The video of the TED Talk by Sam Harris on Science and Morality was very illuminating in the sense that it made me aware of the obvious relationship between the two which is often not accepted. I was surprised at how science can be used for the answering of the questions of morality. As per Sam Harris, science should be the tool for the shaping of the moral and human values and decide on what constitutes a good life. Furthermore, from the readings and the joint investigation by the Frontline and ProPublica on the countless deadly accidents caused by safety violations in BP Limited showed how an unethical culture of an organization could cause fatal accidents. The preference of the profits of the people showed the lowest depths of morality and values at BP. As per the reading, the ethical culture of an organization is built by its executive managers. The leadership of the managers is ethical or unethical based on them being a “Moral Person” and a “Moral Managers.” The leadership at BP as per the investigation shows the Weak moral manager and weak moral person attributes contributing to the unethical culture of the company. This gained knowledge would aid me in understanding the reasons and consequences of small unethical steps of a manager in the long run performance of the company.
For the ethics, culture audit of the company BP petroleum, which I want to join, I would like to change the culture audit questions to incorporate more questions regarding the communication style, treatment of employees, freedom of money spending, and customer service. I would like to incorporate more questions regarding the implicit values of the company.
The reviews on the BP Petroleum on glass door shows that the remuneration and benefits associated with the positions at BP are quite healthy. However, there are many reviews which reported the lack of decision-making power of the executives, and lack of positive and helpful response to employees in urgent and chaotic situations. It shows that the company gives good packages and the employees and low management are very friendly. However, the upper management and the corporate culture at the top is very slow in decision making, inconsiderate of the effect of prompt response to situations and poor in managing crisis situations.
By concluding, I can say that I am still curious about how one can change an unethical culture of an organization in which the unethical norms and values are so deeply engraved and what would be the barriers which will contribute to challenging the success of this cultural change.
Video Sources
Frontline: The Spill
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-spill/
TED Talk by Sam Harris—Science can answer moral questions
https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right?language=en
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