Leadership

Leadership

Introduction

British Petroleum (BP) has experienced several accidents in history including the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Findings from a series of internal investigations reveal that the company has continuously disregarded safety and environmental rules, posing a serious risk to increased accidents in the future. Issues that dwell in BP include disregarded safety and emergency procedures, falsifying of safety and inspection reports, inadequate maintenance and inspection programs to save on production costs, intimidating workers who are concerned about occupational safety standards, and few workers and insufficient storage devices encouraging spills. Despite the continuous reassurance by BP’s management that actions are being undertaken place to curb the safety issues at the company, there seems to be little commitment at correcting the underlying causes. Certainly, these problems stem from the leadership and organizational culture of BP.

This paper gives a critical reflection of leadership issues at BP basing on the account of the company’s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill which resulted from failure of safety/ emergency systems and ultimate explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, killing 11 workers, destroying the plant, and the incessant environmental impact. First, moral accountability from the perspectives of various stakeholders of BP are given. Second; a highlight of major leadership issues of vital importance for BP’s future. Third; a coach’s critical assessment of leadership and how senior BP managers can change practices to respond to public critiques of their actions in the Gulf Spill.

Moral accountability issues

A BP rig operator on a platform other than that which exploded will have concerns about his safety at work, work security especially if rigs keep exploding and more workers get laid off to reduce costs, or intimidate them from speaking about low system inspection and waning technical standards at BP.  The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded because the emergency systems put in place to prevent accidents failed to work (Boxell & Crooks 2010: 1).  This is demoralizing and will impact his decision on whether to continue working at BP. The moral implication is that organizations have to protect their workers by ensuring that they work in a safe environment.

Concerns for a 25-year-old postgraduate university student from a township on the Gulf of Mexico that majored in chemical engineering are whether BP is the right company for him to develop his career in regards to getting better training and career development, a competitive remuneration package, and job security. The postgraduate would also be concerned about working for an oil company with a high company profile and rank globally, and which shows social responsibility by protecting the environment in which it operates. One of the moral accountability issues facing BP is that the company placed fairly inexperienced workers in a high-risk operation as no one in the engineering team had been on the job for more than six months when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded (Brady 2012: Para 6). The reason was mostly to cut on the high costs required for training recruited in-house workers or outsourcing the operation (Boxell & Crooks 2010: 2). BP’s profile is tarnished in relation to its history of accidents and poor public relations to restore the image of the company. With various catastrophes that have occurred at BP, it seems reasonable to the company to reduce costs in various areas including salary packages offered to its skilled workers (Boxell & Crooks 2010: 2) which is definitely unattractive to the chemical engineering postgraduate student. The postgraduate may also not wish to work for a firm that is destroying his township as BP has persistently been attacked for its role in environmental degradation in the Gulf of Mexico (Chief Counsel 2011).

A UK based retiree with a major income stream from BP shares will have concerns about his financial and social security especially from the plummeting values of shares and options following the unending catastrophes. After all, the employees at BP reinforce their low remuneration with investments in the company’s shares (Boxell & Crooks 2010: 2). The low value of shares will directly lead to low-value retirement earnings as BP’s deteriorating profile leads to a fall of value in its shares, as well as cost-cutting procedures being put in place with the money used in recovering from catastrophes and settling lawsuits.

Leadership issues

There are various leadership issues of vital importance for BP to consider in the future.

First, the issue of dysfunctional corporate culture stands out at BP. Past leadership based on values of ambition and a vision which targeted saving dollars at the expense of safety and technical competence have been blamed for past events (Boxell & Crooks 2010: 3). The new leadership under Hayward promised detail and operational excellence with a focus on safety through introducing the Operating Management System but history repeated itself, with yet another spill. Hayward reverted to a focus on financial performance by slashing costs, proving that the influence of past corporate culture persists (Blackden 2013). BP needs to attract hire and retain the best human resource team that aligns with its culture by establishing great staff morale through organizational learning, training and development, and coordinating with schools to start early career programs for trainees to get acquainted with company’s culture and fit their roles effectively.

Second implementation of occupational standards and safety programs is required. Workers are losing lives in the accidents by working in high risk environments where some mandatory safety procedure are skipped,  to save on costs, or having dysfunctional systems that fail to respond to emergency situations. To retain its reputation and choice of working environment, BP would benefit from a leadership that implements policies concerning work safety.

Third, BP needs to extend leadership in social responsibility and engage in effective public relations and communication in order to have a valued corporate image in the future and also to eliminate any perceived fears of work security.  A lot of anger was directed at the management for not handling the Gulf Spill appropriately. The media continuously reported of negligence by the leaders to put up safety measures (Blackden 2013). Yet inside BP, workers feel that there is discrepancy in communication with the public and media, and what is really happening as the technical team is putting a lot of effort to make things right.

Leadership Theories

As a coach to senior BP managers, there are a lot of changes to be made on their practices in order to demonstrate a sense of moral accountability as leaders and be in a better position to handle public critiques of their actions in the Gulf Spill. According to Yukl (2010: 96) the nature of managerial work revolves around four primary processes namely decision-making, exchanging information, influencing, and developing and maintaining relationships. Mintzberg (1973: 94) describes the managerial role as one on a leader, figurehead, spokesperson, liaison, disseminator, and monitor, all of which are necessary for BP managers in handling public critiques after crises similar to that of the Gulf Spill. Managers’ leadership styles and behaviors can directly and indirectly impact on operations at the organization. As a liaison, the leader is able to maintain a self-developed outsider network that provide favors and information which can be used to the advantage of the interpersonal and organizational relations (Yukl 2010: 84). In the situation of the Gulf Spill, a manager who is a liaison would have adequate information that will help him or her shape his information in response to public critique to their favor.

Regarding the incident of the Gulf Spill that occurred, some personality traits that could be cultivated to respond well to the issue include conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment, and intellectance (Yukl 2010: 61). These together with surgency have been described as the big five personality traits that can be used as approaches to leadership (Yukl 2010: 61). Through conscientiousness, senior managers need to have inherent or acquired qualities of personal integrity and dependability, such that people can see that the spill was not as a result of a moral implication issue, and that the leader can be depended upon to fix the problem. Agreeableness enables the leader to offer nurturance and instead of distancing himself from the problem, he can offer a sympathetic/helpful hand, for example, to families, and friends of the demised 11 workers. Adjustment is needed to give the perception of emotional stability, self-esteem, and self-control, especially during the catastrophic incident that crushed the spirits of many people. If a leader appears emotionally misplaced, he will not be in position to encourage other people that things will be alright. Intellectance, from the Gulf Spill is necessary as a way to having a learning orientation. Many accidents have occurred in BP of which all of them are based on almost similar causes. An appropriate leader should develop an inquisitive mind as to why this is so, and help his organization learn what needs to be done in order to bring about a change (Yukl 2010: 61).

BP deals with oil and a key concern for such companies is safety, which can be integrated through leadership behaviors.  One ideal integrative approach to leadership for safety is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership focuses on leadership with aspects such as inspiring, acting as a role model, and motivating employees to work safely (Barling et al, 2002: 489). Transformational leadership can promote a number of safety outcomes such as cultivate perceptions of a positive safe climate, while enhancing higher levels of employee participation in safety activities, and compliance with general safety citizenship behaviors.  The BP managers need to use proactive influence tactics (Yukl 2010: 202) to showcase a visible commitment to safety, for example, by prioritizing safety and allocating required resources, as well as actively becoming involved in health and safety activities in the company. Transformational leadership also involves encouraging the workers to have a voice and asking them to voice their safety concerns, or give suggestions to improve safety in the workplace (Barling et al, 2002: 489). A transformational leader does not intimidate the employees through threats of sacking or other forms of punishment when they air out concerns about safety.

Transformational leadership is also possible when a manager has a source of personal power referred to as charismatic power (Yukl 2010: 202). By a person’s own qualities, he or she is able to control social relations in a way that others will agree to decisions or take actions in their favor. This is a great quality that can be used in BP, for example, in re-instilling confidence among the employees that issues will be solved soon. If used well, for example, through impression management tactics, the charismatic quality can dispel unfounded fears and help the employees strive for a good company image together rather than fight against the organization and its leaders in the press.

Another needed integrative approach to leadership at BP is ethical leadership theory.  BP and other companies in the oil industry always face myriad environmental concerns from the public due to the nature of their operations. Oil companies face environmental, health and safety, liability risks which ultimately leads to reputational risk which is basic to the organization’s long-term success (Spence 2011:59). The public is often ambivalent to the day-to-day operations and the environment in which the oil companies operate in. Managers need to demonstrate that they understand the ethical implications of the nature of their work and are incorporating policies to deal with the issue. Through ethical leadership, the managers can take personal risks to advocate for moral solutions to problems which should go hand-in-hand with opposing unethical practices (Yukl, 2010: 351). Various employees have been transferred, sacked, or intimidated into silence when they tried to raise concerns about safety issues at BP. Managers, who wish to stand out as authentic should take a chance to correct this culture by providing assistance to such workers opposed to unethical decisions and/or practices.

Current leadership needs to extend beyond the work station context and provide an outreach to the entire community (Smith 1988: 89). This is especially true for BP which is a global organization in the oil industry and headquartered in the UK. Its leadership should draw power from cultural, political, economic, and personal sources. When the leadership fails to integrate the sources of cultural power, a lot of misunderstandings may occur leading to harsher judgment (Alon &Higgins 2005: 503), as is the case with the Gulf of Mexico spill. The public can perceive it as a way of foreigners coming to destroy their land and mistreat their people. However, this does not have to be so, as through recruitment of managers and workers from different backgrounds, cultural relations through exchange of ideas, sharing common values among others can be controlled in a way to work in favor of the organization.

In summary, this has been a critical reflection of leadership issues at BP basing on the account of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP has continually been attacked harshly for the seemingly negligence in implementing safety procedures at the organization. The series of accidents over the years and the poor handling of public relations have led to negative perceptions concerning the moral accountability by BPs manager. Drawing from theories of leadership, the paper has given various approaches that the senior managers can use to handle public critique appropriately for the benefit of the organization.

List of References:

Alon, I.  &Higgins, J., M. 2005. Global  leadership  success  through emotional and cultural intelligences,” Business Horizons, vol. 48, no.6, pp.501-512.

Barling, J., Loughlin, C, and Kelloway, E. K. 2002. Development and test of a model linking safety- specific transformational leadership and occupational safety.  Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 87, pp. 488 – 496.

Blackden, R. (2013, February 26). Gulf of Mexico disaster caused by ‘classic failure of leadership at BP. The Telegraph, Retrieved August 17, 2013 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9896230/Gulf-of-Mexico-disaster-caused-by-classic-failure-of-leadership-at-BP.html

Boxell, J. & Crooks, E. 2010. Inside BP: A giant wounded. Financial Times,

Brady, J. 2010. As workers age, oil industry braces for skills gap. National Public Radio. Retrieved August 17, 2013 from http://www.npr.org/2012/04/20/150871935/as-workers-age-oil-industry-braces-for-skills-gap.

Chief Counsel (2011). National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil  Spill  and Offshore  Drilling: Macondo  the  Gulf  Oil  Disaster. Accessed from http://www.oilspillcommission.gov.

Mintzberg, H. 1973. The nature of managerial work. New York: Harper & Row.

Smith, H. 1988. The power game. New York: Ballantine Books.

Spence, D. 2011. Corporate social responsibility in the oil and gas industry: The importance of reputational risk. Chicago-Kent Law Review, vol. 86, no.1, pp. 59-85.

Yukl, G. 2010. Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Last Completed Projects

Are you looking for a similar paper or any other quality academic essay? Then look no further. Our research paper writing service is what you require. Our team of experienced writers is on standby to deliver to you an original paper as per your specified instructions with zero plagiarism guaranteed. This is the perfect way you can prepare your own unique academic paper and score the grades you deserve.

Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.

[order_calculator]