This first formal assignment in Writing 340 Advanced Writing for Business asks you to consider the significance of ethical practices within business. Framing questions with which to approach the assignment are: Why do many corporations believe that they must give evidence of acting ethically? Is this insistence just politically-correct window dressing in many instances? Or does it represent genuine moral concern on the part of top managers at the companies which issue them? Is it truly good business for a corporation to institute ethical practices? Or do these practices simply purchase a tawdry respectability within the community for a company?
Of course, these are difficult questions to answer definitively. However, you will still find it valuable to consider them. In our discussions in class and also in your paper, you’ll have the opportunity to flesh out what you think about the role and significance of ethical considerations in corporate management.
READING
“BP Struggles to Resolve Sustainability Disaster,” from O.C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, and Linda Ferrell, Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, 9th ed
Here is the link to the reading:
http://www.eiu.edu/business/Forms_PdfDocs/BPcase_EthicsEssayContest.pdf
Please also read the file that i upload (the virtue theory) and use it as one of the tool to support the argument (you may use outside sources for this theory)
remember to cite if you use outside source
CONTEXT/SCENARIO
Please read carefully the case study, “BP Struggles to Resolve Sustainability Disaster,”
You are then to adopt the role of an ethics consultant to this major corporation. Its top managers have asked you to investigate serious ethical problems alleged to have occurred. Your tasks are these: 1) determine whether BP, given the facts as presented in this case, generally has acted ethically or not; 2) decide what—if anything—it ought to do differently going forward; and 3) state how the company should best focus on its energy sustainability plans in the future.
Here are points to consider in addressing these questions. You need not any take any of them on in your paper; they are simply intended to inspire your thoughts:
1) What ethical obligations, if any, does a company have to stakeholders other than shareholders? That is, can “employees, local communities, suppliers” (p. 352) and a host of other stakeholders reasonably expect a for-profit corporation to value their concerns? Why or why not? What value, if any, should a corporation assign to the interests of non-owning stakeholders?
2) The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was built by Halliburton, owned by Transocean, and leased and operated by BP. Does this convergence of three different companies distribute blame and responsibility for the disastrous oil spill that occurred?
3) The Deepwater Horizon disaster has produced cleanup costs that may exceed $40 b. In addition, billions more ultimately will be spent as a consequence of criminal and civil penalties and
(over)
lawsuits. It also has produced an inestimable loss of reputation and good will for BP, a huge company that is more than a century old. Can this corporation truly expect eventually to recover fully from these sorts of damages, both monetary and abstract? Why or why not?
FORMAT
You need not engage in research of your own regarding BP or business ethics. Most important for this assignment is your analysis of the ethical dilemmas suggested and your general recommendations as to how any ethical violations ought to be resolved and the strategies that BP ought to adopt going forward.
critical reading/writing skills and essential considerations of what constitutes ethical business practices. Please keep them in mind as you carefully read the case study and form your opinion as to how and why BP acted ethically or unethically throughout the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
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