BP Oil Spill Incident

Analysis of the Global View of BP

British Petroleum (BP) is one of the leading oil and gas companies across the globe with operations in approximately 72 countries. The company has global recognition in the oil and gas industry given its broad range of energy systems in the world. However, the firm’s operations have been affected by various events in its history including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The incident remains one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States and the biggest oil spill in the nation’s waters. The oil spill is one of the major issues that the company has faced in its recent history. This environmental problem was influenced by various factors including internal issues within the company.

Description of the Organizational Problem

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill remains one of the major organizational problems and environmental issues experienced by BP in its recent history. Ebinger (2016) notes that the incident, which occurred in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, had devastating effects on the local environment and BP operations. The issue also affected public perception regarding the drilling of offshore oil and gas because of its environmental effects. The oil spill was characterized by the release of toxic fluids and gas that resulted in an explosion on board. In addition, the oil flowed 1,300 miles from Texas to Florida because of deepwater ocean currents.

For BP, this environmental problem was an indicator of some problems relating to organizational behavior. It exposed leadership or management problems that affected how the organization managed and responded to the ensuing crisis. The company’s leadership essentially failed to respond to this environmental disaster with adequate speed and attention. This was an indicator of issues relating to BP’s crisis preparedness and ethical practices. Moreover, it highlighted problems in ethical guidelines and crisis management in BP’s organizational culture.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill not only highlighted the risks of offshore drilling but also demonstrated organizational behavior problems at BP. Goldenberg (2010) contends that the organizational behavior issues at BP that contributed to the oil spill are bad management and communication breakdown. Based on a report by the White House Oil Spill Commission, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was due to a series of bad decisions and communication failures by BP’s management (Goldenberg, 2010). Macondo was doomed because the company’s management made a series of bad decisions, which reflected a failure of management. As the result, the Commission concluded that the incident could have been avoided by good management.

Diagnosis

BP oil spill problem was brought about by issues in organizational behavior, particularly bad management and communication problems. Organizational behavior incorporates various aspects or elements including people, structure, and the social system, which affect human resource practices and workplace productivity. Heinitz et al. (2018) suggest that organizational behavior influences the application of human resource strengths and psychological capacities in the workplace. Positive organizational behavior is characterized by the effective application of these components to enhance workforce productivity. Some of the outcomes of positive organizational behavior include reduced absenteeism and job satisfaction and commitment.

Due to bad management and communication breakdown, BP essentially had negative organizational behavior. Negative organizational behavior is characterized by negative workforce psychology, which in turn generates negative outcomes and affects workforce productivity (Heinitz et al., 2018). The negative organizational behavior resulting in the oil spill is evident in three major aspects i.e. people/employee, structure, and social system. People is an aspect of organizational behavior that refers to an organization’s workforce whereas the social system influences the work environment from which the organization operates. On the other hand, structure refers to the different types of work positions in an organization and the formal relationship with employees. With respect to structure, BP’s safety culture was characterized by some gaps that affected employees’ work environment. In addition, the firm’s management made biased decisions that compromised safety in favor of time and cost savings. With regards to the social system, BP’s management failed to share important information with its employees and other relevant information to help prevent the incident. Moreover, BP did not include employees in key decision-making processes and ignored critical risks days before the incident.

The issues identified in BP’s organizational behavior during the oil spill relate to Social Systems Theory and Motivation Theory. Social Systems Theory postulates that good management instruments result in desirable organizational outcomes and comprise good decisions and actions (Mayrhofer, 2004). In BP’s case, organizational processes were characterized by bad management and poor communications. These factors affected employees’ motivation and their input into the achievement of organizational goals as shown in Motivation Theory (Kalwani & Mahesh, 2020). Bad management and poor communication affected employee motivation and resulted in negative outcomes.

Other companies in the oil and gas industry have faced similar issues as BP with regard to oil spill incidents. An example of a company that has experienced such issues is ExxonMobil in the 1989 Valdez Accident. Similar to BP, the Valdez Accident was caused by some internal organizational problems at ExxonMobil. The company faced problems relating to organizational behavior and crisis management. At the core of this incident was the firm’s structure, particularly organizational processes and operations management. Unlike BP, ExxonMobil had a poor operations management framework and system (ExxonMobil, 2018). The company had problems relating to its organizational design and decision-making processes. The organizational structure at ExxonMobil at the time of the incident did not incorporate employees in key decision-making processes. Similar to BP, ExxonMobil had a poor structure that did not promote the integration of employees in major decision-making. This in turn affected employees’ motivation and contributions to organizational processes and productivity. In addition, ExxonMobil had a poor safety culture just like BP. While BP ignored risks days before the oil spill, ExxonMobil’s operations management was characterized by a weak safety culture.

Global Issue

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill attracted global attention because of its devastating environmental impacts. Global attention was centered on identifying the root cause of the problem and mitigating its environmental effects. Governments and policymakers across the globe focused on identifying measures to lessen the environmental impacts of the oil spill at a time when climate change remains a major issue worldwide.

Root Cause

The oil spill occurred after natural gas blasted through a concrete core that was designed to seal an oil well for future use. Broder (2011) reports that the root cause of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was a failure of the cement at the base to contain oil and gas within the well. According to the findings of an internal investigation by BP, the oil spill was caused by the failure of eight safety systems (Mullins, 2010). These safety systems were designed and installed by BP to prevent such kinds of leakages or incidents. These faulty safety systems include valve failure, dodgy cement, misinterpretation of pressure test, overwhelmed separator, lack of a gas alarm, failure to incorporate a battery for blowout preventer, a second valve failure, and failure to spot the leak immediately.

As previously indicated, these failures were indicators of a poor safety culture at the company. Since faults in the different safety systems contributed to the spill, the organization’s management failed to ensure proper organizational processes existed to prevent such incidents. The various relevant stakeholders within the organization failed to play their role in ensuring the effectiveness of the safety systems. The poor safety culture at BP resulted in a series of human and mechanical mistakes that allowed oil to blow out onto the drilling platform under tremendous pressure.

Global Response

Response to the oil spill included reactions from different officials and interested parties within and outside the U.S. In the U.S., response to the incident ranged from outrage and blame to calls for greater accountability. The initial global response to the incident included offers of assistance in clean-up efforts. The U.S. government received international offers of help from 17 countries and international organizations (Office of the Spokesman, 2010). The offers were in the form of general help, equipment, and expertise to help in clean-up efforts. In addition, the U.S. government received special offers in different aspects relating to research and technical expertise and resources.