case studies

group members
ali hassan
azmat ullah baig
hzaifa ali abid
usman zafar
Contents
BP Texas City Case Study..................................................................................................................3
Introduction:.............................................................................................................................................3
Question AND ANSWER.....................................................................................................................3
Question # 1.............................................................................................................................................3
Answer # 1................................................................................................................................................3
Question # 2.............................................................................................................................................4
Answer # 2................................................................................................................................................4
Question # 3.............................................................................................................................................4
Answer # 3................................................................................................................................................4
Question # 4.............................................................................................................................................5
Answer # 4................................................................................................................................................5
Question # 5.............................................................................................................................................5
Answer # 5:...............................................................................................................................................5
QUESTION # 6.........................................................................................................................................6
Answer # 6................................................................................................................................................6
A few of the strategic recommendations made are:.........................................................................6
Conclusion:............................................................................................................................................7
Muffler Magic Case Study....................................................................................................................8
Introduction............................................................................................................................................8
QUESTION AND ANSWER................................................................................................................8
Question # 1.............................................................................................................................................8
Answer # 1................................................................................................................................................8
Recruiting & Selection......................................................................................................................8
Training..............................................................................................................................................8
Question # 2............................................................................................................................................9
Answer # 2................................................................................................................................................9
Question # 3.............................................................................................................................................9
Answer # 3................................................................................................................................................9
Question # 4...........................................................................................................................................10
Answer # 4..............................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................10
 BP Texas City Case Study
Introduction:
The Texas City Refinery was the second-largest oil refinery in the state, and the third-
largest in the United States with an input capacity of 437,000 barrels (69,500 m3) per
day as of January 1, 2000.[1] BP acquired the Texas City refinery as part of its merger
with Amoco in 1999.On 23 March 2005, an explosion erupted at BP’s Texas City
refinery, which resulted in 15 fatalities, 180 injured and $3 billion in damages and legal
settlements. It is one of the worst industrial disasters to date. The explosion was caused
by the overfilling of the raffinate splitter tower and a blow down drum releasing hot
hydrocarbons. The resulting vapor cloud ignited, destroying the ISOM unit.

Question AND ANSWER

Question # 1
The textbook defines ethics as “the principles of conduct governing an individual or a
group,” and specifically as the standards one uses to decide what their conduct should
be. To what extent do you believe that what happened at BP is as much a breakdown in
the company’s ethical systems as it is in its safety systems, and how would you defend
your conclusion?

Answer # 1
The breakdown in the company’s ethical systems as it is in its safety system is one of
the core major reasons of explosion in the industry. The global management was aware
of the problems with maintenance, spending and infrastructure well before the
explosion.
According to Chemical safety board unsafe and antiquated equipment designs were left
in place and unacceptable deficiencies in prevention maintenance were tolerated, as
well as the according to the internal audit by CSB found that the potentially explosive
situation inherent in the depreciating machinery remained.
There exists a tradeoff between profit maximization and safety, and thus that becomes
an ethical issue. What happened at BP was that the CEO, who is responsible for setting
up a company’s values, beliefs and instill a culture, he was unable to understand that
the safety culture should not be something separate from or in addition to the
organizational culture; rather safety is a fundamental part of the organizational culture.
In any company CEOs are the ones who have the power to shape the corporate culture
and in any organization, corporate culture is safe cultures. In this case, BP’s CEO had a
checkbook mentality and clearly even knowing about the shortcomings in the BP’s
safety process, he never gave due attention to it instead initiated even a further budget
cut. Every organization is supposed to give utmost importance to its workforce safety
and that being an ethical obligation, but BP neglected the issue despite the increasing
number of accidents over the years

Question # 2
. Are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards, policies, and rules
aimed at addressing problems like the ones that apparently existed at the Texas City
plant? If so, how would you explain the fact that problems like these could have
continued for so many years?

Answer # 2

The OSHA’s safety and health standards are intact to provide every worker with a safe
and healthy work environment. This law is enforceable almost in every organization in
the US and in my opinion it did address the safety concerns of BP such as ensuring
equipment are safe, the safety standards are being met, process safety ensured, but
since it’s not mentioned in the case therefore I will assume that BP was not complying
with its regulations and thus the accident occurred.

Question # 3
Since there were apparently at least three deaths in the year prior to the major
explosion, and an average of about one employee death per 16 months for the previous
10 years, how would you account for the fact that mandatory OSHA inspections missed
these glaring sources of potential catastrophic events?

Answer # 3
The case clearly highlights that BP created a false sense of confidence that it was
properly addressing process safety risks. It was due to the fact that BP did improve on
just one dimension over the years and that was personal safety performance, but had
not laid any emphasis on the overall safety process, this lead to misrepresentation of
facts that it was thought that the improving personal injury rates was an indication of
acceptable process safety. It was also seen that the safety culture at BP Texas city
lacked the positive, trusting, open environment that are an essential part of a proper
safety culture in any organization. So due to all the above reasons, it is quite the
likelihood that OSHA may have been misled through distorted facts or incomplete
information regarding the safety conditions being improved at Texas City Plant.
Question # 4
The textbook lists numerous suggestions for “how to prevent accidents.” Based on what
you know about the Texas City explosion, what do you say Texas City tells you about
the most important three steps an employer can take to prevent accidents?

Answer # 4
1. Firstly, BP’s executive management and should have specific information that
Showed that process deficiency existed at some of the plant and should provide
Effective leadership on safety
2. Monitor process safety performance using appropriate indicators; Invest sufficient
resources to correct problems by maintaining an open & trusting safety culture
3. Ensure equipment & procedures are maintained up to date, carefully manage
organizational changes and budget decisions to ensure safety is not compromised First
thing of due importance is the fact that a firm’s top management should know that it’s
not an option to maintain a safe culture but an obligation.
 Now as for the three steps
1. First up is that the employers that took the top management first, should promote an
organizational culture of safety and make people aware of the importance of working in
a safe and healthy environment.
2. Secondly, all the staff should be given process safety knowledge, trained on how to
work safely, and oriented on the importance of safety.
3. And last but not the least, employees should be encouraged to come forward and
complain about any safety matter if they see one. A culture such that should be in place
where the staff can easily report their safety concerns without any kind of employer’s
fear.

Question # 5

Based on what you learned in Chapter 10 (Safety), would you make any additional
recommendations to BP over and above those recommendations made by the Baker
panel and the CSB? If so, what would those recommendations be?

Answer # 5:
Safety is the integral part of the system, woven into each management competency and
a part of everyone’s day to day responsibilities. The employer should institutionalize top
management commitment with a safety policy and publicize it. It should give safety
matters high priority in meetings, including board of director meetings with a brief safety
message. Also analyze the number of accidents and safety incidents and then set
specific achievable safety goals as well as reducing unsafe conditions i.e. improperly
guarded equipment, defective equipment and hazardous procedures in on or around
machines or equipment. Moreover employees should wear personal protective
equipment’s and managers should conduct safety and health audit inspection for
possible problems Baker panel and CSB have made very detailed recommendations to
BP, which if fulfilled will greatly reduce the risk in terms of safety for BP. But one
additional strategy that may be pursued by BP to ensure a safe culture within an
organization is to attach rewards with the implementation of safety management within
an organization. Safety should be a part of every individual working in an organization
and should also be reflected in an organization’s performance management systems.

QUESTION # 6

Explain specifically how strategic human resource management at BP seems to have

supported the company’s broader strategic aims. What does this say about the
advisability of always linking human resource strategy to a company’s strategic aims?

Answer # 6

At BP the aim was to cut costs and increase profits at any stake, and thus they
compromised safety, cut down the costs from there and had to pay in terms of
explosion.
Now, a company’s sub strategic aim is to achieve competitive advantage. That in
traditional or conventional terms is thought to be achieved with more assets, better
equipment etc. that is emphasis is laid on the resources such as the ones mentioned
but now in modern times, and the most important resource that can’t be even
manipulated is the human resource. Greater competencies are gained through a skilled
workforce, a distinctive organizational culture and management policies and practices.
And this will enable BP to compete in the market with respect to better product quality,
differentiated products, technological innovation and safety.

A few of the strategic recommendations made are:

Contributing Causes: BP Texas City managers:
  Lacked an effective mechanical integrity program to maintain instruments and
process equipment. For example, malfunctioning instruments and equipment
were not repaired prior to startup.
 Did not have an effective vehicle traffic policy to control vehicle traffic into
hazardous process areas or to establish safe distances from process unit
boundaries.
 Ineffectively implemented their PSSR policy; nonessential personnel were not
removed from areas in and around process units during the hazardous unit
startup.
 Acted a policy for sitting trailers that was sufficiently protective of trailer
occupants.

Conclusion:
The analysis of the disaster highlights several long-term PSM deficiencies that led to
devastating safety failures. The deficiencies stem from the lack of commitment from
senior leaders to safety, which was identified as a key root cause of the accident. Even
though many of the shortcomings were identified previously, no significant
improvements to PSM were made, allowing the disaster to claim 15 lives and injure 180
people
 Muffler Magic Case Study

Introduction
This case is about an automobile service centers which was in Nevada. The owner was
Ronald Brown who started with a single store 20 years ago for repairing mufflers. Which
eventually grew into a chain of repair shops and expended their services from muffler
replacement to oil changes, brake jobs and engine repairs. Organizational Structure
Organizationally, Muffler Magic employees about 300 people total, and Ron runs his
company with eighth managers including MR. Brown as president, a controller, a
purchasing director, a marketing director, and the human resource manager. He also
has three regional managers to whom the eighth or nine service center managers in
each area of Nevada

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Question # 1

Write out a one-page summary outline listing 3 or 4 recommendations you would make
with respect to each HR function (recruiting, selection, training, and so on) that you think
Ron Brown Should addressing with his HR manager now.

Answer # 1

Recruiting & Selection:

 Various tests- Personal interview, technical test, Job simulation, Reference
check.
 Same set of questions from each applicant.
 Use custom made and proper application forms and formats.
 They need to develop an interview questionnaire form for all type of job
categories separately.
 They should re consider their selection and screening process.
1. Background investigation
2. Reference checking

Training:
 Proper orientation should be given
 Employees should be made aware of the company’s strategic goals
 This type of service needs on-job training
 1. Proper orientation should be given.
2. Employees should be made aware of the company’s strategic goals.
3. Evaluators should also be trained to increase the effectiveness of the process.
4. Easy, clear, and smooth process.
5. Rewards for the performers.
6. Poor performance should be addressed with strict warnings.
7. Satisfaction level of the employees should be measured.
8. To find out reason why training required
9. Training program can be chosen based on employee's needs

Question # 2

Develop 10-question structured interview form Ron Browns service center managers can use to
interview experienced technicians.

Answer # 2
Being a practical and service-oriented job, the interview will require situational and
Behavioral
questions, because this will determine whether the person is capable and can satisfy
The customer. Some of the questions are given below…
1. Why are you interested in working in an automobile sector?
2. How would you describe yourself?
3. Why do you want to change positions?
4. Any specific skill that you think makes you an asset for the company?
5. In what ways are you qualified for this position?
6. Describe your most important strengths and weaknesses.
7. How would you handle a dissatisfied customer?
8. What would you do if a customer is not satisfied with your work?
9. How would you handle conflicts in your team?
10. Do you specialize in a certain area of auto mechanics?

Question # 3
If you were Ron Brown, would you implement the professor’s recommendation
addressing
the presenteeism problem in other words, start paying for sick days? Why or why not?

Answer # 3

Yes, I would, because company was incurring losses even when employees were not
Working the whole day, they were paid for the whole day also sick employees will make
the other Healthy employees sick too, but I will do some modifications in his
recommendation. I will give Paid sick leaves, but the employee will get only half day pay
as in case they were being paid for full day even if they were not working the whole day.
This will benefit the company in two ways; one that the company will save half of their
employee wages and second sick employees will not make other employees sick.

Question # 4

If you were advising Ron Brown, would you recommend that he implement the
professor s skill-based pay and incentive pay plan as is? Why? Would you implement it
with modifications? If you would modify it, please be specific about what you think those
modifications should be, and why.

Answer # 4

Yes, I would, because this will encourage the experienced technician, with a turnover of
more the 300% it is really getting hard to retain the experienced technician. As per
modification is concerned I don’t think so there is any need for modification.

Conclusion

Ron should follow the advice given by the professor because it will move away from
short-term thinking and hence propagate achievement of long-term goals. All her
recommendations in recruitment and selection, the pay plan and skill development are
related to the challenge of presenteeism or short-term thinking. Ron needs to move
away from this if he has any chance of strengthening the grasp he has upon his
organization