Impression Management 1

Impression Management: The Case of BP (British Petroleum) PLC

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 Impression Management 2

Impression Management: The Case of BP (British Petroleum) PLC

Introduction
Businesses need to manage their perceptions among general public at large to ensure their
survival and growth. A corporate entity’s life is full of ups and downs and to manage the
image and repute of the company there are some strategies adopted by them. Impression
management is one of those strategies through which businesses are able to portray their
image to consumers to create more awareness and project their intentions with the ultimate
objective of influencing their revenue generation ability[ CITATION Gra16 \l 2057 ]. This
paper attempts at understanding how impression management is used in the corporate world
by taking into consideration the case of BP oil spill in 2010 near the Gulf of Mexico. The aim
is to understand how BP influenced the public perception of the company and its operations
after the infamous incident and how it used the concept of “impression management” to deal
with that situation. Although the oil spill occurred 10 years ago, the company is still
somehow, directly and indirectly addressing the issue, explaining its stakeholders about the
measures taken by the company and how it is and plans to further concentrate on its social
responsibilities. In this paper, the impression management strategy adopted by the BP
management, its target audience and the disclosure vehicle used to carry out impression
management have been discussed.
The Concept of Impression Management
The concept of ‘impression management’ was put forward by Erving Goffman[ CITATION
Gof59 \l 2057 ], and was then applied to various fields, including corporate image building. It
is defined as a process, which may be conscious or subconscious, through which perceptions
are influenced or managed about a particular event, individual, organization, product, group
of people, etc. From a corporate entity’s point of view, the need for impression management,
theoretically speaking, arises from an existing social situation which could have real or
imaginary effects on its goodwill, business, social stature, revenues, or other critical
aspects[ CITATION Bre13 \l 2057 \m Gra16]. The primary motivation for business entities
to engage themselves in impression management activities can be based on many reasons.
There may be an opportunity which the management of a company would want to grab and
maximize revenues, or there is a product which is defamed for some reason and the
management still wants to put it in the market, or there is an incident which has or could
affect a company’s goodwill or reputation and the management wants to control the
damage[ CITATION Gra16 \l 2057 \m Bre13].
What Prompted BP’s Management?
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“While we face substantial challenges, shareholders must be in no doubt – BP has the

determination and strength needed to restore its reputation” [ CITATION BP10 \l 2057 ] –
excerpt from BP’s Chairman’s Letter in the annual report. In April 2010, an industrial
disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in the form of oil spill of 4.9 million barrels, and is
considered to be largest oil spill in the history of mankind in any ocean[ CITATION
USC11 \l 2057 ]. Within days of the oil spill, the whole world’s media, corporations,
environmentalists and governments showed their concerns over the incident. The United
States declared the oil spill as one of the “worst environmental accident” in the American
history[ CITATION Kha13 \l 2057 ]. It was a complete disaster for the company; the shares
price went down by 12 percent, more than 8000 species of marine life got affect, the offshore
drilling, fishing, tourism sectors all got affected, and the company faced some serious and
significant litigations. With such catastrophic effects, the company had to come up with a
strategy to revive its image and prove itself as worthy of doing business in a responsible and
socially acceptable manner.
The Need for Impression Management of BP
Although it has been almost 10 years since the incident occurred, the company is still
campaigning to ensure that its stakeholders, including shareholders, and general public
understands that the company does believe in the responsibility it has for the global
environment and a socially responsible role while conducting its operations. Given the
severity and acuteness of the oil spill incident, the company made one thing very clear in the
beginning; the management agreed on the fact that managing the impression of the company
the world over would be a demanding task and would require patience on the part of the
company’s management. An analysis conducted by Khazaeli (2013) reveals some interesting
facts about how the company went about impression management and regaining the lost
goodwill. The study aimed at understanding how the company carried out its impression
management strategies through corporate social reporting. Khazaeli (2013) concluded that the
management of the company did not engage itself in coming up with positive messages in an
emotional context which would have been helpful in masking the negativities surrounding the
whole company and its performance.
Audience of BP’s Impression Management
As mentioned earlier, the company had a global audience with respect to the incident of oil
spill which included shareholders, customers, national and international governments,
environmentalists, international agencies, competitors and other stakeholders. Being a
multinational company and owing to its global operations and reach, the company came up
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with an impression management strategy which had to be acceptable and appealing for its
large audience. However, the foremost audience of the company was its customers and it is
evident from reviewing the annual reports of the company since the year 2010[ CITATION
BP10 \l 2057 ].
A careful review of the contents of annual report, particularly Chairman’s message/letter,
indicates that the company consistently focused on informing its customers about the efforts
and future plans of the company with respect to managing the fallouts of the incident.
Disclosure Vehicle used by BP’s Management
The most prominent disclosure vehicle used by the management of the company in this
regard was the use of its annual reporting and other summary reviews which updated its
stakeholders on a regular basis about the measures taken by the company and recovery and
restoration activities. It is pertinent to note here that the company remained very open with
respect to disclosing the scope of its restoration activities and funds allocated to carry out the
same. In order to understand how the company made use of its annual reporting of financial
and non-financial activities and results to inform its stakeholders about the oil spill and
control their perceptions, it is important to review reports from the financial year 2010 to
date.
The language and sequence of events elaborated in the annual reports indicates that the
company consistently conveyed the message that it understood and took full responsibility of
the incident, and would take all measures to ensure prevention of any such incidents in the
future. In this regard, the company provided a detailed review of the corporate social
responsibility practices and measures in its annual strategic reporting in the year 2013. The
report had a complete section which detailed the company’s CSR reporting which comprised
of three broad areas: safety, environment and society, and employees. Of all the content in the
CSR section, the “Environment and Safety” heading informs “exemplifies” how the company
has taken environment-protection initiatives and the results indicate that the company has
progressed significantly well in this regard.
The mentioning of the oil spill incident in one way or another every year in the annual
reporting has indicated that the company took the incident seriously and the management of
the company did mean it when they promised their stakeholders about enhancing safety of
operations and environment. However, it is also pertinent to mention here that the company
has followed the strategic policy of moving on from the incident as well, which has helped
the company to regain stability in terms of its financial performance. As noted in the annual
report for the year 2018, the company persists on lining up its purpose with its core values
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and strategies, which embodies a forward looking approach on the part of the company’s
management[ CITATION BP18 \l 2057 ].
What was at Stake? Image, Reputation or Financial Position
As far as the ambit of BP’s impression management efforts is concerned, the company aimed
at influencing the perceptions of its customers over all other stakeholders. The nature of the
incident was such that it not only damaged the image and reputation of the company but also
had significant financial implications. However, it shall be noted here that it was not only the
reputation and image of the company at stake, but the company faced significant financial
impacts after the oil spill. Therefore, the company not only had to manage and repair its
image and repute but also had to inform its stakeholders on a regular basis about the recovery
from the distressed financial position[ CITATION Kha13 \l 2057 ]. While dealing with such
a situation, a corporate entity can adopt one of the numerous strategies for impression
management. The strategy adopted by the management of BP has been discussed in the
following section.
Impression Management Strategies Employed by BP
As noted earlier, the initial strategy of the company’s management was damage control and
ensuring that the stakeholders got the message from the management about the seriousness
with which the company was handling the incident. From the very beginning it was clear that
the company never engaged in any ingratiation or self-promotion strategy to manage its
impression in front of its customers. In fact, the management remained very truthful and
straightforward in updating the customers by following an exemplification strategy for
impression management. As mentioned earlier, the company made use of its annual reporting
to be the most preferred vehicle for impression management and the review of all annual
reports since the incident reveal that the personalized message about what and how the
company was doing to ensure its sustainability and protecting its shareholders and customers’
interests always came from the pen of the Chairman.
Even in last year’s annual report, the Chairman’s letter clearly and expressly states the
measures taken by the company to ensure safety and best practices in its operational
processes. The message is put under a clear heading “Earning trust through strong values” in
the letter from Chairman. The letter states, “Above all, our primary focus has to always be on
operating safely and reliably, minute by minute, day after day. Protecting people, the
environment and our assets is always our top priority and the bedrock on which success is
built. I think of it as having the tightest defence in the league, like a good football team. If
you have a strong defence, you can be more forward looking, compete harder and be better
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positioned to win” [CITATION BP18 \p 7 \l 2057 ]. These lines from the Chairman of the
company are meaningful and signify how the company is still using exemplification strategy
to manage its image, reputation and goodwill in front of its global audience. The fact that the
Chairman relates the strategy of the company with that of a “good football team” with a
strong defence and forward looking approach is a clear example of impression management
from the top executive of the company.
Overall speaking, the strategy for impression management for BP has worked well so far and
the company has been able to restore its shareholders’ and customers’ confidence. The
continuous pouring of resources and dedication to ensure safety with respect to operations
and environment through consistent disclosures in the annual reports have proved to be
effective in managing the repute, image and impression of the company.
Conclusion
Impression management is a useful and important tool for corporate entities to manage their
reputation and control perceptions of their target audiences. From a corporate entity’s point of
view, it involves portraying the functions, operations, products, values, ambitions, etc. of a
business with the objective of controlling the perceptions of the audience about what is being
portrayed in particular and the overall company and its business in general. In this paper, the
author has attempted at understanding how impression management is used in the corporate
world by taking into consideration the case of BP oil spill in 2010 near the Gulf of Mexico.
The aim was to understand how BP influenced the public perception of the company and its
operations after the oil spill and the manner in which the company’s management made use
of the concept of “impression management” to deal with that situation. In doing so, the
management of the company did not indulge itself into an emotional and less convincing
techniques to repair the damage to its repute. Considering the nature of the incident it was not
the image and reputation of the company at stake only but it also posted significant financial
implications. As a result, the management of the company being straightforward and
meaningful in its strategic moves followed the exemplification strategy for impression
management. The strategy has been implemented through its annual reporting, which has
been used as the disclosure vehicle for impression management. The analysis of the case and
the use of impression management strategy by the company can be seen as productive and
successful for the company so far.
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List of References
BP, 2010. Sumary Review, London: British Petroleum.
BP, 2018. Annual Report 2018, London: British Petroleum.
Brennan, N. M. & Merkl-Davies, D. M., 2013. Accounting Narratives and Impression
management. In: L. Jackson, J. Davison & R. Craig, eds. Routledge Companion to
Communication in Accounting. Milton Park: Routledge, pp. 109-132.
Goffman, E., 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.
Graffin, S., 2016. Anticipatory Impression Management. In: C. E. Carroll, ed. SAGE
Encyclopaedia on Corporate Reputation. New York: SAGE.
Khazaeli, B., 2013. Impression Management in Corporate Social Reporting, Evidence from
BP PLB, s.l.: s.n.
USCG, 2011. On Scene Coordinator Report Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, s.l.: United States
Coast Guard.