How to Start Life Again for Businesses after Earthquake - Case Study Example

The issue the businesses face now (after the earthquake) is how to start life again. Would it be safe to enter the buildings of their workplaces after they got severely jolted by one of the most powerful forces of nature? These are the main issues that boggle Dermot Vibert’s mind.

Causes
Rio Tinto, a Japanese company was jolted by an earthquake; that’s the cause of the issues that are being faced by the employees like Dermont. So now the question is how well the organization will be able to deal with an almost unprecedented situation. The problem is that people are puzzled at this moment, they are not sure of how to tackle this situation as most of them are trapped. They faced some options while making a decision on which route to take. The first risk is that people might get hurt from falling nonstructural objects. As the transcription describes during the earthquake the people went under the desk to keep themselves safe from falling objects; the response of a building to an earthquake is determined by its design response spectrum. Was there an appropriate design response spectrum at Rio Tinto? We can guess that yes, as the building survived.

The situation described is like this, they are at the office, and according to a clip they saw on TV, a gas terminus going up in flames. And the power stations of Tokyo were massively suffered as well as the fuel lines. So they had a choice, either to somehow make it to their homes or stay exactly where everyone was till the coast was clear and help/guidance was provided by the authority. Direct losses were unable to be estimated then; indirect losses were calculated afterward – they usually persist throughout recovery efforts.

According to the transcript, they chose the second option and spent a night at the office. As for the traffic, it was operating only 10%-20% of its usual volume. Fuel stations were not functioning and gas was also disrupted by the jolts.

Social and Ethical issues
Social and ethical issues that arose had to do with the emergencies; for instance, how will people help each other in such a calamity? The ethical issues faced here had to do with reopening the offices on Monday. Customers could expect them on that, but there was a huge uncertainty; should the company be worried about ethics, or should it be more concerned about the safety of its employees?

Cause knowledge of cultural worldview frameworks
The earthquake doesn’t hit everywhere with the same intensity. Even if a building is built according to the code of resisting earthquakes, it may still suffer damage due to jolts. All over the world, such situations (described in the transcription) are scary and the quake sometimes hits at an unprecedented intensity that it becomes very difficult to survive. Read More