Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Desert Places - 841 Words
Desert Places by Robert Frost Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it - it is theirs. All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares. And lonely as it is, that loneliness Will be more lonely ere it will be less - A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express. They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places In the poem ââ¬Å"Desert Placesâ⬠byâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦In line twelve, the imagery of depression and absence of identity is furthermore supported when the speaker compares himself to the snow to say ââ¬ËWith no expression, nothing to expressââ¬â¢ (12) mentioning his lack of identity and him falling into loneliness. The fourth and last stanza is where the speaker is most confident. The word ââ¬Ëscareââ¬â¢ is mentioned twice in this stanza and it denotes fear. In the first line of the fourth stanza the speaker says he worries no more of empty and lonely spaces. The word ââ¬Ëstarââ¬â¢ denotes space, but it also connotes to an example of loneliness ââ¬Ëwhere no human race is.ââ¬â¢ (14) The speaker does not coward anymore of lonely empty spaces, he does not need empty fields covered with formless snow and space filled with loneliness to scare him; itââ¬â¢s already inside of him. The last line of the poem ââ¬ËTo scare myself with my own desert places,ââ¬â¢ (16) contain an image which displays Frostââ¬â¢s thought that fear comes from within oneself rather than without. No matter how you view or understand this poem ââ¬ËDesert placesââ¬â¢ by Robert Frost; we can all agree that imagery, connotation, and denotation play an important role in explaining the poemââ¬â¢s totalShow MoreRelatedEssay on Frosts Desert Places504 Words à |à 3 Pages Desert Places à à à à à In the poem Desert Places by Robert Frost, the author describes the scenery in which he came across with. It was on a winter day, and the day was turning into a night. As he went across a field, he saw that the ground was almost all covered in snow. But then he noticed a few weeds and stubble on the ground. à à à à à On the first line, Frost talks about how the night falling fast. This is referring to how fast Frost felt concerning time, which went by fast in real life. At theRead MoreThe Desert Places by Robert Frost 782 Words à |à 4 Pageslife to be empty and meaningless. In the poem ââ¬Å"The Desert Placesâ⬠by Robert Frost the narrator encounters loneliness and isolation and talks about how itââ¬â¢s affecting his mental well-being negatively. The poem indicates that when individuals gets isolated from others, they compromise their own happiness as they receive the ill-effects of depression and failure to communicate their emotions with others. The main character of the poem ââ¬Å"The Desert Placesâ⬠, the speaker himself talks about his life whichRead More Robert Frosts Desert Places882 Words à |à 4 PagesFrosts Desert Places One of the most monumental poetic works of T.S Eliot is ââ¬ËThe Waste Landââ¬â¢. The poem emerges as a gigantic metaphor for melancholy, loneliness, solitude- the unavoidable companions of human existence. Similar kinds of feelings are evoked by Robert Frost in ââ¬ËDesert Placesââ¬â¢. The very title is suggestive of a mood of emptiness. Throughout our life we cross various deserts to find our destiny. The beauty of the poem lies in the conjunction ââ¬â the meeting point desert outsideRead MoreThe Desert Is No Place For A Man And Cormac Mccarthy1256 Words à |à 6 PagesThe desert is no place for a man and Cormac McCarthy makes that perfectly clear from the onset of Blood Meridian. At first, itââ¬â¢s hard to tell which will be more desolate and brutal: the environment or the men that traverse it. However, McCarthy initially seems to establish that unbridled nature will triumph over man every time regardless of the circumstance. If nature is God, then man is hopeless to stand against it. Yet McCarthy makes an important distinction between nature as it exists in the wildRead More Analysis of Robert Frosts Desert Places Essay1236 Words à |à 5 PagesAnalysis of Robert Frosts Desert Places Robert Frosts Desert Places is a testament to the harrowing nature of solidarity. By subjecting the narrator to the final moments of daylight on a snowy evening, an understanding about the nature of blank spaces and emptiness becomes guratively illuminated. The poems loneliness has the ability to transcend nature and drill a hole through the mind of the narrator so that all hope for relationships with man and nature are abandoned. Read MoreStopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening And Desert Places922 Words à |à 4 PagesRobert Frostââ¬â¢s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eveningâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Desert Placesâ⬠are complementary works which coincide with the naturesque elements most commonly ascribed to Frost. The two poems were published over a decade apart in a period after the first World War where feelings of lack of community and self-worth had grown in precedents amongst the general public. The early years of Frostââ¬â¢s literary career were spent on his poultry farm in Derry, New Hampshire as he toiled his land. Although FrostRead MoreThe Habitat Of A Habitat Essay1744 Words à |à 7 Pageschoose which habitat they live in, however their choices are made based on which habitat can benefit them most without providing many disadvantages. The habitats that will be explored by students throughout this unit of study include: grasslands, desert, forest, artic, and water (oceans, lakes, and ponds). For this reason, it is essential to not only have knowledge on the topic of habitats, but these habitats specifically. According to the article ââ¬Å"Grasslands,â⬠written by World Wild Life (WWF), theRead MoreBiomes are the Communities of the World1031 Words à |à 4 Pagesacclimating to their environments. You can classify biomes in many different ways, by their climate, their biodiversity, human activity, their animals and plants, and their habitats. There are only five conspicuous types of biomes, Grassland, Tundra, Desert, Aquatic, and forest. Without biomes, the earth would be unbalanced. Throughout the years, we have cause a lot of damage towards our earth, such as causing pollution, and abolishing natural habitats. If we continue living like this, there might beRead MoreThe Socialization Of Egypt : The Gift Of T he Nile819 Words à |à 4 PagesEgypt truly was ââ¬Å"the Gift of the Nileâ⬠because the Nile economically, spiritually, and socially provided support for Egypt. Without the Nile, Egypt would have remained a desert full of helplessness. Many believe that Egypt would have been nothing without the Nile as it is the root of everything in that nation including some ideas of religion. The Nile provided may things for the land of Egypt; physical needs, spiritual needs, and mental needs. The Nile allowed for a lot of socialization. PeopleRead MoreSummary Of The Tale Of Kurochi 1738 Words à |à 7 Pagesriddled with imps, fairies, orcs, dwarves, and other mystical beings. Including witches and wizards. One the other side of the kingdom, was a large, dried out, desolate desert. Despite the fact the forest was full of more species of creatures, the desert was far more dangerous. The desert was home to much more violent beings, such as Desert Dragons, fallen and trapped Shinigami, mutated orcs, Tricksters, and worst of all, the gruesome being, Kurochi. Kurochi hadnââ¬â¢t been reported to have been seen in more
Monday, May 18, 2020
Effective Use of Technology by Terrorists Essay - 1671 Words
The magnitude of terrorist activity in todays world is in large part due to the technological tools available to everyone. Even though you may not believe so, by doing these acts of terrorism, it can cause the market to change or even have a more clear effect on your life like the death of a loved one, or one of your loved ones being injured. With all of that being said, there is one important thing that helps them accomplish these goals. That one important thing is technology. Technology all around the world is used for good and helps us accomplish tasks we could not do without technology. But there is also the downside to technology. The downside is that it can also be used for bad and that is in which intent the terrorist use it for.â⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦When it comes to technology, it is a two-way street. Just as they can hack into us, we are able to hack right back into them. While they may use it to their advantages, we are able to view into everything they do as well. We are able to see what their plans are because they leave themselves just as vulnerable as we do. These little opening that we are able to find may lead to the prevention of attacks and it may lead to possible finding of where they are located at. ââ¬Å"The criminal underground is highly innovative and often acts as an early adopter of emerging technologies.â⬠This has been proven time and time again. With things like weapons, weââ¬â¢ve seen terrorist adapt almost instantly. They are ready for just about everything and the new technology we a producing is no exception. With all the advances with robots, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology, the terrorists take all these advances to their own advantage. Technology has made our world increasingly open and has had mostly huge benefits for our society. But having this openness can lead to more than just advancements. For example, in 2008 there was a group of terrorist who attacked Mumbai, India. The perpetrators were armed with Ak-47s, explosives and hand grenades. Although you may think that the weaponry is the center of amazement but, it is not. What was most surprising about this attack is how they used ââ¬Å"modern information communicationsShow MoreRelatedDescribe The Tenets Of The Us Terrorism Strategy ( Eight Overarching Counterterrorism Goals995 Words à |à 4 Pagesgoal is aimed at defeating and destroying all terrorist organizations that pose a threat to America and its allies or that wish to do harm to American and its allies. The third goal is to prevent terrorist development, acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction. In 1998, Osama bin Laden stated it was his Islamic duty to acquire and use a weapon of mass destruction. (Forest Howard, 2013) The fourth goal is to eliminate safe havens for terrorist organizations. This goal is targeted under developedRead MoreAn Effective Type Of Counterterrorism Strategy1015 Words à |à 5 Pages1. Introduction Since the September 2011 terrorist attack on the US homeland that claimed innocent civilians, the US and its allies have been actively trying to eliminate these terrorists. On their part, these terrorists have continuously evolved their tactics and their organizational structure in order to evade being captured or killed. In order to effectively fight them, the US must adopt a bold warfare strategy that is agile, precise and sustainable. The strategy must limit the loss of lives ââ¬âRead MoreTerrorists and Terrorism: The 9/11 Terror Attacks922 Words à |à 4 PagesTerrorists and Terrorism: The 9/11 terror attacks is one of the historical and fatal events that changed the United States of America forever, especially in relation to terrorists and terrorism. While these concepts were on the minds of very few people in Americas population before the attacks, the 9/11 incident made terrorism to become one of the major concerns for the whole nation. This is despite of the fact that they were carried out in New York City, Washington, and parts of PennsylvaniaRead MoreThe Department Of Homeland Security Essay1483 Words à |à 6 Pageswith terrorism problem that has a long history in the U.S. Terrorism has been a threat to U.S. security since the 1800. Terrorists continue to use powerful secret communication strategies and unexpected tools to achieve their intention in the U.S. soil. For example, the 9/11 terrorism attack that killed the highest number of American citizens in history succeeded because terrorist used hijacked passenger planes to perform the attack (Lutz and Lu tz, 2013). Although the most notorious terrorism activityRead MoreThe Impact Of Technology In Airport Security1515 Words à |à 7 PagesSixteen years and billions of dollars invested in the growth of aviation security after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, threats to airport security continuously progress as the United Statesââ¬â¢ aviation security encounters numerous changes. Since the September 11th attacks, the Transportation Security Administration, also known as the TSA, initiated their plan to ensure the safety of nearly 2 million air passengers at approximately 440 airports nationwide. (Carraway)Read MoreInformation Security and Risk Management1473 Words à |à 6 Pagespotential terrorist attacks striking America and its interests seems to have faded into the proverbial background of our collective consciousness. With a transfer of power from the hawkish Bush Administration to President Obama and his more diplomatic approach, major media outlets in print, on television and in the blogosphere, which just a few years ago regaled with patriotic fervor while espousing the possible peril awaiting the nation, have all but abandoned their coverage of terrorist activityRead MoreDrones Vs. Drone Strikes1473 Words à |à 6 Pagespresence of drones, many who oppose military drones claim that they have increased the death of civilians and do not create safer environments for civilians (Terrill 22). However, drones have been proved to decrease the deaths of civilians due to the technology that allows them to pinpoint their target and strike at that specific target rather than bomb an area that the target is in. For example, in Yemen where many drone strikes have occurred, ââ¬Å"civilian death figuresâ⬠¦ are ââ¬Ëin the single digitsââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬ (TerrillRead MoreTypes Of Diplomacy And Combat Terrorism979 Words à |à 4 Pages5 types of diplomacy to combat terrorism The ever-changing nature of terrorism threats have led many states to devise collaborative methods to fight terrorist organizations by adapting regular security assessments and taking counterterrorism measures in order to overcome them. Through diplomacy, many states are searching for advanced support, methods, structures, and tools to combat internal threats and win war against terrorism (Phillips, Neal Webb, 2011). Diplomacy is an instrument of power thatRead MoreAirport Security : Technology Versus Common Sense1476 Words à |à 6 PagesAirport Security: Technology Versus Common Sense On September 11, 2001, roughly 3000 innocent people were killed in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia from a series of ruthless coordinated terrorist attacks which were carried out in the air. These attacks forever changed airport security measures throughout the United States and the World. The attacks resulted in the immediate creation of the Transportation Security Administration, which was stood up to increase airport security measure to preventRead MoreTECHNOCRATS AND CANADA Essay880 Words à |à 4 Pagesand a Politian? Actually, itââ¬â¢s none of these; a technocrat is someone who feels many important issues in society can be solved using technology focused solutions. Should technology be used as a means of minimizing terrorism? Or should we continue to use current methods already in place? Tom Ridge and those of the newly formed Homeland Security felt technology could solve and diminish the threat of terrorism against our borders. Do you feel Canada should be the firs t choice for the new border
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
A Critique Of The American Dream - 2151 Words
Ajay Dakappagari Mrs. Susan McKenzie English III 21 April 2015 A Critique of the American Dream In F. Scott Fitzgeraldââ¬â¢s, The Great Gatsby, the story takes place during a historical time in America as veterans had just arrived from World War I and societal culture was beginning to change. Through Nick Carrawayââ¬â¢s storytelling, we learn more about the Roaring 20ââ¬â¢s and its extravagance. During this era, profound economic and social change occurred, characterized by the great wealth that circulated among the citizens of the United States. Various industries, most notably the automobile industry, thrived and paved the way for American citizensââ¬â¢ excessive consumerism. Thus, average, middle-class Americans were able to accrue more money and afford a life of luxury as evidenced by their grand parties and fancy stylistic choices. This coveted lifestyle became known as the American Dream and it served as a beacon of hope for all citizens. This vision became very popular in the eastern United States as there were no restrictions to becoming rich. As many of these opportunities presented themselves in the eastern United States, young and ambitious minds, including Carraway, migrated to places like New York with hopes of finding a lucrative business venture and achieving the desirable American Dream. Along with Carraway, the other characters of the novel, including Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, all strive for this vision of the American Dream, which significantly affects an integral part ofShow MoreRelatedTo What Extent Is Aurther Millers All My Sons a Critique of the American Dream?1427 Words à |à 6 PagesTo what extent is Arthur Millerââ¬â¢s ââ¬ËAll My Sonsââ¬â¢ a critique of the American Dream Arthur Miller was an American playwright and was a prominent figure in America until his recent death in 2005. It was at this time of his death that Miller was considered one of the greatest American playwrights. In 1947, after his disastrous play ââ¬â ââ¬ËThe man who had all the luckââ¬â¢, ââ¬ËAll My Sonsââ¬â¢ was published, which brought Miller recognition and was the start of his successful career. ââ¬ËAll My Sonsââ¬â¢ is set after WorldRead More Great Gatsby: Fitzgeralds Criticism Of The American Dream Essay501 Words à |à 3 Pages Great Gatsby: Fitzgeralds Criticism of The American Dream The American Dream, as it arose in the Colonial period and developed in the nineteenth century, was based on the assumption that each person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made man, just as it was embodied in Fitzgeralds own family by his grandfather, P. F. McQuillan. Fitzgeralds novel takes its place among other novelsRead MoreThe American Dream By F. Scott Fitzgerald1134 Words à |à 5 Pagescenturies, the interpretation and perception of the American Dream has changed considerably and frequently. From the vision of individual betterment in 1774, to African-American civil rights in 1963, the American Dream has and will continue to alter, as the country evolves. However, the basis of the American Dream has remained the same, with the set of ideals being democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality. In addition to the ideals, the Dream is believed to be, that anyone has the abilityRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1210 Words à |à 5 PagesMany historians considered the 1920s as a transitional period that shifted Americans society from traditional values to a new era of modernization. During this time, the economy boomed, which made the 1920s one of the most prosperous era in the U.S. The Roaring twenties was associate as t he era of consumerism, the prohibition and the disillusionment with the American dream. Many historians and Literature scholars recognized F. Scott Fitzgerald s novel, The Great Gatsby, as the iconic book of theRead MoreAmerican, Little Miss Sunshine, By Jonathan Dayton And Valerie Faris1675 Words à |à 7 PagesAmerican Sunshine The American Dream has been redefined through different eras of the United States. At its most optimistic, the American Dream is about having the freedom and opportunity to do and be whatever one chooses, the success stemming from oneââ¬â¢s achievement of individuality. But the influences of capitalistic ideals in the United States have shifted the common definition and instead of optimism the American Dream is now defined in more cynical terms of upward mobility and wealth. UK directorRead MoreGiving A Voice : Langston Hughes, An American Poet And Social Activist967 Words à |à 4 PagesGiving a Voice to the Voiceless Langston Hughes is an American poet and social activist. Hughesââ¬â¢ poems tend to resonate with the majority of his readers because he discusses topics that transcend time. Hughes wrote his poetry so eloquently that his poetry can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the readerââ¬â¢s personal background and what they bring to the reading. Even today his readers can connect to his poetry because he discusses subjects that we are faced with today, such as identityRead MoreThe Great Gatsby American Dream Analysis761 Words à |à 4 PagesScott Fitzgerald suggest that the American Dream is an illusory, the people who pursue it are Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Myrtle, and this pursuit is ultimately unattainable. In the roaring twenties known as the Jazz Age, many people wanted to become rich, most people were bootleggers and Wall Street stock brokers. Alcohol was illegal and the Wall Street stocks were higher than ever before. The Great Gatsby is an extended critique of the American Dream. And this critique is made all the more effectiveRead MoreThe Last Critic That Will Be Evaluated844 Words à |à 4 PagesDuring the time that her critical study was composed, Margaret B. Wilkerson was the Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Study, Education, and Advancement of Women. Wilkerson critical analysis is titled A Raisin in the Sun: Anniversary of an American Classic. Wilkersonââ¬â¢s critical analysis discusses the ââ¬Å"various social, historical, and artistic factors that have contributed to the playââ¬â¢s contemporary relevance and popularity, with particular focus on script revisions.â⬠(Wilkerson 442) WilkersonRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Watchmen And Jimmy Corrig The S martest Kid On Earth1669 Words à |à 7 Pagesas cultural representations of idealism and the American Dream. However, representations of heroism in comic books has shifted significantly since the bright-eyed idealism and Romanticism of the Golden Age. In the Modern Age of comic publishing, contemporary comics tend to appropriate, adapt, and deconstruct tropes from the Golden and Silver Age of comics. Ultimately, contemporary comics end up producing a corrupted image of the idealized American Hero. Watchmen and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest KidRead MoreLangston Hughes Poetry Analysis Essay1287 Words à |à 6 Pagesby the current American generation. His art form expresses certain questionable ideologies of life and exposes to the audience what it takes to fully comprehend what being an American truly means. Each individual poem describes and illustrates the strength and hardships the African American community was experiencing. Through his literature art form of poetry, Hughes was able to convey the common assertions of spiritual faith and how society viewed the dichotomy of the American Dream culture in the
Essay about Homosexuality Nature or Nurture - 1275 Words
Homosexuality is one of the most hot button issues in America today. Everyone has an opinion, some based on religious views others based on other external factors. People are afraid to talk about it because itââ¬â¢s something we donââ¬â¢t actually fully comprehend. This is because it scares people to admit they donââ¬â¢t know something. We need to find out if being a homosexual is something we are born with, or is it something we learn over time. Review of the Research There have been many research studies done to try and determine the actual cause of homosexuality. The most important one to date was conducted in 1993 (ORiordan, 2012). This particular study was done on the genes of homosexual males; it showed a relationship between the Xq28â⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦The research didnââ¬â¢t end there, there was a study done on 95 twin brother cases (Murphy, 2011). The study found that there as a substantial correlation between homosexuality being present in both brothers rather than only in one (Murphy, 2011). This shows that itââ¬â¢s more of a biological thing and is truly based on genetics (Murphy, 2011). This study also found that the correlation went deeper than previously thought. It found that twins that shared the same egg tended to take the same role in sexual activities (Murphy, 2011). That was something psychologists believed to be preposterous, but the research backed it up (Murphy, 2011). Research didnââ¬â¢t stop with the genes of homosexual males; there were a number of correlation studies done (Blanchard, 2008). In this study they took a group of homosexual males and look into their famili es (Blanchard, 2008). This study showed that there was a correlation between homosexual males and a large number of older brothers (Blanchard, 2008). In the study they found that with every older brother the likelihood of the younger being homosexual increased dramatically, it also showed that it was possible but unlikely that a male without older brothers would be homosexual (Blanchard, 2008). The study found that it only occurred with biological brothers, which ruled out the presence of an older male sibling as the cause (Blanchard, 2008). This study gave validity to the argument that homosexuality is something one is bornShow MoreRelatedHomosexuality: Nature or Nurture811 Words à |à 3 Pageswith development across the human lifespan is the theory of ââ¬Å"Nature versus Nurtureâ⬠. It is an unsolved debate that has been around for centuries. It covers a broad spectrum of topics from intelligence to emotions, or in this case homosexuality. Although homosexuality is often t hought of as a trait that is ââ¬Å"genetically determinedâ⬠, many others disagree and argue that it is rather a learned behavior (Lathe, pg. 20) Is it nature or nurture that causes this so-called ââ¬Å"abnormalityâ⬠? Or does it depend onRead MoreHomosexuality: Nature or Nurture1209 Words à |à 5 Pagestopic in present years. In Ryan D. Johnsonââ¬â¢s online research article, Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture, an explanation of homosexuality is broken down so the world has a better understanding of homosexuals. As referred to in the title, the origin of homosexuality has been debated to be because of nature or nurture. Basically, are people gay because itââ¬â¢s their personal choice or is it just who they are? The idea behind nurture is that the way one was raised can eventually affect a childââ¬â¢s sexualRead More Homosexuality, Nature or Nurture? Essay1911 Words à |à 8 PagesHomosexuality, Nature or Nurture? Homosexuality has become a large issue in our lives today. Gay Rights activists have been making their voices heard; this has attracted the attention of the population making them take notice of their cause. The church has not been able to get away from the powerful political and social pressure of homosexuality. Some churches have accepted homosexuality but many still do not accept homosexuals, saying it is unnatural and not what godRead MoreHomosexuality - Nature or Nurture Essay2535 Words à |à 11 PagesHomosexuality Nature or Nurture Have you ever wondered what creates a persons sexual preference? Is it possible that their social influences and environment can lead them to certain sexual practices and same sex relationships or could it be that some people have a genetic makeup that makes it completely natural to be attracted to members of the same sex? These questions lead us to the long-lived debate of nature or nurture. Some scientists believe that people behave as they do accordingRead MoreNature vs. Nurture: Homosexuality2002 Words à |à 9 Pagescause of sexuality. The whole subject is hidden in darknessââ¬â¢; this is a quote by Charles Darwin which illustrates the fact that your sexual orientation is unknown- this suggests that homosexuality is evolved through the upbringing and personal experiences. Many Social Theorists agree with this and they argue that Nurture is the main factor when considering the reasons behind human sexuality. They also suspect that upbringing and parental and family dy namics has a direct effect on a child s sexualityRead MoreEssay on Homosexuality as Nature or Nurture1936 Words à |à 8 PagesHomosexuality as Nature or Nurture Human sexuality has been one of societys most interesting, controversial, debated, and misunderstood topics. It has been the topic of numerous books, essays, documentaries, websites, and television magazine segments. More specifically, homosexuality is probably the most misunderstood aspect of human sexuality. This is mainly due to lack of education, exposure, or just a general close mindedness. Homosexual tendencies are genetically caused, but actingRead MoreHomosexuality: Nature vs. Nurture Essay1208 Words à |à 5 Pagesthat people hear about daily in the news, media, and daily lives of others, especially when it comes to the field of psychology and the nature versus nurture debate. For being as commonly debated and discussed as it is, there are many questions that come along with it: what is sexual orientation, how do people know their sexual orientation, what causes homosexuality, is it normal, is it possible to change, and can wanting LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and tra nsgender, youth to change lead to suicideRead MoreEssay about Homosexuality: Nature Versus Nurture2099 Words à |à 9 PagesHOMOSEXUALITY: NATURE VERSUS NURTURE Nature; all things belong to Mother Nature; the trees, the flowers, insects, the great waters, animals, and even the human race; all following the laws of nature that we are instinctively born with. However somewhere along the line something or someone defies those laws and go against what nature intended. Whether or not this rebellion is fostered by nurture, or if there is an exception to the laws that Mother Nature has set forth is a question that psychologistRead MoreHomosexuality : Nature And Nature871 Words à |à 4 PagesHomosexuality: Nature or nurture By: Clifnie francois Advance Placement Psychology Mr. Cuetara June 4 2015 Abstract The nature and nature of homosexuality is heavily debated. Some people believe that homosexuality is biologically determined and others believe itââ¬â¢s base on ones environment. This topic can be argue to be base on both nature and nurture. Studies conducted in the past decades support both the biological and environmentalRead MoreDifferences Between Homosexuality and Homosexual Behavior Essay921 Words à |à 4 PagesHomosexuality (the tendency to be more sexually attracted to the same sex) is often confused with homosexual behavior (acting on homosexuality by engaging in homosexual acts), but the two are distinctly different. Even though homosexual behavior, especially in more recent years, has become an acceptable standard in our society it is a voluntary act and a sin, but the church has the ongoing responsibility and God-given call to love our neighbors, regardless of their sin because we too are all sinners
Designing - Implementing and Improving Processes Professional Success
Question: Discuss about theDesigning, Implementing and Improving Processesfor Professional Success. Answer: Introduction The critical analysis as well as reflection is important for personal as well as professional success. In order to become an active learner it is important to consider, analyze and gather learning from the various incidences. The previous experiences would help me to gain broader as well as deeper understandings regarding the organizational process. It is important to understand the business architectures of an organization which would foster the learning process. The business architecture can be defined as the design of the organization which would enhance the cooperation of the organization and aligns the organization with its strategic goals (Haeckel 2013). This paper would discuss the understanding of the implementation, designing and improvement of the processes in the organization. The importance of the management of the organizational processes is analyzes which would ensure organizational success (Haeckel 2013). The application of the learning process in the workplace would b e discussed. Discussion The subject helped me to understand the details of the organizational processes which would concern with the designing, implementation and the process improvements. My earlier perception regarding the organizational processes was that there is no fixed organizational process; however, it changed completely after I went through the subject. I have learnt that the aim of the business architectures help in the enhancement of the motivation level of the employees and the overall improvement of the operational processes. I understood that it is important to design suitable planning process for maximizing the operational efficiency. It is also important that there is fair utilization of the organizational resources which would help the organization to fulfill the organizational objectives (Cummings and Worley 2014). It is also important to know how to implement the different planning components in the actual organization. This would help in the process improvements in the organizations whi ch would increase the customer satisfaction rates which would eventually help the organization to achieve its mission. When I was being employed in a manufacturing company, initially, I was unable to understand the process of business operations, which was reflected in my work. My colleagues did not perceive me as a knowledgeable person and it created a bad impression of me. However, after studying the subject, I understood the importance of the designing, implementation and the process improvement initiatives that should be taken for delivering excellent performances. This made me to interact with the operational manager and understand the process followed in the organization. I understood the designing of the manufacturing process and how it was implemented in the actual organization. My learning in the subject has caused an increased awareness regarding the importance of the managing functions in organizations in order to achieve organizational success. There have been several reasons for this increased awareness. I understand that the business operations are changing at a rapid rate and these days the business processes are more complicated (Jeston and Nelis 2014). The various industries are evolving to a great extent with the intervention of technology such as mobile computing, cloud computing and social media (Hashem et al. 2015). There have been changes in the company architecture which has been fostered by the industry development (Christensen 2013). I understood that in the critical infrastructure industries such as chemical, manufacturing and the utilities, the relationship between the operations and thee I.T is becoming complex. These evident changes also need to be incorporated in the corporate strategy of the organization (Chang 2016). This makes it imp ortant to effectively manage the organizational processes. I have understood the fact that the management of the processes is important for ensuring the enterprise mobility. The companies are increasingly realizing the importance of good management of the processes since it provides a number of business benefits (Davenport 2013). The benefits may include increased brand awareness, customer retention, increased number of sales and increased productivity (Peppers and Rogers 2016). This has made me realize the increasing importance of the ability to manage the organizational processes. The ability of managing the processes in the organization would help in achieving the organizational goals since there is higher degree of planning and implementation. I have understood that there are different factors which contribute to the organizational success such as production process, assembling process and the efficient organization of the available resources. I have participated in a number of discussions and activities during my professional tenure which has influenced my view towards the designing, improvement and the implementation of the processes. I was involved in a number of seminars and conferences which were focused on the management of organizational processes, process improvements and others. This helped me to gain industry insights regarding the processes and aided me in gathering diverse knowledge from the experts in the concerned industry. There was interactive session which helped me to clarify my doubts regarding the management of the process. During my professional experiences, I have often pondered over certain critical issues and the seminars helped me to clear my doubts. This was also helpful in enhancing my knowledge regarding organizational process improvements. The group activities in my organization helped me to influence my views regarding how to implement the organizational processes. The practical tasks helped me to understand the real processes that take place in the organization and how to deal with them. It helped in the development of knowledge, skills as well as expertise to better manage the processes in the organization. The role plays in the organization helped me to identify how to design the management processes of the organization in order to ensure maximum process improvements. The real situation like role plays helped me to understand how to meet the design requirements of the project and then implement them in an organizational context. The knowledge gained from a number of different sources helped me to improve the processes in the organization. I would use the learning from the subject in improving the operations of the workplace. I would follow a systematic process for the implementation of my learning in my professional organization. The first step would involve the mapping of the operations process and decide on the processes that I want to improve (Kaplan and Atkinson 2015). I would use a flowchart for performing this step and explore each step in detail. The operational process may contain several sub-steps which should be taken into consideration. The second step would involve the analyzing of the process with the help of swim lane diagram so that the operational issues can be identified (Ezeonwumelu Kalu and Johnson 2016). There should be several information that needs to be collected such as bottleneck of processes, reason of frustration of the employees, costs of the processes and cause of prevailing issues in the workplace. This can be done with the help of Root Cause Analysis so that the actual problems can be tr acked. The third step would involve the redesigning of the processes so that the identified problems can be eliminated. This can be done by performing an Impact Analysis so that the ideas of the team can be taken into consideration (Bedarkar et al. 2016). This step can also use the risk analysis in order to identify the possible risks associated with the processes. It is important to identify the failure that may be associated with the operation process and then take corrective actions. The fourth process would include acquiring of the resources which are required to implement the new process in the organization. It is advisable to use a business case to demonstrate this step (Krajewski Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). The fifth step would include the communication and the implementation of the change. The change process should be communicated well to all the stakeholders. The sixth step would involve the reviewing of the processes and measure their potential impact on the organization a nd its resources. The theoretical aspects helped me to understand my capability and how it can be implemented in my future. This subject helped me to gain deeper understanding of the operation process. It would be helpful to me when I would join an organization. I have also learnt about improving the interpersonal relationships in the organization which has great impact on the process improvements. It would be easier for the organizations to initiate a change management process if there is good cooperation between the organizational members. The employee engagement measures would go a long way in improving the organizational processes as they would be motivated to deliver their best performance. Conclusion The critical reflection is important for improving the process management in the organizations. This is based on my previous experiences in the organizations. It comprehensively described the learning events of my life and derived inferences from the various processes related to the business processes. It showed the gradual progress of my learning in the process of designing, implementation and the process improvements. The increased awareness regarding the management of the processes is determined. The application of the learning in the workplace is explained with a step by step approach. This critical reflection would broaden the knowledge regarding process management and the subsequent improvement of the processes. References Bedarkar, M., Pandita, D., Agarwal, R. and Saini, R., 2016. Examining the Impact of Organizational Culture on Customer Centricity in Organizations: An Analysis.Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management,9(2), pp.19-28. Chang, J.F., 2016.Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press. Christensen, C., 2013.The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press. Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014.Organization development and change. Cengage learning. Davenport, T.H., 2013.Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press. Ezeonwumelu, A.N., Kalu, C. and Johnson, E.H., 2016. Development of swim lane workflow process map for sales and inventory workflow management information system: A case study of petrospan integrated services, Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.Mathematical and Software Engineering,2(2), pp.57-65. Haeckel, S.H., 2013.Adaptive enterprise: Creating and leading sense-and-respond organizations. Harvard business press. Hashem, I.A.T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N.B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A. and Khan, S.U., 2015. The rise of big data on cloud computing: Review and open research issues.Information Systems,47, pp.98-115. Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014.Business process management. Routledge. Kaplan, R.S. and Atkinson, A.A., 2015.Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning. Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013.Operations management: Processes and supply chains(Vol. 1). New York: Pearson. Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016.Managing Customer Experience and Relationships: A Strategic Framework. John Wiley Sons.
Deepwater Horizon
Question: Write an essay on Deepwater Horizon. Answer: On the 20th of April 2010, an explosion and a huge fire were declared in the oil rig Deepwater Horizon. This accident was considered as the largest maritime disaster oil spill in the US history because, aside from the death of eleven crews, its economic and environmental impacts were considerable. Furthermore, the BP financial damages caused by this accident were particularly considerable. In the London Stock Exchange, the company shares loosed on June 25, 2010 nearly 7% and fell to its lowest level since 14 years, while 50% of the its market capitalization was lost on early July 2010. The companys reputation has also dramatically collapsed particularly in the U.S.A. Before the completion of sealing of the oil well, as the spill has progressed without a resolution, BP was awarded the grade the lowest grade E, in the Covalence multinationals reputation ranking. The PRWeek/OnePolls survey conducted about one month after the accident showed that the public feels that BP has not done enough to stop the leak. One year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¢l2th Annual Harris Interactive U.S. Reputation Quotient (RQ) Surveyà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â revealed that BP was second from last with a score of 49.82 and that BP was still perceived by Americans as one of the companies with the worst corporate reputation (Harris Interactive, 2011). BP was also facing, by mid-June 2010, remarkable calls for boycott of its products by a Facebook group called à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¢Boycott BPà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â and numbering about 640,000 fans. Also, a fake BP Twitter account calledwas made by an anonymous activist and started sending out messages about the Gulf oil spill to Twitter. By the end of May 2010, had 190,035 followers while the BP account had only 18, 826 followers. At last, BP was facing thousands claims and lawsuits from many actors such as fishers, hotels, restaurants as well as NGOs like the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and other animal protection and conservation organizations. To deal with the spill oil as well as the reputation and financial losses, BP mobilized substantial means and expended a great deal of effort, but crisis experts opinions differed on whether BP has successfully or unsuccessfully managed this crisis. However, many models and theories associated with crisis management can be used as a sound theoretical framework to assess BP crisis management of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Referring to the three-phase model, the most widely used model in the crisis management field, the purpose of this paper is to examine how BP managed the Deepwater Horizon spill oil. Such an investigation will help us to evaluate BP crisis management of this disaster, but will also give an empirical evidence to some ideas and propositions suggested by many crisis management researchers, not yet empirically validated or validated only through laboratory experiments. Method To assess how BP managed the Deepwater Horizon disaster, secondary data have been collected from various trustworthy sources, mainly newspapers, magazines, crisis experts blogs and BP sustainability annual reports. The collected data was analyzed through Content Analysis by means of a grid drawn from our theoretical framework. The grid was compartmentalized mainly into three categories. The first one relates to the pre-crisis phase and was divided into three sub-categories named BP CSR and crisis history, BP crisis prevention and BP preparation to the crisis. The second category relates to the response and reputation repair and behavioral intentions. The third category relates to the post-crisis phase and lists all actions made by BP after the complete killing of the well. Results The results of our case study will take the form of a record of all actions made by BP before, during and after the disaster. 3.1 BP Management of the Pre-Crisis Phase 3.1.1 The BP CSR and Crisis History Prior to the disaster, the social and environmental image of BP was paradoxical. The company was sometimes perceived as an environmentally committed company and sometimes as a polluting and irresponsible company. For several years, the group has specifically tried to differentiate itself from its competitors by displaying a greater environmental awareness. From 2000, the group adopted a new name (Beyond Petroleum instead of British Petroleum) and adopted a new green-white-and-yellow sunburst logo, spending more than$ 200 million in an extensive advertising and public relations campaign. Thanks to this, the BP brand awareness jumped from 4 % to 67 % between 2000 and 2007, the company image was considered as the most environmentally friendly image in comparison with companies operating in the oil sector (according to a 2007 customer survey), has been praised many times a model of proactive and credible corporate social responsibility and its advertising and public relations campaign won the Gold Award from the American Marketing Association. BP has also positioned its self as a company fighting the climate change by promoting the renewable energy activities (including biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power), and was ranked as the leader in a 2006 report analyzing the Climate Change Strategies of the top 100 global companies published by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES). BP was also among pioneer companies that begun to publish an annual sustainability and social responsibility report. The BP CSR history has also a dark side. Indeed, the group was familiar with disasters and scandals and has a long history of safety negligence particularly in the United States (De Wolf and Mejri, 2013). The Deepwater Horizon was not in fact the unique BP accident. The first known accident happened in December 1965 and caused the death of thirteen crew when the BP oil rig Sea Gem collapsed while it was being moved. On March 23, 2005, fifteen workers have been killed and more than 170 others have been injured when the BPs refinery exploded and caught fire in Texas City. The company was subject to lawsuits from the victims families and was charged with criminal violations of federal environmental laws. One year later, an oil spill in Alaska caused extensive pipeline corrosion. The company also paid about $ 20 million as environmental fines. Furthermore, BP was many times cited as the worst or among the worst companies operating in USA because of some environmental and/or social impacts of its activities. BP was cited in 1991 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the most polluting company in the US based on its toxic release data. It was also considered by CorpWatch as one of the ten worst corporations of 2000 (Mokhiber and Weissman, 2001). Mother Jones Magazine, an investigative journal, named BP as one of the ten worst corporations in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records. In 2004, The Texas Public Interest Research Group reported that the company was number one in accidents in USA since 3,565 accidents occurred in its U.S. chemical plants and refineries between the period 1990 and 2004, making. Elder (2005) said that BPs operations have the worst safety records of any oil company operating in USA. BP is also considered as one of the biggest spenders on lobbying among companies of the oil and gas industry. Also, BP was suspected to spent about $625 million between 2004 and 2010 just to represent its interests in Washington and nearly $16 million in 2009 to lobby to block attempts to regulate stricter safety by the US Congress. 3.1.2 Crisis Prevention Succession of BP accidents demonstrates that the group was never concerned with prevention and safety. Almost all the investigations reports following the BP disasters revealed that the company had almost no prevention system and neglected security/safety warnings. After the 2005 explosion at the BPs Texas City refinery, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined BP a record of $87 million for neglecting to correct safety violations. Only a year later, BP was fined $20 million in criminal penalties after prosecutors said the company had neglected corroding pipelines that caused the Alaskan BP oil spill. The Congressional Investigations on energy and commerce following the Deepwater horizon Spill revealed that BP had no contingency plans for catastrophic loss of well control and that BP lacked planning, oversight, testing and maintenance of blowout preventer which failure allowed a large volume of gas to overwhelm the rig and caused the explosion. The preliminary BPs internal investigations realized one month after the Gulf oil spill also revealed that several warning signs of trouble were ignored and pointed to a series of equipment failures. In addition, some experts and journalists claimed that BP made a series of money-saving shortcuts in days before the accident, which dramatically increased the danger of a blowout and that, worse still, the company neglected security standards on continuing to drill in spite of warnings of gas leak. It should be particularly noted that, while BP is considered and awarded as an environmental responsible company, the French social rating agency Vigeo reviewed, before the accident, the BP rating. The company was considered as the worst energy company in terms of preventing and controlling of pollution accident risks. On the basis of this criterion, Vigeo scored BP before the accident 26/100 (below the industry average which is equal to 31/100), while the leader Repsol collected a score of 61/100 (Ben Seddik, 2010). At last, crisis management experts said that failures of BP prevention and control system was expected because of the budget cuts since the year 2009 (particularly the alternative energy budget) imposed by the former BP CEO, who also shut down BP alternative energy headquarters in London and accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss. 3.1.3 Preparation to the Crisis It is clear that BP was not prepared to deal with such an accident. Besides, Former BP CEO Tony Hayward admitted in his interview to Money Program on BBC 2 that BPs contingency plans were inadequateà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â, that BP was not preparedà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â for the Gulf oil disaster and was making it up day to dayà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â in the early stages. Tony Hayward also admitted that BP was not prepared to deal with the intense media scrutiny over the Gulf oil disasterà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â and that he felt he was demonized and vilifiedà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â. Nearly one month after the disaster, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hayward admitted that the oil giant had not the technology available to stop the leak. He also said in hindsight, it was probably true that BP should have done more to prepare for such an emergencyà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â. In addition, the investigations conducted by Congressional committee on energy and commerce concluded that BP was not prepared for a catastrophic loss of well control. Nevertheless, BP has successfully established strong relations with some NGOs thanks to its considerable donations that reached prior the crisis nearly $10 million in cash over the years. For example, the BP donations to the Conservation International which reached $2 million over the years allowing to the company to be BP partner on a number of projects. Also, the Nature Conservancy listed BP as one of its business partners and even gave it a seat on its International Leadership Council but unfortunately after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, some of its members begun to questioning about this partnership and called to review it. 3.2 BP Management of the Response Phase After the Deepwater Horizon blowout, BP has mobilized equipment and resources and has made significant efforts to stem the oil spill and to completely kill the well. During five months, BP engineers tried a number of techniques to slow or to stop the oil leaking but all these attempts failed. BP engineers firstly attempted to close the blowout preventer valves on April 28. On May 8, they tried to cover the well with a containment box, and they tried the Top Kill technique on May 26 to close the well. They successfully stopped the flow of oil on July 15, and completely killed the well on September 19, 2010. However, while the BP engineers were fighting for plugging the leaking well, BP managers continued fighting for repairing the company reputation and the public perception that BP is not enough competent to manage this crisis. As recommended by Coombs (2007b), we separated this response phase into two phases: the initial response and the reputation repair and behavioral intentions. BP entirely failed to manage the initial response of the disaster and committed many flagrant mistakes. First, BP was accused of being slow to acknowledge the problem initially and of did not respond quickly enough. The company took four days to realize that the well itself was leaking. The company was also slow to express concern, compassion and full apology to victims which are most immediately affected by the spill. Second, when the accident occurs, BP has intentionally underestimated the extent of the spill. The company estimated that only 1,000 barrels (159 000 litres) were actually daily spewing into the Gulf, but quickly revised it upward to 5,000 barrels (795 000 litres). Actually, by the end of June, some scientists evaluated the daily oil leak at 60.000 barrels (9540000 litres). Third, the BP former CEO Tony Hayward as the company spokesman, made a series of mistakes while communicating about the crisis. Indeed, instead of expressing its compassion towards the victims, the former CEO initially took to lightly and even minimized its severity considering that its environmental impact would likely be very modest and that it is relatively tiny in comparison with the big size of the ocean. As a consequence, Tony Hayward has become the most hated man in the United States and was replaced by Bob Dudley on October 2010. Fourth, BP tried (by all the means) to limit or delay the flow of information to the public. The access to planes carrying media were refused and sometimes forbidden to many media reporters and the few reporters that were allowed to access, were accompanied by a BP representative. The company also included in workers contracts a clause prohibiting them and their deckhands from making news releases, marketing presentation or any other public statement. Fifth, BP was suspected of covering up the oil by trucking in sand. The company denied the events and argued that at no time has clean sand been used to cover or bury oil or oiled sand and storms that have passed through the area have deposited sand on the beach and eroded it again exposing oil buried by sediments brought in by the weather. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that BP successfully used its official website (BP.com), to regularly provide information to the public about the clean-up efforts of the oil spill as well as the efforts to compensate victims of the disaster. 3.2.2 Reputation Repair and Behavioral Intentions In this phase, a company have normally to repair the reputation, to reduce negative affect and to prevent negative behavioral intentions. To repair reputation damages, BP launched immediately after the accident, a vast public relations campaign. BP began running apologetic BP ads in early June, showing Hayward apologizing for the disaster and taking full responsibility for cleaning up the spill in the Gulf. The company also launched a print ads campaign in US newspapers like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Washington Post. This ads campaign was widely criticized by many stakeholders and even by the President Barack OBAMA, who considered that the money should have been spent on clean-up efforts and on compensating victims. BP was also very present in the major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flicker) and spent nearly $l Million a month between Google AdWords and YouTube advertising and purchase a number of search terms in order to direct internet users search queries about the Gulf oil spill to the BP site where clean-up efforts are exposed. In order to reassure its primary stakeholders that it consider of high priority (shareholders, investors as well as other partners particularly in Russia and Azerbaijan), BPs former CEO flew to Mideast early July as the BP stock hit its lowest point since the mid-1990s and after the BP decision of selling assets. During these visits, the BPs former CEO held talks with sovereign wealth funds in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar, as well as in Singapore, in order to find a partner who might help BP to avoid the threat of a hostile takeover offer from its closest competitors. As expected, these visits reassured many BP and generated some enthusiasm in the market for BP shares. To remedy the loss of reputation due to the BP spokesperson failures, the company announced on July 27, that it would change its CEO Tony Hayward in October 2010, by the American CEO Robert Dudley. According to some experts, such a decision would certainly please a lot of Americans and contribute to repair the BP image. Following a meeting with the President Barack OBAMA, BP announced that an agreement was reached to create a $20 billion claims fund over the next three and a half years on the following basis: BP will initially make payments of $3 billion in Q3 of 2010 and $2 billion in Q4 of 2010. These will be followed by a payment of $1.25 billion per quarter until a total of $20 billion has been paid in (BP, 2010 b). In addition, BP announced on August 17, that it would provide $52 million to federal and state health organizations to fund behavioral health support and outreach programs across the US Gulf Coast region. At last, BP tricked many photos (through photoshop tools) and posted them on its Web site as news photos from the Gulf oil spill response effort. A few days later, being widely denounced and criticized by communication experts as well as the public opinion, BP officially acknowledged the facts and promised to stop this practice. 3.3 BP Management of the Post-Crisis Phase In the Deepwater Horizon case, the post-crisis phase began once the well was completely killed on September 19, 2010. However, due to the considerable damages caused by the accident, this recovery phase is expected to continue for several years. Ever since, many decisions and actions were made. To cover the costs, BP decided to divest assets with a total value of $ 38 billion between 2010 and the end of 2013. Until the end of March 2012, BP had sold $ 23 billion of assets. Since early July 2010, BP has sold $7 billion assets (in the Permian Basin, Canada and Egypt) to the firm Apache. In 2011, BP sold its Wytch Farm terminal fields to Perenco for $ 610 million. On March 2012, BP agreed to sell for $ 400 million to oil and gas company Perenco a number of platforms off the coast of Yorkshire and a terminal at Dimlington. A few days before killing the well, BP published its own investigations report into the incident. BP claimed that its engineers, contractor Halliburton and rig operator Transocean share the blame for the complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces that caused the accident. Its former CEO said that there was a lack of rigor and quality of oversight of contractorsà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â, that a series of complex events, rather than a single mistake or failureà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â led to the accident and that it would be surprising if the industry does not look afresh at the relationship with contractorsà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â. This BP internal report was widely criticized by experts who considered that it does nothing more than spread the blame, as well as by BP partners Transocean and Halliburton. Transocean responded by describing the report as self-serving while Halliburton said that the BP report c ontained substantial errors. On the other hand, BP has successfully convinced its three other partners on the well (Anadarko, Mitsui and Co. Ltd. and Weatherford International Ltd.) to settle its claims related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Anadarko agreed to pay BP $4 billion (less than the $6.1 billion that BP had claimed), Mitsui agreed to pay $1.06 billion (less than the $2.14 billion that BP had billed it for its alleged share of clean-up costs) and Weatherford International Ltd. announced that it would provide $75 million to BP to contribute to the Gulf Coast recovery fund. BP also launched lawsuit against Halliburton, Transocean and Cameron and is seeking at least $40 billion from them. BP considers that maintenance by Transocean was inadequate as was their safety and training protocols, that Halliburton was responsible for cementing or sealing off the well and that Cameron International Corp was responsible for designing and maintaining the blow-out preventer which failed to contain the oil spill. Nearly one year after the accident, BP published its first sustainability report after the disaster. At the beginning, in the CEO letter, the Chairman Bob Dudley acknowledged that the company was sorry for what happened, promised improvements and stated that safety has become their number one priority. Besides, the chairman used nine times the word safe which demonstrates the importance of the issue safety for the new BP. the report does not say how the disaster happened and how much damage was actually done to the environment, the economy and the people. It mainly described how BP is changing. The company said it is forming a Safety and Operational Risk function that has its own expert staff embedded in BPs operating units (including exploration projects and refineries) report directly to the companys incoming chief executive officer and that has authority to intervene in all aspects of BPs technical activities. As for the other changes, the company stated that it has reviewed its Risk management system, has reorganized its upstream business into three divisions exploration, developments and production with a centralization of the drilling wells activity into a single organization, has connected the individual values/behaviors and the BP code of conduct, has aligned employee performance and reward with the performance management system, has reviewed how it works with contractors and other industry partners, has repositioned the technology to meet the 2lst-century energy demand safely and responsibly and has lastly initiated a review into its approach to the management of relationships with significant non-operated joint venture operators and partners (BP, 2010 a). This first post-Deepwater Horizon CSR report was considered by many experts as a purely greenwashing and was then widely criticized. In fact, BP said it couldnt include the Gulf spill, because there has been no accurate determination of its size and refused to list any figures from the accident. The company argued that no accurate determination can be made or reported until further information is collected and the analysis, such as the condition of the blowout preventer, is completed and that we have not included any emissions from the Deepwater Horizon incident and the response effort due to our reluctance to report data that have such a high degree of uncertaintyà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â. In addition, the report showed that 2010 had the lowest spillage by comparing BPs oil spill levels for 2006, 2008, and 2010 (1.7 million litters in 2010, as opposed to 2.2 and 3.4 million in the earlier years). As for supporting the communities affected by the disaster, BP accepted to settle lawsuits (for $7.8 billion) brought against the company by businesses and individuals and to pay about to them. The estimated compensation includes provisions for $2.3 billion to bolster the regions seafood industry and $105 million to improve available health care in the impacted communities. BP also agreed to provide periodic medical consultations for the next 21 years for those with spill-related health complaints. Experts recalled that Exxon Mobil agreed to pay damages to settle the Alaska spill oil twenty years later and considered that this agreement is for BP a significant step to support the affected communities and to repair its reputation damages. Most recently, BP began through workshops with its influential stakeholders around the world (in London, Washington DC, New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro), to initiate a dialogue to find out what they expect from BPs sustainability reporting. More than 40 stakeholders (including representatives of non-governmental organizations and community groups as well as academics, policymakers and investors) took part in these workshops which aimed to give BP a clear brief about what stakeholders want to know about its culture, plans, policies, processes and performance. The company already included a summary of the workshops findings in its 2011 sustainability report. Lastly, BP has used a specialist market intelligence search engine to identify trends in public and stakeholder opinion about BP and to evaluate their potential to affect the companys reputation. A meta-analysis was also provided of all the recent stakeholder research and dialogue BP had carried out or commissioned. Discussion The analysis of BP crisis management of the Deepwater Horizon disaster shows mainly that there are many failures at managing the three phases of a crisis. Through the analysis of BP environmental strategy before the crisis occurs, it turned out that it was just a Greenwashing, that safety was not a priority to BP, to the point that it has never envisaged an emergency plan, was not sufficiently prepared to such a catastrophic situation and did not make enough efforts to avoid crises. Worse still, only few days before the accident, BP neglected serious warnings and even cut corners on Deepwater Horizon safety. When the crisis occurred, the BP initial response totally failed. The company was too slow, tried to blame third parties and abdicated responsibility while it would express concern for the victims and take its responsibility and reassure all the stakeholders. BP even aggravated its reputation damages when it censured or delayed the information flow and refused to cooperate with the media. Even after the crisis, BP continues to conceal important information about the real damages of the spill oil, disseminated only information that can contribute to repair its reputation and continues to blame its partners. Besides, through the succession of accidents and scandals, it seems that BP has never believed that it could learn from such crisis. In the light of this case study, at least four lessons can be learnt. The first lesson refers to the strong connection between CSR and crisis management. This BP case study is in fact a strong reminder that companies should nowadays sincerely embrace the principles of social and environmental responsibility and have to consider themselves responsible for more than bottom-line results. Crisis management literature showed that in time of crisis, CSR acted as a company insurance policy (Klein and Dawar, 2004) and that the companys history has an instrumental effect on how it will be perceived when a crisis occurs (Maresh and Williams,2010). It is noteworthy that prior to the crisis, BP had tried to build up an image of legitimacy and trustworthiness, but this does not help it during the disaster. This is due mainly to the lack of credibility of its discourse. This consequently demonstrates the dangers of the greenwashing strategy and the propagandist discourse. Carrying a continuous spe ech of socially responsible company increases, apparently, stakeholders expectations in times of crisis, and this in turn generates more pressures on it. In addition, it must be kept in mind that CSR aims, among other things, to protect the interests of all the stakeholders. Preventing and being prepared for a crisis should then be viewed as part of the company social responsibility. If BP had set up a prevention and crisis management system and if BP and its former CEO were well prepared to manage such event, this crisis could have been avoided or would have been resolved sooner or at least damages would have been greatly reduced. Crises are in fact, often unpredictable, so it is important to establish a crisis prevention system to reduce the likelihood of, and anticipate the occurrence of a risk and acts as quickly and as efficiently as possible in case of occurrence of a crisis. The second lesson relates to the importance of initial response when a crisis occurs. In this phase, BP was neither quick, nor accurate and consistent. BP failed then to manage the initial response phase which caused to the company a remarkable reputation loss. As many companies, BP seems to ignore that communication during the first hours of a crisis can have remarkable implications for the image of a company and a brand (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000), that almost 80% of a crisis management consists of communication and that much of a crisis lies not in its reality, but in its perception. This case study, demonstrates that initial actions made by a company in times of crisis, significantly influence public opinion about the crisis and an organizations handling of the event (Hale et al, 2005) More notably, as predicted by Ulman (2001), BP initial crisis communication was largely focused on legal concerns and resulted in denials of responsibility, minimization of the extent of damages and lack of useful information to stakeholders. Referring to Coombs (2007b), in the initial response phase, BP should have provided information and should have taken actions that might help affected people to cope psychologically and physically with the crisis. For BP it was better to take its responsibility, to reassure victims and specifically to begin by expressing concern for the victims of the crisis which could reduce the negativity effect of the crisis. BP also ignored that when a crisis occurs, crisis leaders, specifically spokesperson have a central role in building and sustaining organizations trust and credibility among stakeholders (Schoenberg, 2005) and that in times of crisis, leaders and therefore spokesperson must be able to communicate with all stakeholders and should be exceptional communicators (Seijts, 2004). Because of being not prepared to a crisis, former BP CEO has significantly contributed to BP loss of reputation with his arrogance, negligence and famous statements. This case study provides then empirical evidence on the importance of the initial actions in times of crisis as a significant factor influencing the public opinion about the crisis and an organizations handling of the event (Hale et al., 2005). he third lesson refers to the relationship between the company and its stakeholders. This case study is in fact a strong reminder that a company should no longer operate independently of their stakeholders. It has rather to interact and to build strong relationship with them, not only during and after a crisis, but also prior to a crisis. Prior to crisis, the company can benefit from its interaction with its stakeholders by implementing standards of corporate responsibility that meet their expectations (Heath, 1997), by understanding how stakeholders might react to a crisis, what resources and information they might have available to assist in the management of a crisis, how they might be impacted by the crisis, and how they might exert a negative impact on the organizations ability to manage the crisis (Mitroff et al., 1996). In addition, companies that build alliances and achieve coordination with their stakeholders prior to a crisis will experience greater success outcomes and less failure outcomes in crisis management than will those organizations lacking such alliances (Pearson and Clair, 1998). Even, if the interaction with stakeholders cannot help an organization avert every crisis, it can at least play an important role in how the organization resolves a crisis (Ulmer, 2001). Otherwise, if a company doesnt have strong relationship with its stakeholders, they may withdraw their support during a crisis, prolong the effects of a crisis and even intensify the threat associated with the event (Ulmer and Sellnow, 2000). In addition, Stakeholders want to feel informed, safe and connected when a crisis occurs (Seijts, 2004). So, open, timely and trustworthy reporting, as well as regular dialog and communication with all stakeholders should be maintained in times of crisis. The company should also be honest about what it knows and does not know, which would give it far more credibility. Specifically, the company must not ignore the central role of media during the crisis, because the majority of the information stakeholders collect about organizations is mainly derived from the news media; therefore, media coverage is an important feature of reputation management (Carrol and McCombs, 2003). Seeger (2006: 240) said that rather than viewing the media as a liability in a crisis situation, risk and crisis communicators should engage the media, through open and honest communication, and use the media as a strategic resource to aid in managing the crisisà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬â. Lastly, after a crisis, a company should collect information from a wide range of stakeholders including external stakeholders and has to continue to work in close dialog with them in order to reduce feeling of anger and blame, to reassure them, to understand how they perceive and feel about it after the crisis and to involve them in effort to repair reputation damages (Coombs, 2010). The fourth and last lesson is that company should learn from a crisis. The succession of BP accidents demonstrate that nothing has been learned from its previous accidents. From the beginning of the crisis and until today, BP often gets defensive position and denies its whole responsibility. Ideally, companies should consider the end of every crisis as the beginning of the preparation step for the next one (Jaques, 2007). Recovery is not just getting back to work, but it is asking, what we have learned to prevent this happening again and what could we have done differently. Surely, crisis inevitably creates severe harm, but it also has the potential to serve as a renewing force for the organization (Seeger et al., 2005). Companies which can survive after disasters are more prepared for future challenges (Penrose, 2000). Unfortunately, this is often not the case. At last, companies would not learn only from their own experiences, they must consider the critical events and experiences of other companies and try to learn from them (Baum and Dahlin, 2007). Besides, the BP disaster has served as a lesson to its closest competitors. Four of the worlds largest oil companies (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips) agreed to form a $1 Billion joint venture, called the Marine Well Containment Company, to create a rapid-response system to capture and contain oil spills in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The created new company aims to develop response plan and technology that will be able to act into 24 hours and to capture and contain up to 100,000 barrels of oil from deep-water rigs in the case of an accident. Conclusion This paper aims mainly to examine how BP managed the Deepwater Horizon spill oil, the worst environmental disaster the US has faced. It reveals that because of many failures as well as its negative history, BP was fighting two crises at the same time, the big spill oil and the deep loss of its reputation. In spite of being purely exploratory, this case study has allowed to give some empirical evidence to some propositions - as yet theoretical, and to highlight lessons learned from the management of the disaster. It mainly reminds; first that CSR and crisis management are connected concepts. Second, that in time of crisis, the initial response has major repercussions on company image and reputation. Third, that company should consider stakeholders as effective partners when managing a crisis, and fourth that crisis has the potential to serve as a renewing force for the organization. The organization should then learn from crisis to prevent next crises and to be prepared for them. As for the research perspectives, it is strongly recommended to deepen the examination of the effects of reputations repair strategies on the company reputation depending on a crisis type, because it can effectively help crisis managers to prevent, to prepare for and to deal with crisis. At last, it should be noted that this case study is one of the few researches whose results are not derived from a laboratory experimental research. Nevertheless, adopting a qualitative approach using only secondary data and giving our own interpretations to some events, does not allow to draw generalizations from the results of this study. Besides, that has never been the intention. References Baum, J. A., Dahlin, K. B. (2007). Aspiration performance and railroads patterns of learning from train wrecks and crashes. Organization Science, 18(3), 368-385. B Carroll, C. E., McCombs, M. (2003). Agenda-setting effects of business news on the public's images and opinions about major corporations. Corporate Reputation Review, 6(1), 36-46. Coombs, W. T. (2010). Parameters for crisis communication. The handbook of crisis communication, 17-53. Dawar, N., Pillutla, M. M. (2000). Impact of product-harm crises on brand equity: The moderating role of consumer expectations. Jou
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)