SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Safety and Risk Management



Safety and Risk Management

Introduction

Since the 1908 discovery of oil in present-day Iran, British Petroleum has been a leading player in the global power market. The London-based multinational is the world's third-largest power company, behind Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. Officially incorporated in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, BP turned 100 years vintage in 2009. After years of investigation, adventurer William Knox D'Arcy discovered oil in Persia (now Iran) in 1908. This was the first oil discovery in the Middle East. In April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil business was incorporated. This business was the predecessor of BP.

In 1935, after Persia became Iran, the business renamed itself Anglo-Iranian Oil. After World War II, the company became the focus of discontent among Iranians, who charged that the dividends they obtained from oil output were too small. In 1951, under the leadership of Mohammed Mossadeq, Iran nationalized its oil industry. This directed to a 1953 coup that resulted in Mossadeq's overthrow. The British government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were implicated in the coup, which some critics charged was undertaken in part to defend Anglo-Iranian Oil's profits in the region. By 1954, Anglo-Iranian Oil was renamed British Petroleum and resumed oil output in Iran. BP proceeded its Iranian operations until 1979, when the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini confiscated the company's assets in Iran.

Discussion

According to Bohle (2000), there are three stages of organisational heritage evolution: Founding and Early Growth, Midlife and Maturity/Decline. In an organisation's Founding and Early Growth stage, the main cultural thrust comes from the founders and their assumptions. At the midlife stage, the leaderships manage not have same options as the founder and owners. At this stage, the heritage defines leadership more than leadership creates heritage, all organisations undergo a process of differentiation as they augment and can work on subculture, and the target is to socialize the culture. At the Maturity/Decline stage, the proceeded success creates strongly held shared assumptions and thus a strong culture. Each stage requires distinct heritage change mechanisms and distinct leadership requirements.

    Westrum created a form to recognise types of organisational heritage based on how an organisation processes information. In his form, there are three types of culture: Pathological, Bureaucratic and Generative. He considers the flow of information the most critical issue for administration safety.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, 2002a), three stages of development of safety heritage seem to happen in organisations. Each stage involves a distinct awareness of the result on safety of human behaviour and attitudes. The characteristics of each stage are described below. They may be used by an organisation to diagnose which stage reflects its present state most accurately.

At stage 1, an organisation sees safety as an external obligation and not as an aspect of perform that will allow it to succeed. The external requirements are those of government, the legal framework and the regulatory bodies. There is little perception of the behavioural and attitudinal aspects of ...