Business Ethics for Ethical Concerns of the Communities Solution

Question: Discuss about the Business Ethics for Ethical Concerns of the Communities? Answer: Introduction This report focuses on the ethical concerns of the communities in which BP (British Petroleum) perates. It operates in Europe, North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Africa and Middle East. The Corporate Social Responsibility of BP is discussed in this article. Various terminologies like CSR, pressure groups, communities have been explained. Pipeline blowup in Turkey incident is studied and the reaction of the company is noted down. Alternative impact of this company on society has also been pointed out. The effect on environment, tourism, ecology and pollution has been further discussed in the assignment. Moreover the assignment discusses the laws and Regulations governing the company. Company background British Petroleum is a Multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London. This company operates in petrochemicals, refining, power generation, trading and exploration of oil and gas. This company operates in the field of generation of Wind power and Bio fuels. This Company produces 3.2mn barrels per day and has a reserve of 17.9bn barrels. This company has recorded total assets of US $261.8 billion at the end of 2015 (Nwf.org 2016).However in the past the company was involved in various health and safety violations. Key terms Corporate Social Responsibility: This means the responsibility of the company towards community and ecological and social environment in which it operates. Company can express their responsibility through: contributing towards education and social causes, earning decent amount in employed resources and checking the waste and pollution (Pilcher et al. 2014) Figure 1: Diagram showing CSR responsibilities (Source: Allan et al. 2012). Globalization: This is an ongoing process of linking countries, regions, information cities and neighborhoods. The lives of the people are intertwined by the foods they eat, the music they listen to and the clothes they wear. This process has lead to the word Global Village and made the world a smaller place. Barriers of national and international boundaries are slowly diminishing. This has increased international flow of goods and services, information through internet services and free exchange of cultures and music (Cleveland and Saundry 2016). Communities: This means a social unit of any size sharing common values, ethics or a staying at a particular geographical area. Normally communities refer to national, international or virtual communities. Communities can be of various size and types ranging from art, housing, place, purpose to rural communities. This helps to share ideas of common interest, pleasure, task or sheer entertainment. Bonding happens very well within a community because of same type of ideologies and thinking (Schwacke et al. 2013). Pressure groups: Group which does not stand in an election but influences government policy or legislations are called pressure groups. They are also known as lobby groups or interest groups. This group is active in many fields Corporate, media, entertainment and many others. Lobby group in corporate sector is quite common. Many hedge fund managers like Carl Icahn, Bill Auckman are known to be corporate lobbyists (Pilcher et al. 2014). They persuade the government to change their course of actions as per their will. Deep Water Disaster Deep water disaster or Gulf of Mexico started on 20/04/2010 in the Gulf of Mexico (Dosomething.org 2016). After the explosion and sinking of Deep Water Horizon oil rig, a sea bed oil gusher floated for 87 days and eventually it was capped on 15/07/2010. Eleven people died and this is considered to be the largest oil spill of human history. The well was eventually sealed on 19/08/2010. Investigation revealed that oil was still leaking from the well several years after also. This event massively affected marine life and fishing. This event affected dolphins very much. They died at record numbers and the infant dolphins died six times the normal rate. Investigations revealed that cementing on the oil well was faulty and there was also the fault of rig operator According to Allan et al. 2012, various methods were used to address spilled oil problems. Leaked oil was of a heavier blend containing Asphalt like substances. This type of oil does not evaporate well and cannot be rinsed off. Microbes cannot eat out those particles also. Louisiana island barrier plan was constructed to keep off the oil particles from the island. $220 mn was spent on this project. It was termed more of a political move than a scientific move. A big volume of oil dispersant was used. This method provided short term benefits. Although the use of was highly controversial. Military aircrafts were used to spray 1.1 million gallons of dispersant. Previously unknown species of bacteria was released into the ocean. Later on, it was found that the microbes mainly digested the natural gas spewing out of the oil rather than the oil itself. So, it was found to be ineffective. This company acted under the guidance of the federal government. People affected by the oil disaster were compensated. Health, safety and the welfare of the large number of residents affected by the oil spill were taken care of. This company supported the economic recovery of the seafood and Tourism industry of the Gulf Coast area. Pipeline Blowup in Turkey This incident happened over the town of Refahiye. Cameras and Sensors were fitted on the pipeline to monitor every step of 1099 miles of journey. When the explosion happened, none of the sensors send distress signal and the camera recorded nothing unusual. This event is suspected to be the work of computer hackers and the government blamed a malfunction while BP started running the pipeline within 3 weeks. Reaction to this incidence was mixed. Turkish Media blamed one extremist group called Kurdistan Worker Party. Government blamed a malfunction while BP started operations after 3weeks. One section of media blamed the computer hackers for hacking software. This event closed down fuel exports thus stopping fuel supply to Turkey. Reaction of BP- BP evacuated 212 workers from the site. They shutdown 2 oil fields and output was cut down by 500000 barrels a day. BP was not able to normalize production for months. Initially, the partners of BP were not informed about this incidence. But they came to know about it later on. Former CEO Tony Hayward blamed a bad cementing job by the contractors (Dosomething.org 2016). Alternative Impact on Community. Oil spilling is a major pollution creating process. In case of oil split this company, must ensure that oil particles must not reach shore and massively affect the marine life. Booms, which are an effective tool to contain or divert oil spills, can be effectively used to check oil spill. This can be recovered using skimmers or burned off later. Dispersants are an effective tool to break up an oil slick into small particles which then gets mixed with the water. Smaller oil particles are bio degradable and helps reduce the massive loss of sensitive marine life. Most importantly the tools and techniques that are used should be maintained at a regular interval .BP must have an emergency department having well stocked dispersants and boom. Implications and Ethical Concerns of Community In case of Deep Water Disaster, not only the local community was affected but also this effected nearby communities also. Community was worried because the quantity of oil spill was huge. Residents were evacuated from the locality, as this event created health dangers to the residents. People, whose life depended on fishing, were badly affected. Tonnes of marine animals were found floating. Tourism industry was also badly affected. No tourists would like to visit an affected area. The livelihood of the community was at danger. Oil slick flowed across borders and affected other countries also. Oil spills entered the bodies of marine animals which in turn affected human health. Affecting Currently. People suffered toxic effects like, respiratory, neurological and ocular. People are still suffering from headache, nausea, nose, and eye and ear irritation. Local area and other affected areas still do not get enough tourist visits. Affecting in future. Health will remain a issue in the future also. Marine life will take more than a decade to recover. Bad ecological impact will continue to exist in the future also. Tourism industry may recover in the near future but government has to take initiatives to promote this industry. Involvement, Support and Reaction. Disasters like Deepwater crisis, Turkey blow up are of huge level. One organization cannot be blamed for this disaster. In the case of Deepwater crisis, Company was obviously at fault, but government lacked proper regulatory measures. BP has a good connection with the Federal Government and they lobbied government as per their own will to increase profitability. Other agencies like UN, UNESCO and WTO have a role to play in this kind of crisis. Mere protest from one agency is not enough to stop a giant corporation like BP. Various Laws, Policies and Agreements are in place to prevent such kind of manmade disasters. Agencies like Disaster Risk Reduction, National Department of Civil Protection, and United Nations commission for Refugees. Summarization Deep water disaster and Turkey blowup incidence was a major event. It impacted local and global communities. Marine life, tourism were badly affected. The CSR of this company ranges across Safety, Environment and Society. Safety of employees, local communities and taking care of the environment and Society are the main priorities of BP. After the disasters, BP became more sensitive towards society and environment. Recap of Company reaction. According to Allan et al. (2012), BP took urgent measures to control disaster. 212 employees were evacuated, affected people were compensated and health benefit facilities were provided to affected people. BP was ethical in what they did. But BP should have extra cautious on their act. Instead of being profit making institute, they could have been more sensitive. Impact Overall impact could have been huge if BP was more sensitive towards its approach. Even if a disaster happened, the impact of disaster would have been lessened. Communities both local and global would have been saved. Many people lost their livelihood because of this disaster. Conclusion BP being a multinational company could have averted such a disaster by taking extra pre caution beforehand. BP has updated their CSR after disasters. No such crisis has come up ever since. BP is sensitive towards the issues of environment and society. BP will be extra careful in the future to avert such incidence. References Allan, S.E., Smith, B.W. and Anderson, K.A., 2012. Impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on bioavailable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Gulf of Mexico coastal waters.Environmental science technology,46(4), pp.2033-2039. Cleveland, and Saundry, (2016).Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [online] Eoearth.org. Available at: https://www.eoearth.org/view/article/161185/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2016]. Dosomething.org, (2016).11 Facts About the BP Oil Spill | DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change. 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