What are the main ethical issues and dilemmas Bp faces in this case?
British Petroleum faces various ethical issues and dilemmas, which revolve around the idea of transporting the oil to various states and protecting the communities where the pipeline passes through. Most of these ethical issues include environmental issues, human rights issues, social issues, and poor governance that act as a hindrance to the accomplishment of the projects proposed by the company. The documentaries make the dilemmas public and show how British Petroleum affects communities negatively.
How would you evaluate Bp’s approach on the social, environmental, and economic impact of the project for the local communities? Assess the approach from the perspective of utilitarianism and deontology (ethics of duties) first. Will the assessment differ from a rights and justice based perspective?
The approach that BP used in social, environmental, and economic development was positive because the motive was to bring social development in the host communities. The approaches were just and fair to accomplish the needs of the host communities from the perspective of the company. The company takes international partnership as an approach to deliver the project and uses the local organizations as channels to implement the projects. British Petroleum was supposed to assess first the very needs of the community instead they imposed their idea on the community.
This case raises questions about the scope of responsibility for a western MNC operating in environments with corruption and poor governance. What is your opinion on how far a company like BP should go in this case? Can they really be made responsible for the actions of officials and local governments? Try to focus your actions on one or more ethical theories.
The BP approach was fair and just but the company took the duties of implementing the project from a biased perspective. The planners of the project should do the implementation of a project but in this case, the company left it in the hands of community organizations. This led to a corrupt way of delivering the project since the local organizations did not have the actual picture of the project. Additionally, the problem led to complaints from the local people and the donors about the implementation of the projects. The challenge prompted corruption and poor delivery of the information brought the failure of the project. Therefore, the approach was not fair and just to the community members and to the donors.
The deontology theory explains that people should deliver their duties with regard to themselves and others. Moreover, the action of everyone involved should conform to the duties and responsibilities. In this case, the British Petroleum Company has a duty to deliver, which is to oversee the project implementation. The corrupt actions and poor governance is a major issue in the host communities that BP was supposed to recognize.
The absence of proper evaluation and monitoring causes corruption and poor communication. There is a need to put in place multiple evaluators of the projects to ensure accountability and transparency of the process. Multiple evaluators ensure that there is no improper conduct of data, the actual information is processed, and the evaluators present the real results. Therefore, British Petroleum is responsible for poor governance and existing corruption.
What is the best way for Bp to respond to its ongoing critics? Base your answer on the contemporary ethical theories, in particular, virtue ethics, discourse ethics, and postmodern ethics
According to contemporary theories, which include virtue, discourse, and postmodern ethics, BP should clear its reputation by working on the existing bad image. These theories emphasize the impact that bad or good behavior can lead to culture or a tradition. In the case of BP, the way forward to solving the ongoing critics is to use a bottom-up approach. Essentially, the bottom-up approach starts from the local communities where the company will assess their major issues from the evidence based aspect. In addition, the approach will help to include the community in planning the projects promoting ownership of the project.
The company will create confidence in the host communities that will change the local people’s attitude towards the company. Communal participation ensures self-evaluation of the project and familiarity by the community as opposed to the imposed ideas introduced by external entities.