It is 2017. In an era of globalisation with a worldwide population totalling over 7 billion, colossal multinational companies have become entrenched in prevailing society, with their daily operations impacting the lives of millions of people. This has made the role of ethics and ethical business practice crucial to the goals of sustainable development and the preservation of social order. The ExxonMobil climate change controversy will examine a case where complex ethical decisions were made, with the potential for staggering ramifications on a global scale. This case study highlights the vital importance of stringent adherence to business ethics by transitional businesses but also the ambiguity that comes with ethical interpretation.
ExxonMobil is a United States based transnational oil and gas corporation. Founded on the 30th of November 1999 after the merger between Exxon and Mobil, reuniting the original breakup of standard oil company (Folsom Jr 1998). It is the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company by market value and as of 2016, the sixth largest in terms of revenue at $246 million per year (Decarlo 2016) . ExxonMobil’s oil and gas exploration stretches across six continents with
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Firstly, Upstream; which consists of oil exploration, extraction, shipping, and large-scale operations. Secondly, Downstream; which involves marketing, refining, development of modern technologies and retail operations. And finally, Chemical operations which includes the production of substances such as polyethylene, the most common plastic and polypropylene used for a range of things including underwear and rope .
The global span of ExxonMobil makes the importance of ethical behaviour paramount; however, this has not always been the case. Investigations (Banerjee 2015 & Various 2015) have revealed that ExxonMobil discovered the link between human activity and climate change years before it became a public issue. Instead of adapting its business model
In order to operate ethically in a global marketplace, corporations like Exxon Mobil need to define the conduct that they expect from their officers, executives, managers and employees. Without a defined code of conduct, employees feel forced to use their personal mores to determine what actions they should take in ethically ambiguous situations. Like children on a playground, employees need to know where the fences are so that they can work effectively.
This being despite the recession of 2008, we are witnessing an increasingly cooperative and sophisticated international business working environment. While it faces scrutiny in congress currently, the agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty was reached in October, 2015; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership treaty is also seemingly achievable with the revival of American economy in the near future. These new agreements will set up a worldwide business rule structure that will be fulfilled by many major economies. Within this new structure, businessmen and women will face ethical issues globally despite continuing cultural and regional factors still playing a big role within these issues and decisions being made. Learning and analyzing business ethical issues within the case competition will not only assist us to become global business leaders with a deep understanding of corporate social responsibilities but also prepare us to make better decisions for our
ExxonMobil is the largest publicly traded oil and gas producing company. ExxonMobil does business in 200 countries world-wide (1). Some countries are designated for exploring gas and petroleum, and some are designated for manufacturing chemicals, lubricants, and market fuels (1). ExxonMobil's world-class petroleum portfolio gives access to proven reserves of 21.9 billion oil-equivalent barrels of oil and gas, which is the highest in the industry (1). The company's discovered resources consist of 72 billion oil equivalent barrels of oil and gas. On average, each day, they produce 2.5 million barrels of oil and 10.5 billion cubic feet of gas (4). Their asset base, includes more than 60,000 production wells in 1,800 fields in 25 countries.
ExxonMobil is identified as one of the world’s leading oil and gas businesses. It manages market commodities and means countrywide. ExxonMobil is entail in “marketing, gas, and oil exploration, transportation and production in roughly 200 nations” (ExxonMobil, 2015). This company furnishes assistance and products under label names such as “Mobil, Esso, and Exxon. ExxonMobil is known as one of the biggest oil industrial installation where a substance is refined in the nation” (ExxonMobil, 2015). This essay discusses ExxonMobil’s strategic initiative from
(BP) happens to be one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. There operations include the exploration and production of natural gas and crude oil; to include the refining of crude oil; and the manufacturing of petroleum products.
Headquartered in Irving, Texas. Exxon Mobil Corporation is an energy company that explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas. As one of the largest manufacturers of petroleum products in the world, it transports and sells natural gas, crude oil, and oil products. Exxon is also a major manufacturer and marketer of commodity petrochemicals and a wide variety of specialty products. It also markets and refines chemicals, and has interests in power generation facilities. The company operates in two hundred plus countries in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East/Africa.
There is little controversy that Climate Change is occurring. However, what is causing this rapid change in temperature is still a heated discussion. Is it a natural cycle that the world goes through? Is it all because of human activity and an increase in greenhouse gases? Or is it a mixture of both where the world goes through natural cycles, but these cycles are accelerated and intensified due to humans?
Meanwhile, leading officials and shareholders have been attempting to push against Exxon’s misleading statements, and two Harvard researchers have recently proven that Exxon was deliberately attempting to deceive the public with the wording of their advertising and public statements. They say that while Exxon Mobil has attempted to frame itself in a positive light by contributing to climate change research, they are ultimately causing the worst kind of damage by continuing to publicly promote unscientific thinking which could negatively sway future policy making in the United States and other countries. The beliefs held by the people working against Exxon Mobil are essentially environmentalist, if more about wise use than deep ecology- they believe that the public, in particular shareholders, have a right to know about the ethics of what they might be investing in so they might choose more environmentally sound options when it’s logical and beneficial both for themselves and the
The importance of climate change, which is always debatable, has now become more controversial. It is believed that climate change has serveral negative impacts, thus it needs to be studied. As far as I am concerned, I strongly concur with the argument that causes and solutions need to be investigated. This article will elaborate the antropogenic impacts and potential solutions and thus lead to a logical conclusion.
When looking at the corporate businesses and the undoing of the human habitat; the United Nations has sanctioned many organizations to track climate change such as the UNEP, the World Meteorological Organization and the IPCC. Since the mid-eighties, these agencies have monitored the changes, yet have failed to convey the significance. Studies done by these agencies have concluded that the last fifty years are attributable to human activities and big corporations which lead to the changing in the compositions of the atmosphere throughout the 21st century (Saltori). These activities that are mentioned are those by means of businesses that grew into national conglomerates. Concurrent with business growth, the greenhouse gas emissions have grown seventy percent from 1970 to 2004 (Lehner). Recent studies have shown that 122 corporations produce eighty percent of greenhouse gases (IPCC). The climate is going to drastically change the world forever, but at whose expense? What exactly does the political eminence of these companies have
Exxon Mobil has a research and development department that is evolving its technologies to stay competitive. The company is continually working on assessing its products environmental life cycles to lessen the long term environmental impact. Exxon Mobil is striding for less greenhouse gas emissions then it has in the past.
Business Ethics can be defined as the critical and structured examination of how people & institutions should behave in the commerce world. Furthermore, it particularises the involvement of examining appropriate limitations upon the pursuit of complete self-interest; however, this may also apply for firm profits when the actions of each individual or firm affects others in some form. If the business really has no ethics, it can be concluded that the environment will suffer since the intention of business growth is far greater than environmental responsibility.
The economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.
While ExxonMobil’s engagement with communities that are proximal to their operations can often be described as proactive and
This report consists of financial analysis of Exxon Mobil Corporation and it is based on the company annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006, on the company’s official documents placed at their website and on other appropriate sources. For convenience and simplicity, in this report the terms ExxonMobil, Exxon, Esso and Mobil, as well as terms like Corporation, Company, their and its, are sometimes used as abbreviated references to specific affiliates or groups of affiliates.