Exxon Corporation and the Lack of a True Mission Statement
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Exxon Corporation and the Lack of a True Mission Statement
Every organization has to take it as a responsibility to be, and remain moral not only internally, but even to the external environment, it is operating. Company morality needs to be a responsibility of everyone within the enterprise from the top management (Wick, 2011). Maintaining moral and ethical standards in a corporation prevents losses in different forms as much as possible. Mission statements should be reflective of the extent to which moral and ethical principles are observed and what companies stand for. Exxon Corporation that is a big oil company experienced a large oil spill due to hitches in communication, and a thing to relate to ignorance of the workforce and incompetence (Hosmer, 2011).
The response to the oil spill was weak and two months down the line, the death toll of the fauna was still on the rise and the spill continued to expand over the sea to the shores miles away. The company placed on board a crew that was exhausted from working long hours (Hosmer, 2011). The team violated sailing rules and never gave clear communications on directions. The oil company ignored to use dispersants on the oil spill to eliminate the discharge and evidently, there were blame and no one to take directly advantages over the matter. There were no proper training of the workforce on the response to accidents and spills a fact that may have resulted in delayed response and the spread of the spillage (Whiteley & Whiteley, 2007).
The mission statement of Johnson and Johnson would have helped Exxon the very destructive oil spill and delayed clean up. It is not in the structure of the mission statement but the responsibilities and the commitment in the declarations (Whiteley & Whiteley, 2007). If the company had the interests and concerns of the environment, employees, and safety, they would have prevented the spillage. Again, the response to the spillage would be drastic,controlling further spread of the spillage by the elimination of the oil spill.
Question Two
If Exxon were to adopt the mission statement of Johnson and Johnson, there would probably be changes that would be made in the company to come into reality with the statement. The company would primarily shift focus from its strategy of cost reduction and investment restrictions to reasonable sense of operation that takes into consideration all stakeholders both directly and indirectly (Bajer, 2013). Now that the company shift responsibility and blamed the employees for the accident was a clear indication of lack of commitment to the enterprise to ethical values (Hosmer, 2011).
Johnson believed in responsibility for all stakeholders and had measures in place to ensure maintenance of that, and so Exxon would emulate that and adopt it in its structures and operations. Designing and taking changes require commitment from the top to the junior person in an organization (Wick, 2011). The body then needs to identify possible problems, the external changes to be undertaken and the internal decisions required with the expected individual reactions (Hosmer, 2011). The managerial change, command, and administration have to change in line with the proposed structures and operations of the company before the adoption of the new mission statement.
The company should ensure that each employee commit to the changes that occur in the organization and that there was cohesion among them. Every task must be well coordinated and interlinked with another with the workers ensuring that they keep to the priorities and organizational concerns (Bajer, 2013). Adherence to rules governing operations of a company prevents the occurrence of accidents. The company by ensuring the competence of the relevant workforce and the welfare would ensure that quality is delivered, and negligence erased. Availability of equipment and skilled personnel would ensure appropriate service delivery.