Communications in the Case of the Oil Spill of British Petroleum Drilling Rig - Research Paper Example

A Study of Crisis Management and Communications in the Case of the Oil Spill of British Petroleum Drilling Rig It is no secret that most companies are vulnerable to accidents and disasters. It is only natural that when a company works with as many functions as a company like British Petroleum, something will eventually go wrong. Unfortunately, when a disaster happens, poor handling of the event by the organization’s public relations division can, at the very least, cause the organization’s reputation to be seriously damaged, and at worst the company can face numerous lawsuits that could result in bankruptcy (Center 18). The result is the obvious need for a company to handle any crisis situation in an intelligent and forthright manner. This approach is critical when it comes to dealing with the news media, employees, and the community at large. An example of a crisis situation that has appeared in the media recently was the oil spill at the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which started on April 20, 2010, after an explosion. Eleven workers who were on the platform at the time were killed in the accident. Seventeen more were injured. Unfortunately, it was not until the spill flowed for more than three months did the company effectively deal with the flow. It was not until July 15 that the well was capped, after it had leaked approximately 4.9 million barrels, or 185 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Experts estimate that at the time of the explosion, approximately 62,000 barrels of crude oil were escaping into the Gulf each day. By the time the well was finally sealed, 53,000 barrels of crude oil were escaping into the Gulf each day. To the company’s credit, its response was very prompt, using all of its media outlets to reassure the public that they were working to stop the flow and repair the damage being caused by the spill. The reality of the situation might have, in fact, been the same. The public’s perception was far different (Cutlip 46). BP’s public image suffered greatly when it came to the public’s perception of how the company was working prior to as well as after the explosion and in the short run after the flow started. In fact, BP became the brunt of jokes and satire of late-night comics and YouTube videos made by amateurs as well as professional comic groups. The images the public saw on their televisions daily also told the story of a disaster made worse by a bungled effort to fix the problem. Dead and dying birds and other Gulf wildlife covered in crude oil appeared on screens nonstop. Another image that was continually played for the public was that of Gulf-area fishermen, crabbers and others dependent on the crops of the coast for their living. To make matters worse, many of the boats that fishermen used to work ended up being chartered by BP for a variety of purposes in transporting people and equipment to the spill-stricken areas. In the meantime, the U.S. Congress made matters worse when they called the company’s CEO, Tony Hayward to testify in a hearing over the event and he appeared alongside numerous card-toting, chanting protestors. Although BP tried to minimize the initial impact with Hayward calling the spill “very, very modest” and “very tiny” on May 17, he was quoted on May 27 calling it an “environmental catastrophe.” “Both environmentally as well as fiscally the public perception was of an unprepared, bungling response to the event. At the same time that BP was running advertisements on all of the major media showing BP employees who lived in the Gulf coast area as being committing to repairing the situation because they were from that area, the public got an entirely different perspective from Hayward himself who said in one instance shortly after the spill began, “we made a few little mistakes early on,” and later, on May 30, he was quoted as saying, “We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused to their lives. There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back. Hayward was widely condemned for the insensitivity of the comment, most notably by U.S. Congressman Charlie Melacon (Huffington 16), who demanded the executive’s resignation during a congressional hearing on the oil spill held on 17 June. Subcommittee chairman Bart Stupak of Michigan said that he expected Hayward to be "spliced and diced" [sic] by both himself and other committee members. At that hearing, Hayward read an eleven-page document to the committee, included a passage in which he said he would "pledge as leader of BP that we will not stop until we stop this well...and address economic claims in a responsible manner.” He continued, "This is a complex accident, caused by an unprecedented combination of failures. A number of companies are involved, including BP, and it is simply too early to understand the cause." While BP provided considerable information about its efforts to stem the flow of oil in traditional engineering methods, other efforts, such a soliciting hair from area styling salons and barber shops to be packed into large nets made to absorb the oil, came off as nothing less than bizarre. This also caused a considerable amount of damage to BPs efforts to halt the flow of oil as well as to repair their tattered image in American and abroad. As BP tried to work to shore up damage, it was further revealed in the Daily Telegraph on June 5 that Hayward had sold approximately one third of his stock in BP a month before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. The value of these shares subsequently fell in value by 30 percent. Although the Telegraph stated: "There is no suggestion that he acted improperly or had prior knowledge that the company was to face the biggest setback in its history" the image was there. The Emergency in the Public Eye It is important for company executives to realize that they can enjoy a relationship with the communities they work with that can be very beneficial. To commit a reasonable portion of its human and financial resources to the benefit of the community in which it works is critical to its success. This is especially true in areas where a special competence of the company can make a significant contribution and those areas having the most direct, immediate effect on the various local publics. This approach is wonderful in an everyday situation, but when a company is responding to a crisis such as the one BP found itself in during the Deepwater spill, the company’s response must be much faster and more responsible. In this case the damage was already done (Seitel 65). On June 18, the day after Hayward appeared before the congressional hearing, the chairman of BP said that Hayward would step away from day-to-day involvement in the company's efforts to clean up the spill in the Gulf. On June 19, Hayward was in back in the UK having taken a "day off" in order to see Bob, his co-owned boat, to participate in the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island yacht race off the Isle of Wight. Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's then-chief of staff, said that Hayward had committed yet another in a "long line of PR gaffes" by attending the race while the Gulf oil spill continued unabated. In June, BP put a Mississippi native Bob Dudley in charge of handling the Deepwater spill. Dudley was appointed president and chief executive of the newly created Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, reporting to Hayward (McAlister 6). Obviously, implementing an effective public relations program can be extremely beneficial when a company finds itself in a crisis situation. On the other hand, when a firm fails to have a plan or does not effectively implement that plan, the results can be catastrophic. Unfortunately, this is much the situation that BP has found itself in as a result of the Deepwater spill and its aftermath. In examination, BP failed in several regards: An effective crisis communications plan defines individual roles and distributes it widely. There is no evidence that BP did this. Indentify a single spokesperson. With BP, that spokesperson could have been Hayward, but the message of what BP was doing to stem the flow of oil from the spill was not effectively delivered. Instead, the public only got the image of “analysis paralysis.” (Simon 18) Being perceived as a partner with the media is important, but in the case of the Deepwater spill, this was not done. Instead, the media used BP and Hayward’s comments against the company. The net effect of BP’s approach was of a bungling response to the Deepwater spill. It could be assumed that with an effective, written plan for these types of emergencies, and sticking with the implement plans of the written guidelines, a company can effectively deal with situations such as these in the future. Works Cited Center, Allen H. and Frank E. Walsh. Public Relations Practices : Managerial Case Studies and Problems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall 1985 Cutlip, Scott M., Allen H. Center and Glenn M. Broom. Effective Public Relations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall. 1985 Dartnell, Public Relations Handbook. London: The Dartnell Corporation. 1979 Doty, Dorothy. Publicity and Public Relations. New York: Barron’s Business Library. 1990 The Huffington Post. 2 June 2010. "Rep. Charlie Melancon Calls On BP CEO Tony Hayward To Resign". MacAlister, Terry (26 July 2006)."I am going in 2008, says BP boss".The Guardian (London). Retrieved 25 May 2010. Newsom, Doug and Alan Scott. This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations. Seitel, Fraser P. The Practice of Public Relations. Columbus: Merrill 1995 Simon, Raymond and Frank Winston Wylie. Cases in Public Relations Management Lincolnwood NTC Business Books 1995 Read More