The Exon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster
The Exon Valdez oil spill disaster occurred on March 24, 1989. This was the most devastating human-caused disaster in the United States history until twenty-one years later when The Deepwater Horizon occurred on April 20, 2010. Both disasters had a deadly effect on environmental life. These two incidents linked individuals taking shortcuts and being overconfident. Catastrophes do not happen by accident; something has to trigger them. Three main reasons why the disaster at Deepwater Horizon occurred: judgmental heuristics, satisficing and overconfident. Judgmental heuristics signifies taking short cuts to complete a demanding task (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). BP took one deadly shortcut, ignoring Halliburton’s engineer’s requirements of installing
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They took shortcuts allowing their work to get sloppy. Satisficing occurs when individuals choose a solution that meets a minimum standard of acceptance (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). A series of mistakes made by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean all in which failed to keep their guard about the dangers of drilling such as a failure to promote a culture of safety on the MODU (Rose, 2012). All main parties involved were not honest about the complacent decisions they made aboard the rig. Informing everybody about the truth may have saved people's lives and the rig. If people value the trust and confidence of others, individuals must be accurate and precise in all the statements that they make. If not, people risk losing the trust of individuals around them (Grant 2011). Individuals in leadership roles tend to be overconfident in their expertise. An organization simply ignores warning signs through overconfidence and incompetence (Kreitner, Kinicki). Transocean and BP employees failed to look at the entire pressure data reading. The engineers at Haliburton failed to push through the correct number of case fitting because they had done this before. BP failed to seal the well correctly. Everyone was confident in their knowledge and systems. However, any system can fail. Smart leaders know how to react and troubleshoot the problem by listening and going through the elimination process. Individuals with a humble spirit provide for sound decisions during times of
They took shortcuts allowing their work to get sloppy. Satisficing occurs when individuals choose a solution that meets a minimum standard of acceptance (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). A series of mistakes made by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean all in which failed to keep their guard about the dangers of drilling such as a failure to promote a culture of safety on the MODU (Rose, 2012). All main parties involved were not honest about the complacent decisions they made aboard the rig. Informing everybody about the truth may have saved people's lives and the rig. If people value the trust and confidence of others, individuals must be accurate and precise in all the statements that they make. If not, people risk losing the trust of individuals around them (Grant 2011). Individuals in leadership roles tend to be overconfident in their expertise. An organization simply ignores warning signs through overconfidence and incompetence (Kreitner, Kinicki). Transocean and BP employees failed to look at the entire pressure data reading. The engineers at Haliburton failed to push through the correct number of case fitting because they had done this before. BP failed to seal the well correctly. Everyone was confident in their knowledge and systems. However, any system can fail. Smart leaders know how to react and troubleshoot the problem by listening and going through the elimination process. Individuals with a humble spirit provide for sound decisions during times of