Hurricane Katrina
FEMA’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina shows there is a relationship between inefficiency and ethical behaviors of leaders. Efficiency relates to the adoption of appropriate strategies and management of resources to facilitate an effective response to emergencies. FEMA is a Federal agency responsible for providing coordinating government assistance during disasters in the country, the institution’s response to Hurricane Katrina was less than satisfactory. FEMA’s inefficiency during Katrina was characterized by poor preparation, delays in the evacuation process, miscommunication, and lack of coordination in the agency (Perkiss, & Moerman, 2017). Undoubtedly, FEMA’s inefficiency during Katrina was a sign of negligence and unethical behavior among leaders, who had been charged with the duty of providing quick response during disasters. The FEMA leaders should have anticipated the magnitude of Katrina after the numerous warning signs received from the weather department.
FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina would have been more effective and ethical through the adoption of several strategies. Foremost, FEMA should have spent enough time planning for Hurricane Katrina immediately after the receipt of the warning signs. Through planning, FEMA would have identified the priority areas and potential strategies that would have been encountered during the disaster (Perkiss, & Moerman, 2017). Consequently, FEMA would have averted the number of deaths and evacuated more people to protect them from anxiety and mental problems. Moreover, FEMA should have transported enough supplies to New Orleans to ensure the availability of adequate food, water, and medical supplies throughout the disaster period. Undoubtedly, the poor communication system was one of the most significant contributing factors to the uncoordinated response to Hurricane Katrina. The miscommunication resulted in confusion among all the individuals involved in the rescue mission, and it was even more difficult for the president and other prominent leaders to access the data. Therefore, FEMA should have developed an effective communication system for faster information flow. Through effective preparation, the response to Hurricane would have been ethical.
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BP Oil Spill
The BP oil spills raised ethical questions about when it is ethically justifiable for private companies and state to withhold information regarding a disaster from the public. After the oil spill, the company withheld a lot of data from the general public including the size of the spill and the extent of the damage on the marine life (Diers‐Lawson, & Pang, 2016). However, withholding information is not a new phenomenon, the government often restricts the distribution of information on various disasters to promote national security and protect specific group interests (Beever, & Hess,2016). BP’s decision was unethical because it was meant to prevent the public from monitoring the company’s clean up exercise after the disaster. Besides, hiding the details of the spill only served to rouse the public’s suspicion, and BP’s reputation was damaged.
Additionally, companies have an ethical right to intervene in environmental disasters under several circumstances. Foremost is when the firm is responsible for the ecological problem like in BP’s case, where the oil spill occurs during the company’s daily operations. BP intervened in the environmental disaster by initiating the cleanup exercise at the Gulf of Mexico (Beever, & Hess, 2016). Secondly, it is vital for companies to intervene in natural disasters to protect the lives of people and animals and maintain the environment. Death is a common fatality of environmental disasters, for BP, the oil spill affected millions of sea organisms by denying them access to oxygen. Undoubtedly, failure to handle the problem would have resulted in the destruction of the ecosystem at the Gulf of Mexico. However, BP’s intervention albeit slow helped to salvage the situation and maintaining the biodiversity in the eco-system. Notably, companies have the ethical responsibility of conserving the environment, and this is enough motivation for their engagement in environmental disasters.
References
Beever, J., & Hess, J. L. (2016). Deepwater Horizon oil spill: An ethics case study in environmental engineering. American Society for Engineering Education.
Diers‐Lawson, A., & Pang, A. (2016). Did BP atone for its transgressions? Expanding theory on ‘ethical apology’in crisis communication. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 24(3), 148-161.
Perkiss, S., & Moerman, L. (2017). Hurricane Katrina: exploring justice and fairness as a sociology of common good (s). Critical Perspectives on Accounting.
Soliman, H. (2017). An Ethical framework to access organisation's decision making processes. The Malaysian Journal of Social Administration, 12(1), 1-37.
