Background<\/p>\n
In April of 2010, an oil rig, known as the Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 crew members and causing the largest marine oil spill in history. By early July it was estimated that almost five million barrels of oil had leaked into the gulf, of which only approximately 800,000 barrels had been captured (Pallardy, 2010). The spill took a negative toll on the environment and the economy; hundreds of thousands of marine animals were killed as a result, and the tourist economies from Louisiana to Florida went from flourishing to severely suffering, as well as the local fishing industry. By mid September, the oil leak was finally determined to be permanently sealed. It was estimated that approximately 1,100 miles of shoreline had been polluted (Pallardy). <\/p>\n
The Players<\/p>\n
BP – The oil company that contracted with Transocean.<\/p>\n
BP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tony Hayward – The head of BP and the public face of the company.<\/p>\n
BP Managing Director Bob Dudley – Later was appointed the public face of the company. <\/p>\n
Transocean – The owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig.<\/p>\n
U.S. Government – Several agencies of the U.S. Government, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as the U.S Congress became involved after the spill.<\/p>\n
Victims and Victims Families of the explosion. <\/p>\n
Owners and Employees of Businesses affected.<\/p>\n
The Public – Both the U.S public and the public internationally. <\/p>\n
The Differing Perspectives Regarding the Need for Leading Change, and the Leadership Attempts to Change<\/p>\n
The case of the BP Oil spill presented different avenues for change; however, the leaders from BP and Transocean were overshadowed by the desire and pressure to complete the installation. Prior to the explosion, some employees had reported malfunctions of some safety equipment, nothing was done to resolve the identified issues. The management started to report losses caused by the installation delay after the teams had exceeded the anticipated completion period of 21 days; this brought distress to the employees. Before putting people to work on challenges for which there are no ready solutions, a leader must realize that people can learn only so much so fast. This case had raised severe questions on how the initial situation leading up to the explosion was handled; all they needed were the leaders to manage the resulting distress of the pressure to complete the installation (Heifetz & Laurie, 1997). <\/p>\n
In the days after the explosion, efforts were made not only to contain the spill, but to place blame on the responsible party. This crisis became a finger-pointing match between the lessor and lessee of the oil rig, Transocean and BP. CEO Hayward\u2019s responses did not seem in sync with the statements issued by the company. Hayward\u2019s responses did not instill public confidence and trust in him or the company. During his first public interview Hayward expressed his frustration as to how the incident could happen and then blamed Transocean (Korosec, 2010). Over the next few weeks after the accident, Hayward continued to compound the early mistakes and showed he was ill prepared to provide answers, leadership, or even any empathy. He came across as stonewalling during congressional hearings (Simon, 2010). Hayward\u2019s statements were in conflict with the public releases put out by his company. BP posted statements expressing sympathy for the victims\u2019 families, and updates to the actions the company was taking. Congress was calling for Hayward to be fired. Eventually, BP replaced Hayward with BP\u2019s Managing Director Bob Dudley as the public face of the company concerning the company\u2019s response to the disaster, but did not fire the CEO (Simon, 2010). <\/p>\n
The BP oil explosion in itself, created a terrible reputation for the company, as the public was placing blame on BP. The trust of BP was put in question, and the confidence of their response, especially from their CEO Tony Hayward exposed a dysfunctional organizational culture. On platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr, accounts and groups were organized to boycott the company and further defame them, in some cases going so far as to organize in-person protests and demonstrations (Rick, 2015). <\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (1997). The work of leadership. HBR, 124-134.<\/p>\n
Korosec, K. (2010, April 29). Gulf oil spill: BP CEO Hayward just can’t help blaming someone else. CBS News.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gulf-oil-spill-bp-ceo-hayward-just-cant-help-blaming-someone-else\/<\/p>\n
Pallardy, R. (2021). Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Encyclopedia Britannica. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill<\/p>\n
Rick, T. (2015, June 24). Social media and the oil spill disaster. Meliorate. https:\/\/www.torbenrick.eu\/blog\/social-media\/social-media-and-the-oil-spill-disaster\/<\/p>\n
Simon, R. (2010, June 18). Gulf oil spill: Swift reaction to BP’s ouster of Hayward from spill response. Los Angeles Times.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/greenspace\/2010\/06\/gulf-oil-spill-swift-reaction-to-bps-ouster-of-hayward-from-oil-spill.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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