British Petroleum Oil Spill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

British crude Oil Spill - Essay ExampleFindings 3.1 Summary of findings of your analysis 4. Conclusion 4.1 Discussion of findings in condition of theory and prior literature 5. References 1. Introduction 1.1 Theories used in expression analysis The paper dialogue about the oil chuck caused by British Petroleums (BP) in 2010 that occurred in the Mexican Gulf and caused irreparable damage to the environment and life in and around that area. It looks at the companys behavior post the oil declivity and their reaction in front of the media and as expressed in their one-year reports. More specifically, this paper looks at how BPs reaction post the disastrous oil spill ties in with the theories about company behavior. Some theories used as reference for this paper include the genuineness theory, the stakeholder theory and the institutional theory etc. 2. The case 2.1 Context Background knowledge about the case British Petroleum (BP) is the 6th largest oil and gas company worldwide. BP is involved in all stages including the beginning of oil to the retail of the final product (BP, 2012, p.1). In 2010 the company faced a ruinous crisis when the bore rig, Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20, 2010. This cataclysmic cataclysm resulted in the killing of 11 persons and critically hurt many others (BP Annual Report, 2010, p.6). The spill continued for almost three months, devising this catastrophe the biggest disaster of its affable (Mason, 2010, p.1). The scientists who had been vigorously studying the possible repercussions were still not sure about the complete extent of the environmental damage even after a whole year had passed. Further research is still require to provide a holistic detail on the matter because the destruction caused by the BP oil spill is too far reaching in a ripple effect caused by direct environmental damages. (Kinver, 2011, p.1). 2.2 Data description of corporate disclosure vehicles chosen for analysis The annual report for 2010 w as highly broody of BPs reaction to the disaster. ODonovan (2002, p.344) says that companies reveal information in the annual reports only with the purpose of gaining die hard from the society and to retain their legitimacy in society. Companies that find themselves in situations that BP found itself in often undertake to improve their image by providing more information in their annual reports that concerns ethics and environmental issues (Deegan et al., 2002, p.312). This information is used by the company to clean up the mess it has somehow created in a disaster that has happened on its watch (Deegan and Rankin, 1996, p.50). BP increased greatly the amount of environment related information in its annual report under the law of legitimacy and to counter the bad press it was receiving in the aftermath of th disaster. It kept repeating to the media how it would clean up its mess, compensate the people and make amends for its mistake, thus making sure that all stakeholders, inclu ding the society and the government, continued to foster a positive image of the company, as explained by the stakeholder theory once more. These changes in the annual report were useful for the investors, accountants, regulators, environmental groups and the community because they provided these stakeholders with additional discernment about the disaster and how BP proposed to go ahead with the scenario (Summerhays, 2011, p.3). BPs reaction was timely, even instantaneous according to the institutional theory (BP, 2010, p.1) however they were condemned by the government because they failed to contain the spill before it reached the coast (Robertson