Management 11th Edition by Ricky W Griffin Page 114115Manage

Management, 11th Edition by Ricky W. Griffin

Page 114-115-Management at Work (Sex, Drugs and Reckless Controls)

Case question

3. According to Earthjustice, a nonprofit environment law firm, the BP disaster happened because \"managers weren\'t managing, oil companies and regulators were colluding, and high risk was acceptabe risk.\" Obviously, problems like those that led up to the BP spill can be extremely complex. In light of this fact, what should be the primary responsibilities of managers at reglatory agencies such as MMS? and of managers at oil companies such as BP?

Solution

At MMS, managers should have been primarily concerned with maintaining ethical standards when it came to their employees’ relationships with industry professionals. Griffin (2013) lists several flagrant ethical violations and conflicts ofinterest within his article, and these actions should have been isolated and dealt with by management immediately.

At oil companies like BP, managers should focus on ethical business processes,such as drilling approval and bids. When BP’s applications for offshore drilling were simply “rubber stamped” by MMS, BP was allowed to proceed with an ineffective disaster plan, which affected the lives of millions when their rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana (p. 4-6e, paras. 5-7). The blame for this disaster lies firmly at the feet of management, in my opinion, as they were the last line of defense within BP’s organizational structure, who could have better prepared the company for an oil spill.