The infamous BP oil spill is the worst case of a maritime accident in the petroleum industry.

1 The explosion happened in the Gulf of Mexico, more specifically, in the Macondo well that the Deepwater Horizon rig is drilling. It is important to note that the Macondo well is owned by BP plc which has a long list of environmental, legal, and ethical violations. Transocean, on the other hand, owns the Deepwater Horizon rig and is the worlds largest operator of offshore oil rigs. CAUSES Immediate Causes of the Oil Spill Bad management is ultimately cited as the primary cause of the BP oil spill. Three mistakes were pointed out in the report. The first of which is the crews defective work on sealing the Macondo well with cement. Prior to the explosion, the Horizon crew had tight deadlines to finish and added to that is the pressure from BP to finish earlier so they could proceed to other projects. Therefore, the management decided to speed up the drilling which adds a risk due to the geologic formations in the Gulf of Mexico; and worse than that is the deployment of unqualified personnel for critical areas of the rig. Related to the former is the second major reason for the fallout of the rig. Unqualified personnel conducted the negative pressure test and therefore could not interpret its results properly. Implementing the said test twice did not help either, since design of the test is BPs responsibility but was simply relayed to the Horizon crew through e-mail. The third major blunder was also not surprisingly due to insufficientlytrained employee. Joseph Keith admitted that the fast activity within the rig overwhelmed him and affected his ability to monitor the gauges that detect the blowouts. In less than half an hour, he failed to detect the initial signs of leaking. Approximately an hour and a half later, oil and gas went past the blowout preventer and the rigs fate was sealed without the crew even knowing it.2 Problems in Management Behind the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig are deep-rooted problems associated with the management of people in the organizations of both Transocean and BP. The profit-driven culture resulted in its attempts to cut corners, reduce costs and save time. In previous oil spill cases, which involved BP, it was exposed that most of BPs capitals were allocated for profits and expansion; then little is left for infrastructural repairs.3 On the other hand, Transocean has also failed to invest in equipment, especially in maintaining the blowout preventer which was found to have missed inspection for the past three to five years (see Footnote 2). EFFECTS Direct Consequences __________________ 1. Wikipedia, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, n.d., retrieved 22 April 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill. 2. D Barstow, D Rohde & S Saul, Deepwater Horizon, The New York Times, 2013, retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html?_r=1&>. 3. R Maurer & AM Tinsley, Gulf oil spill: BP has a long record of legal, ethical violations, McClatchy Newspapers, 2010, retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/08/93779/bp-has-a-long-record-of-legal.html>.

The aftermath of the disaster affected major stakeholders which include the employees, the management, the community, the environment, the US government, and the investors. Employees who were directly affected were the rig workers present during the blast. There are 11 casualties and those who survived sustained physical injuries.4 The BP management had its own share of blame with legal cases and liabilities amounting to as much as US $100 billion.5 Among the stakeholders, the community and environment were the most evidently affected by the explosion. Marine life was and still is severely damaged. Fish refuges, seafood grounds and other marine habitats were disrupted.6 People living nearby communities are also confronted with health-related concerns.7 Tourism, fishing and real estate industries experienced a slump that caused to massive loss of profits. Due to said economic reasons, the US government and state governments collected less tax from businesses. Government loss of millions of dollars was due to the oil spill. However, its biggest blow was criticism of government regulators being understaffed to perform full inspection of the drilling.8 The general public and investors also experienced the oil spills effects when stock prices for BP plummeted and declined in value. Effects of the BP oil spill were mostly long-term and are still experienced up to the present (see Footnote 5). Implications of Disaster to BP and Response to Critics The BP oil spill was met with criticisms from the outraged public. BP acted upon the incident through an oil spill response strategy. It mostly covered the environmental implications done by the oil spill; but also included a few clauses regarding forming competent, operational and response teams. It integrated itself with BTC Co. in forming an oil spill response organization. A mutual aid agreement with other BP operations was also planned to share response resources and training methods. Training involves new employee oil spill awareness training, employee health and safety training, and field deployment exercises among others.9 However, these trainings were only given to employees who are part of spill response teams. Moreover, BPs response to the Deepwater Horizon accident is mainly reactive in _________________ 4. The Associated Press, Judge approves record fine in BP oil spill settlement, CBC News, 2013, retrieved 22 April 2013, < http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/01/29/business-bpgulf-spill-settlement.html>. Wikipedia, Economic effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, n.d., 22 April 2013, retrieved from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_the_Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill>. N Vanderklippe, BP spill, a year later: dying dolphins, deformed fish, and still some oil, The Globe and Mail, 2011, 22 April 2013, retrieved from <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/bp-spill-a-year-later-dying-dolphinsdeformed-fish-and-still-some-oil/article583742/>. A Juhasz, Investigation: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers, The Nation, 2012, retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.thenation.com/article/167461/investigation-two-years-after-bp-spill-hiddenhealth-crisis-festers#theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/bp-spill-a-year-later-dyingdolphins-deformed-fish-and-still-some-oil/article583742/>. US oil spill: Bad management led to BP disaster, BBC News, 2011, retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12124830>. BTC Co., Oil Spill Response Strategy, n.d., retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/bp_caspian/bp_caspian_en/STAGING/local_assets /downloads_pdfs/xyz/BTC_Construction_Phase_ESAP_Annex_D.10_Oil_Spill_Response_Strateg y_Document.pdf>.

5. 6.

7.

8. 9.

nature. According to its official website, its efforts include containing the leak, compensating the people and communities affected, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, and health and safety in the response effort.10 It did not include preventive measures for future similar accidents. This suggests disregard for long-term safety and efforts to protect its shareholders. RECOMMENDATIONS Suggested Preventive Measures in the Human Resource Process Amendment of parts in the human resource management process of BP is strongly recommended following the string of oil spills that the company has been involved in. Three areas in the human resource management processemployee selection, training and development, and performance planning and evaluationrequire the most attention. For the area of employee selection, employment testing may be done to ensure that applicant is a perfect fit in handling drilling equipment. According to the personality-job fit theory, employees whose personalities are congruent with their jobs can respond more favorably to work situations.11 Situational interviews can be implemented at the end of employee selection to guarantee that the applicant has been truthful in answering the written personality test and is a good match for the vacant position. In the area of employee training and development, it seems that BP neglected safety despite it being its foremost value. They should re-evaluate its training design to align with its corporate values. Simulations and programmed instruction of all possible job situations and hazards must be executed on a regular basis as part of the training design program. Furthermore, a more active involvement of the joint OHS committee is needed in the performance planning and evaluation stage. Performance appraisal is suggested to be more developmental in nature to encourage two-way communication and constructive feedback from employees. Through these changes, BP can reinvent itself and provide a safe environment for all shareholders.

_____________ 10. British Petroleum, Our values, 2013, retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9039352&contentId=70721 14>. 11. S Joshi & TK Neupane, A Term Paper on Person-job fit: Can HRM help achieve it?, Bharathiar University, 2011, retrieved 22 April 2013, <http://www.slideshare.net/RajanNeupane/a-termpaper-on-personjob-fit-theory>.

REFERENCES Barstow D., Rohde, D., & Saul, S. (2010, December 25). Deepwater Horizons Final Hours. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html?_r=1& British Petroleum. (n.d.). Our values [Special section]. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9039352&contentId=7072114 BTC Co., (n.d.) Oil Spill Response Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/bp_caspian/bp_caspian_en/STAGING/local_assets/do wnloads_pdfs/xyz/BTC_Construction_Phase_ESAP_Annex_D.10_Oil_Spill_Response_Strategy_Docu ment.pdf Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill Economic effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_the_Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill Joshi, S. & Neupane, T.K. (2011). A Term Paper on Person-job fit: Can HRM help achieve it? (Masters thesis). Bharathiar University, Kathmandu. Juhasz, A. (2012, April 18). Investigation: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers. The Nation. Retrieved from http://www.thenation.com/article/167461/investigation-two-years-afterbp-spill-hidden-health-crisis-festers# Mauer, R. & Tinsley A.M. (2010, May 8). Gulf oil spill: BP has a long record of legal, ethical violations. McClatchy Newspapers. Retrieved from http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/08/93779/bp-hasa-long-record-of-legal.html The Associated Press (2013, January 29). Judge approves record fine in BP oil spill settlement. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/01/29/business-bp-gulf-spillsettlement.html US oil spill: Bad management led to BP disaster. (2011, January 6). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12124830 Vanderklippe, N. (2011, April 20). BP spill, a year later: dying dolphins, deformed fish, and still some oil. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/bpspill-a-year-later-dying-dolphins-deformed-fish-and-still-some-oil/article583742/