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Introduction
BP is one of those corporations which respect and follow social responsibility issues and value importance of environmental and social responsibilities. In its annual report, BP underlines that corporations must be clear about the concept of conscience in general, distinguishing it clearly from its counterfeits: public relations, government relations, competitive strategy, a marketing orientation, legal compliance, and issues management. In the report, a special attention is paid to moral and ethical responsibilities and compliance with rules and regulations.
Main text
It is [possible to assume that the report is intended and aimed to general public. BP underlines that corporate conscience may have secondary effects that connect with each of these areas, but it is not to be confused with any one of them or it loses its meaning. The public will find it accessible because it reflects the main policies and philosophy of the company (Baue 2008). It underlines that management must take steps to orient, institutionalize, and sustain the corporate conscience or value system in ways that are as realistic as those that guide strategy formulation and implementation. Rhetoric and value statements are not enough.
Rewards, incentives, controls, audits, and clear leadership action are critical to this task. The importance of BP’s policies is that management is “given permission” to think and act environmentally, a condition that affects organizations more deeply than statements or credos. As important, leadership gives itself permission to think and act in ways that have hitherto been considered somewhat beyond the standard limits of stockholder, and even stakeholder, concern.
And where specific environmental needs outstrip the power, and therefore the responsibility, of the individual corporation (since ought implies can), conscience demands more reaching out to and eventually with other corporations in an industry, a geographical area, or a technological network in an effort to be part of a solution, rather than part of a problem (Beauchamp & Bowie 2003).
The report misses information about ethical guidelines and moral responsibilities of employees. It does not stipulate such issues as trust and community relations. The thrust of this view is not toward eliminating self-interest or private purpose; these are often productive and constructive forces. It is toward adjusting the basic attitude that guides an individual in adopting and pursuing purposes. The development of conscience can be seen as a kind of Copernican Revolution in the realm of practical decision-making (Boatright, 1997). The decision-maker no longer sees himself or herself as at the center of the social or even the biological universe.
Other persons–and the environment–do not simply have resources to be used but invite and deserve consideration independently. Conscience emerges, by nature, nurture, or (more likely) both, as a practical surrender of self-centered thinking. Since conscience avoids excessively self-centered, goal-driven behavior, it can and arguably should affect every phase of the decision-making process (Beauchamp & Bowie 2003).
The information can be presented as an outline of the main issues and guidelines which direct the corporation. A holistic environmental outlook will also take into account problems associated with using more and more chemical pesticides to accomplish less and less (the treadmill effect) and the general ecosystemic effects of pesticide use in contrast, say, with biological pest controls that use natural pest enemies (sometimes referred to as integrated pest management) (Boatright, 1997).
Perhaps a better strategy is to treat particular stakeholders and the environment as two fundamental classes of effects to be analyzed in a responsible decision, like figure and ground. Once one has identified the stakeholders and environmental effects, a matrix can be constructed with the columns representing the costs, benefits, rights, and duties that either support or discourage the option in question. Pros for the company may be clear, in the form of high margins and high market share on a patented product that may be banned for use in the U. S. Pros for the host country and farmers may also be significant, in the form of improved crop yields and reduced hunger.
Cons may include not only poisonings and direct health effects on farmworkers but indirect effects on U.S. consumers and host country ecosystems. Analysis is not simply an exercise in altruism. Most people would put themselves at or near the top of their list of stakeholders. This natural tendency is hardly a failure of conscience (Buchholz & Rosenthal 1998). The failure would be to include only oneself or one’s company.
Ethics includes rational self-interest and self-respect in addition to respect for others. Analysis does not in and of itself resolve a problem or make a decision. It is, after all, only analysis (taking apart), not synthesis (putting together), choice, or action. But neither is it a purely detached, intellectual exercise.
The very process of identifying affected parties and environmental effects involves the use of the imagination in a way that can lead to a natural empathetic or caring response to those parties in the synthesis, choice, and action phases of decision making. This is a contingent connection, however, not a necessary one.It is possible that once we have taken the analytical step, our perception of the situation, the options available to us, or the key decision-makers may change. If so, we can loop back through the perception step again (Carroll & Gannon 1997).
The reference to the primacy of natural laws not only prohibits environmental abuse but solves the difficulties of joining animal and environmental ethics without forcing us to complete vegetarianism, or, worse, to guilt and outrage at the use of anything we might need to survive, which is the major problem of ethic (Buchholz & Rosenthal 1998).
His reverence stops at individual lives rather than extend to all nature and in that sense is against the natural functioning of the world; thus it manifests a lack of respect to life’s laws as they truly exist in nature. In this sense, the principle and the ethic I propose eliminate the dichotomy and reconcile systemic with individual concern by extending respect and reverence to the ways of the environment as well as to the specifics and the wholes within it
Current literature criticizes this type of reporting because it does not give a clear picture of the companies’ performance. It covers only some activities but lacks complexity and integrity. Boatright (1997) and Sims (2003) underline that reporting should reflect the decision maker’s perception of his or her environment. Perception is not a passive and neutral process as we are sometimes tempted to think.
Observers have long recognized that perception has an active aspect to it and that an agent gathers, structures, and packages information in accordance with certain interests and purposes. A conscientious decision-maker will gather and take seriously not only information that has to do with the accomplishment of self-interested goals but also information about the effects of contemplated behavior on the social and biological environment (Carroll & Gannon 1997).
A company that carefully researched markets and revenue projections for selling its products around the globe while ignoring information about safety standards, health effects, and environmental impact would exhibit a lack of moral perception. Conscience influences perception by distinguishing ethically important information from background information of other kinds. For many years, what we now refer to as thermal pollution was not perceived by most companies as a significant by-product (Donaldson et al. 2002).
Only in the wake of discussions of the greenhouse effect and global warming is this perception being activated. The environmentally sensitive corporation scans for the whole truth about its products and operations. If its aerosol propellants may be affecting the ozone layer, it conducts careful and objective research. It does not hide conclusions from that research that might be problematic as, for example, Manville Corporation was alleged to have done with research on health effects of asbestos.
Following Robbins (2002) the concept of ethics in reporting demands analysis because it is used in both its environmental (descriptive) sense and its moral (prescriptive) one. It is worth noting that integrity has such favorable connotations in purely interhuman context that it almost begs the question to propose to use it in a purely descriptive manner. Some have suggested as an alternative integrality, and perhaps that is a good choice if the context is purely scientific (De George, 1999).
The complex concept of integrity lends itself well to embodying the values referred to, as well as the advocated philosophical discussion, as it is introduced, right at the outset, as a philosophical rather than a scientific term (Donaldson et al. 2002). As a decision-maker experiences the outcome of a moral choice, not just the external outcome but the internal one as well, the entire decision-making process can be affected. Self-esteem may increase or decrease, leading to modifications in the perceptual net, the analytic tools, the approach to synthesis, choice, and action planning (Treviño et al 1999)
Summary
In sum, BP’s annual report highlights only some areas of environmental and social activities but lacks a complex approach and integrity. The shift from corporate self-interest as an operating philosophy to respect for law and markets is an important one. The frontier of an environmental conscience for the corporation seems to go still further in many ways, inviting a global consciousness every bit as challenging as that demanded by international competition.
Bibliography
- Baue, B. From Competition to Cooperation: Companies Collaborate on Social and Environmental Issues. 2007. Web.
- Beauchamp, T., and Bowie, N. (eds). 2003, Ethical Theory and Business, 7th edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Boatright, J. 1997, Ethics and the Conduct of Business, 2nd edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Buchholz, R. and Rosenthal, S. 1998, Business Ethics, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Carroll, S. and Gannon, M. 1997, Ethical Dimensions of International Management, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- De George, R. 1999, Business Ethics, 5th edn, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Donaldson, T., et al. 2002, Ethical Issues in Business, 7th edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Robbins, S. 2002, Organizational Behavior. Pearson Higher.
- Sims, R.R. 2003, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall. Praeger.
- Treviño, L.K., Weaver, G.R., Gibson, D.G., et al. 1999, Managing ethics and legal compliance: what works and what hurts”, California Management Review, vol. 41, no. 2, pp.131-151.
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