking safety of refineries and watching for corrosion. They could also secure employees who will make sure to do their job and protect their employees, following the law of agency. VII. The best strategy for this company would be for them to implement a well thought out strategy, allowing them to avoid negligence and unethical behaviors. If they set up a team of people who will check safety regulations and make sure all things are running smoothly then they will be able to avoid future troubles. Bp is a perfect example to demonstrate what the chapters talk about. Bp has violated basically every ethical code that they could have. The article also demonstrates how even though Bp wanted to save money by overlooking important issues they ended up not being able to pay their fines. The issues in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010 prove the companies irresponsible and unethical. The have a major organizational issue that is posing a threat to the company and if it remains unfixed will leave the company bankrupt. By violating the ethics of care and law of agency the organization has proven themselves to be bad for business. It is to be hoped that Bp can change things within the corporation or them will end up falling apart.