BP’s Handling of Oil Spill off the Gulf of Mexico and CEO Actions

Question: Discuss about the BPs Handling of Oil Spill off the Gulf of Mexico and the CEO Actions in the Wake of the Disaster. Answer: Introduction Public Relation (PR) is an essential element of any prosperous organization, business enterprise, government, and company. It is used by most companies to shape their image in the public eye and therefore acting as a tool of status elevation. The manner in which a company conducts its public relations determines immensely how customers will respond to its business. As such, the aim of this report will be to analyse some of the PR errors made by a company is handling crisis. The company to be analysed in this case is BP on how it handled the crisis of the Oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico. It will pay close consideration on the conduct of BPs Chief Executive Officer and how these actions affected the companys general image. In making that analysis, the report will provide rely on the theory of PR and how it could be put to use. It will also provide a practical consideration of the theory. The Excellence Theory of PR The Excellence theory is known for making organizations effective on how they are run. It explains organizational conditions, environments organizational friend and accounts for the financial value of PR to an organization. This theory was founded by James Gruing. Gruing believed that organizations that maintain good relations with their strategic public tend to achieve their goals (Grunig, 2013). It is therefore important that companies identify their strategic publics create lasting connections by engaging it in symmentrical communications. Gruing found four categories of good PR. First, there has to be empowerment PR functions; second, PR executive should be given communicators roles like managerial and administrative roles; organizational communication function should be an integrated PR role; and organizations must use the PR models (Dozier, Grunig, and Grunig, 2013). The theory is based on the concept of goal attainment, systems, strategic constituencies and competing values. G oal attainment requires that every individual understand the aims of the company hence understand their role in ensuring that is achieved. Von Bertalanffy developed the open system theory which proposed that a system is a made up of interacting elements and an open system is one where there export and import. That said, it should be appreciated that organization associate with their environment in such a manner (Coombs and Holladay 2011). Furthermore, strategic constituencies acknowledge that there are element of the environment affect organizations positively or negatively depending on how it relates with this elements. Based on Gruings situational theory of publics, people should be defined and classified according to their problem awareness and how they seek to find information to solve problems (Kim and Grunig 2011). It is necessary for the organization make communications at various levels whether it is employees, customers, employees and customers, and governments or inter-org anizational communication (Edwards 2012). Each level is essential because it will determine the kind of effect the information will have on the organization. This theory presupposes that all organizations should embrace principle of good PR. These principles are honesty, trustworthiness, openness, integrity, respect, fair-mindedness, and effective communication. It is also important to ensure that companies use their PR policies effectively, they engage the public and other key stakeholders, and there is coherency and consistency in information disseminated. Furthermore, Gruing expressed that there has to be a differentiation between dissemination and communication since communication requires that they receive and understand the information (Grunig 2013). The excellence theory is also used alongside other theories like the Personal Influence Theory (PIT) and the Global Theory of PR (GTPR) (Kim and Grunig 2011). The GTPR suggest that practices that are common can be used in any nation of the world. It however proposes that practices in various countries can be different considering issues like culture, economic system, political system, and nature of activism in a country, media system (Bardhan and Weaver 2011; and Edwards and Hodges 2011). For instance, the UKs political; culture, activism, and legal systems are different for that of the US. PIT encourages companies to build influence of stakeholders like the media, governments, and other organization so to be able to get help in case they ran into a problem. BPs PR Error in Oil Spill One of the crucial indicators of effective PR is that one is able to persuade another into believing or accepting what they are saying. One has to know what the audience want hence being able to convince them for mutual benefit. However, the representation by BP that the spill was controllable was a manipulation which later came to be known to the public. This resulted in them losing credibility and public sympathy (Warner 2010). The public felt that they were being played by the companys management hence numerous protests. The companys stocks also fall. The company even tried to down play the damage caused by the spill by saying that it was not as bad as it seem and that everything was under control. They has reported to the media that the company would have the whole mess under cleared in a weeks time only for the CEO to report that the company was doing all it could but it more time was needed (McClam and Weber 2010). As explained by the Excellence theory, good PR requires opens a nd not manipulation of the audience. Once the audience feels that it is being plaid, it starts cast doubt of the companys ability to handle a crisis hence discontentment. Dishonest damages the images of many organizations. BP executives gave an exaggeration their ability to tame the damage and all they did was give contradicting view. Even though the Excellence theory propose open communication, BP did not acknowledge that repairing the leakage was difficult. All they said was that the main leak had been stopped and only few area were left (Warner 2010). The assertion by Suttles that spill would be reduced to a tick was found to be a lie used to downplay the reality of the situation. There were also contradicting figures in the amount of oil level spilled resulting in the perception of people that the government and the company were dishonest. The company later came up with ads purporting to help people enquiring on the situation get the real pictures. However, people believe that this is away driving the off the balance. In as much they are trying to contain information follow, they are going against the goal of winning peoples trust (McClam and Weber 2010). Lack of recognizing the importance the medi a, customer and environmental system may cost their business. The fact that the CEO and the chairman were saying two difference thing means that there was lack of proper co-ordination. there was also lose of respect for the audience and the press system. Failing to appreciate the value of the environmental system showed that BP fall short of the excellence theory (Gruing 2013). The CEO Action during the Disaster The GTPR suggests that the culture of different countries differ and therefore each case should be approached differently. However, the CEO of BP failed to understand this. Instead of going to the US and making what people considered disrespectful remarks, he should have let the America team of BOP hand the issue. For instance, he noted for having told a reporter what was consider offensive (McClam and Weber 2010). His remark that he wanted his life back meant that he did not care about the life of the people who died in the spill. All he wants was to have the crisis go away and no considering what harm it has to the environment. At the same time, he failed to give the exact figures of how the company would compensate the affected fishermen (Associated Press 2010). Even though the chairman of BP America had said $20 billion would be used as compensation, the CEO had no definitive answer to the Congressional committee which meant that they had not agreed (McClam and Weber 2010). These shows how there were many loopholes in BPs actions. Lacking proper understanding of the American culture meant that the CEO should leave the crisis to BP Americas team (Macnamara 2012). Conclusion PR is an essential part that should not be ignored by any organization. The failure of the BP can be said to have resulted from poor communication. The image of the company was badly damage according to Harlow, Brantley, and Harlow (2011), it will be costly for BP to reclaim it lost glory and image. Winning such trust requires huge investment. It also fail to manage the flow of information. Its PR strategies were not integrated and therefor lacking uniformity. The failure to acknowledge the reality of the situation revealed how it PR was poor and weak. It can therefore be concluded that failure to work as an organization was as a result of poor co-ordination hence inability to win the trust of the people. Recommendations I would recommend that in future, BP should integrate its PR department so as to ensure that all information released is uniform. This will help to save the companys image and also elevate its status. 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