Report on Hazard Management

Question: Write about theReport on Hazard Management. Answer: Introduction Beyond petroleum formerly known as British petroleum is multinational oil and Gas Company founded in the year 1909 and it is headquartered in London. It is one of the largest energy companies in the world with around 79,800 employees operating in 70 countries (BP, 2017). Beyond Petroleum have various brand in the portfolio which includes its standard BP products such as transport fuels, chemicals and alternative sources of energy. Castrol motor oil being the other product brand was acquired by BP in the year 2002 whose products are sold in over 150 countries. The third one brand Aral, apart from being the traditional automotive fuel supplier they have diversified in providing quality food in their onsite cafes Petit Bistros in Germany and is the third largest fast food retailer after McDonalds and burger king. They have also opened their convenience stores at select gas stations under the brand name of ampm and Wild bean caf situated at various BP connect stations which provides quic k snacks and beverage services to their customers (BP, 2017). Like their name Beyond Petroleum they have come a long way by just being an energy company to an emerging winner in the fast food caf chains. They aim to deliver excellent customer service by being a value driven organization. Their core values includes: Safety of their workforce and environment, Respect the world in which operates by complying with the laws and regulations and practicing ethical standards, Excellence in management operations, Courage in achieving the best and the last one being working as a team to achieve organizational goals (BP, 2017). Workplace Accidents at BP They have tried their best to be the sustainable energy organization but still the company has witnessed the maximum number of workplace hazards and disaster in the history. To name a few incidents are: In the year 2005 there was an explosion in the Texas City refinery of BP which killed15 men and injuring around 180 workers. This was considered as one of the worst accidents in the history of US. It was the third largest refinery in the US. The reason that caused such major blowout was a hydrocarbon vapor was ignited due to the overflow of fuel from the blow down stack and later the cloud was exploded (The Telegraph, 2012). Occupation safety and health and administration, US initiated a National Emphasis program which aims to check the safety culture of all the oil refineries after the Texas refinery incidence. During investigation it was found out that there have been certain compliance issues on the part of BP for which BP imposed a $3 million penalty for that violation. The failure to learn from past hazards and accidents has claimed many human lives and there can be no compensation for such damages (OSHA, 2010). During investigation it was found out that that the workers were not removed from the refinery unit at the time of starting and closing of the refinery which was very dangerous. The second major accident rather a disaster was happened on April 20, 2010 in the Mexico oil gulf. It was considered as one of the biggest disaster in the history. British Petroleum to extract crude oil from the beds of Gulf of Mexico leased an oil rig from the Transocean (Ingersoll, Reavis Locke, 2012). There was an explosion on the oil platform which resulted into the spilling of around 4.9 million barrel of oil in the sea. This explosion risked the lives of 126 workers which were present on board and among these 126, 11 died on the spot and 17 were seriously injured. This disaster was not something which cannot be prevented, there were many loopholes found in the safety system of BP which contributed in the disaster. The third instance happened at the Pinon gas compression station owned by BP (Rodenbaugh Benjamin, 2012). The reason for the blast was a pressurized device which was exploded during a routine maintenance operation on a pipeline. Due this Unfortunate accident one worker lost his life and two workers were seriously injured. Beyond petroleum safety culture has been critically questioned. There are only few incidences listed here but they have a long list of such safety related incidences which not only cost the organization financially but also cost human lives (McNulty, 2007).. Causes of Workplace Accidents Workplace accidents do not happen unplanned. There are several factors which contribute to the occurrences of such accidents. It may not be possible to avoid such disasters or accidents but the damage can be minimized by taking necessary safety actions and promoting a strong safety culture in the organization. The main reason which can be held responsible for any accident is the negligence on the part of the authority and failure to address identified safety issues at the workplace. There are reasons which can be identified as the main causes of any workplace hazards. Human error: It has been seen in most of the situations that accidents occur due to the negligence of individuals. Both of the explosion occurred at the oil refineries of BP would have been avoided or at least damage could have been minimized. The explosion at Gulf of Mexico can be seen as a clear example. During a safety check conducted, there were around 390 maintenance issues identified which were not corrected. It was also found out that the safety device was not working and the officials and technicians had a fair idea about this and a 450 ton hydraulic device which was responsible for preventing oil spilling out from the drill hole was not working. Such human error rather violations can cost human lives and severe environmental damage. Human negligence and mistakes can be identified and avoided. There should be safety awareness in every individual working in the organization. Attention and action towards the problem at the right time can help to prevent future accidents. Safety issues should be seen as a priority and should be fixed immediately (HSE, 2005). Safety training: It is the responsibility of the employer to provide workplace training to the employees. The chemical industry in which the beyond petroleum operates is very vulnerable and prone to many risks and hazards. In order to deal with any accidents, the workers have to understand and identify the possible factors contributing in a severe workplace accident. The workers should be trained to mitigate such life hazards. Offshore drilling is a very complex and dangerous process. It involves risks such as explosion, poison gas, slipping and tripping and falling from heights, Electrocution etc. The people working at the work station should be trained to prevent and cope with such situation. When there was an explosion at both of the refineries the workers were not trained and prepared and therefore they were not able to take any steps to prevent the blowout. It is often seen in many organization that profits have been kept at priority and there is no investment in safety procedur e and on board training of the workers to deal with such hazards (The Huffington Post, 2011). Maintenance issues- Maintenance refers to the timely reviewing the workplace structure, equipment and machines. Authorities are responsible to undertake maintenance work on a frequent basis so as to provide any future accidents at workplace and to ensure safety of the workers. During the explosion there were maintenance issues which needed to be fixed but were completely ignored by the authority. Also as earlier stated that the safety device was not working was a long known fact to the management but still they didnt took any necessary action (The guardian, 2014). At the Texas City refinery explosion issues like broken alarms which didnt even rung at the time of fire. These are the basic issues which could have been addressed so that at least timely action could have been taken to minimize the damage. Sometimes small issues lead to big problems. It is the duty of the management to conduct a timely audit and immediately solve issues. Regular maintenance helps to eliminate workplace ha zards. It is not to be treated as just a statutory requirement but rather a responsibility of the employer to provide a safe workplace to their employees. Cost- In most of the organization even today the profit generation is seen as the ultimate motive. They take various steps to avoid any unnecessary expenditure. In many organization maintaining safety culture and to train the employees is considered as a waste of money and employers are not willing to spend on the safety of their employees, Individuals working at the workstation do not have the sufficient knowledge about the mitigation plan to be followed at the time of any accidents. The focus is kept on increasing the production but one thing should be kept in mind that it is not to be done against the lives of the workers. In the above three cases mentioned, two of them lacked the basic emergency equipment such as safety device and fire alarms were not working and it was in the knowledge of the management. To save a few dollars on the account of maintenance this resulted into a disaster and it caused much more after the explosions in terms of fines and penalties imposed on the vio lation of safety regulations. Effect of Workplace Accidents on Organization and Stakeholders Stakeholders are the people who get affected by the operations of the business. Business is the agent of the society and all the business operations should be carried out in keeping in the mind the best interest of the stakeholder, Stakeholders include shareholders, investors, customers and environment etc. Maintaining a healthy relationship with the stakeholders is the key to ensure the sustainability of the business in the long run. The direct impact of the activities of the business is reflected on its stakeholder (Steiner, 2012). In todays world the reason why organizations are more inclined towards practicing ethical business practices and fulfilling corporate social responsibility because they want to be identifies as the value driven organization, When any hazard or accidents occur in an organization, their safety culture and their business practices comes into scrutiny and it adversely affect the image of the shareholders. Financial cost: It is indeed a known fact that all business operates in order to earn competitive profits and outperform their competitors. Organization try to avoid and minimize their variable and fixed costs in order to save extra for the business. When there is any workplace hazard apart from the human life there is a huge financial loss to the organization. Insurance claims, compensations and penalties levy a huge financial burden on the shoulders of the organization. After the Texas city oil refinery explosion it was found out that OSHA imposed a fine of US$21 million but BP agreed to pay US$13 million for the damage (OSHA, 2012). In the oil rig disaster of 2010 the total damages were at the large scale but they paid around $1.1 billion to everyone who suffered due to this oil spill (Krauss, 2014). Apart from all of this there are several cases of claims are filed and are still pending. In order to avoid such huge losses it is very important the organization should follow hazard management techniques at workplace. Apart from bearing a huge financial loss due to their unsafe business practices and careless safety behavior, the another most important issues which was faced by the BP was the productivity of employees. The productivity of employees reduced drastically as there were many physical injuries along with mental trauma. As a result employees were not able to work in the right state of mind. The absenteeism rate was very because individuals working on the oil rigs and gas plants were severely injured and took time to recover. The employee turnover was also very high during that period because of the continuous accidents and disaster happening back to back within very less time gaps like three of their major accidents occurred in 2005, 2010 and 2012. As result BP was considered as one of the unsafe organizations to work for. Employers are the backbone of any organization, the true picture of organization culture is represented by the employees. High absenteeism rate and high turnover rate will give wrong reflection of organizations management practices. Effect on stakeholders- Employees are the first stakeholders of the organization, They ensure the smooth operations of the organization. In all the disasters occurred on the sites of BP there were around 27 workers who lost their lives. The other stakeholder of BP is environment, releasing poisonous gases in the air and spilling of crude oil in the gulf have adversely affected the habitats and the damage cannot be compensated. Talking about the other stakeholders which are the shareholders of the company are the real owners of the organization. They invest money and bear risk just to get a fair return of their value invested. Due to the oil spill tragedy the share prices of BP fell down by 55% from $59.48 to just $27 in June 2010. As a result many shareholders and investors lost their interest in investing money as a result shares were traded off to withdraw the money. The major impact company had was loosing their brand image, reputation and goodwill in the society. It has taken BP several years to rebuild their lost image in front of its stakeholders. Recommendations Hazards and accidents cannot be foreseen but they can be prevented and the damage can be minimized by maintaining a strong safety culture in the organization. The organization BP should try to maintain an informed culture in which every worker working on the oil rig should review their safety performance and accordingly make safety policies but the safety policies should be flexible enough to be effective in situation of an emergency (Keil, 2017). Safety leadership should also be promoted, a safety health inspector should be hired and should remain available on the site and continuously review the machinery and immediately fix any issues arising out of safety checks (Safe work Australia, 2017).The workers should be given a drill on the safety procedures to be followed in case of any emergency. Proper personal protective equipment should be provided to each and every individual and it should also be checked by the safety professionals. As it was mentioned that the safety alarms were n ot working should be checked on a frequent basis, at times such small thongs can prevent major accidents. Also regular audits by health organizations both government and private are to be hired in order to give an unbiased view about the safety culture of the organization. The duty of top level mangers is to make effective safety policies to prevent future hazards and allocate a budget for the implementation of safety policies but the main task lies in the hands of front line managers who are actually working on the oil refineries. Awareness about the safe behavior should be generated among them. A safe work culture, a hazard free workstation not only be feasible to the employer financially in the long run but it will also boost the morale of the employees because they will feel safe in the working environment and hence directly increasing the productivity. When the productivity of employees will be increased it will result into the efficiency in the output of the organization as a result investors will be interested in investing as the company is growing and achieving profits, A strong safety culture will not only ensure a safe workplace but also help the organization to be sustainable in the long run. References Barab, J. (2010). Testimony of Jordan Barab Deputy Assistant secretary for the Occupational safety and health administration. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=TESTIMONIESp_id=1182 on 14 February 2017. BP, (2017). BP at a glance. Beyond Petroleum. Retrieved from https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/bp-at-a-glance.html on 14 February 2017. BP, (2017). Our brands. Beyond Petroleum. Retrieved from https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/our-brands.html on 14 February 2017. BP, (2017). Our values. Beyond Petroleum. 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