Bp and the Gulf Oil Spill

BP and The Gulf Oil Spill

Jessica Waldock

St. Johns River State College

BP and The Gulf Oil Spill

        Management is coordinating and organizing activities of any kind within an organization (Walker, 2015). Failures of management are not coordinating and organizing activities within that same organization. Such failures can have a negative effect on an organization. Let’s use the BP and the Gulf Oil Spill as an example and examine failures of management and how to prevent them in the future.

The Event

        On April 20, 2010 on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig an explosion occurred, this event led to the largest oil spill to date (Kim, 2015). There were multiple things that led up to the explosion that were contributing factors. The first of which was a postpone of inspection until the drilling was completed (Walker, 2015). After that was pressure problems shown by testing that made an engineer feel like something was not quite right but his shift was ending so he left this up to the next engineer coming on duty (Walker, 2015). Later that night pressure problems still existed, not long after that there were hissing sounds and vibrations proving something was not right (Walker, 2015).  Mud spewed on to the rig and a huge explosion happened and the power went out (Walker, 2015).

Failures of Management

        Miscommunications seems to be the leading failure of management in this event along with not taking responsibility. Accountability is the chief role of management that was not in effect at the time (Mills, 2015). While the parties involved did agree to postpone the tests, the pressure problems were not reported and passed along in a professional fashion (Walker, 2015). After the event took place communications were further misplaced, social media as well as paid media were being over used instead of compensating the effected personnel (Walker, 2015). In addition, things were said that the public took as offensive and hurtful such as when Tony Hayward stated that he wanted this thing over more than anyone because he wanted his life back, not exactly a professional sympathetic statement (Walker, 2015). Crisis communication was not conducted effectively in this situation, it was not ethical or effective (Kim, 2015).