The BP spill in many ways was inevitable (in my humble opinion) and increasingly likely to happen in a more logistically difficult and environmentally sensitive area (e.g. off the coast of Alaska). As these companies have pushed deeper into offshore waters and we've believed their assertions of greater self-regulation, they've taken more and more risks and we've stopped holding them accountable.
For one, as a society we're drunk on oil. Second, the oil industry knows it and thus their organizational culture has always been one of superiority and a refusal to be open and transparent. They don't feel that the rules apply to them. They constantly lobby governments for special favors (and get them), routinely refuse access to their sites as well as carefully spin their public image. They were like this when I worked in this industry in the mid to late 90s and they're still that way now. Witness their refusal to provide information on the extent of the leak and their spill response plan. Over a month into the spill and they've only just agreed to provide full disclosure.
As Beyond Awful as this spill is (to borrow from Jon Stewart), it may just be the reminder that we need about our dependence on non-renewables and how important our search for alternatives should be.
Dayna
Dayna Simpson, PhD
College of Business
Oregon State University
200 Bexell Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-2603
Ph: +1.541.737.3687
http://www.bus.oregonstate.edu/faculty/bio.htm?UserName=Dayna.Simpson
-----Original Message-----
From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion [mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Mark Starik
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 4:58 AM
To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: Has anyone noticed the environmental missteps by BP and the USgovernment in the Gulf?
Alfie's right in pointing out the "missteps", but rather than "environmental", they appear to be more "management" failures. The environmental ones, for those of us in ONE, probably include the dependence on toxic substances to fuel our human economies, the devaluing of both human and non-human life, and the over-reliance on technologies that are capable of massive eco-catastrophies, whether chronic or acute. As one of the thousands of academics who are probably writing a case on this crisis, I'm hoping to embed both the "environmental" and the "management" issues in my own case. For me it's deja vu all over again, as I published a case very early in my career (1990) called "Mayday for Marine Life: The Wreck of the Exxon Valdez", so I'm taking suggestions for the title for the next one other than "Mayday Redux"! Let me know if you'd like a copy of that case, and I'm always happy to consider potential co-authors for the next one!
Mark Starik
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: Alfred Marcus <
amarcus@UMN.EDU>
Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 04:10:43
To: <
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Has anyone noticed the environmental missteps by BP and the US
government in the Gulf?
warnings ignored, fights prior to the incident, failure to do test,
unclear who is in charge, typical stuff.
On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 4:07 AM, Charles Wankel <
wankelc@verizon.net> wrote:
> Has anyone noticed the environmental missteps by BP and the US government in
> the Gulf? If so, post your comments. What would be especially appreciated
> would be teaching or research takes on the issues and approaches that we
> should be mulling over.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Charles Wankel
>
> ONE-L List Director
>
> St. John's University, New York
>
>
http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~wankelc
> Add me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/wankelc
>
>
--
Alfred A. Marcus
Professor and Spencer Chair in Strategy and Technological Leadership
University of Minnesota
Carlson School of Management
Strategic Management and Organization Department
Minneapolis, MN. 55455 USA
612 624 2812
amarcus@umn.edu