Carbide Bhopal Research Articles

ROOM AT THE TOP

JEFFREY P. KOPLAN HAS ANnounced his resignation as director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, effective March 31. He has spent 26 years in public service and nearly four years at the helm of CDC. His departure leaves vacant four top health positions at a time when the Bush Administration is focusing on responding to bioterrorism. Under Koplan, CDC has branched out from an agency mainly concerned with infectious diseases to one stressing the prevention of chronic health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. In the 1970s, he worked to eradicate smallpox in Bangladesh, and in 1984 he assessed the health effects of the methyl isocyanate accident at Union Carbide's Bhopal, India, facility. Koplan and CDC have drawn criticism for their response to last October's anthrax outbreaks and for seemingly not placing enough emphasis on bioterrorism. But Koplan counters that CDC responded swiftly and effectively to the nation's first ...

Persuasion, Probity, and Paltering: The Prudential Crisis

In July, 1996, the Prudential Insurance Company agreed to pay a record fine of $35 million for misleading sales practices (Scism, 1996). This agreement followed a series of accusations of fraud and misrepresentation which have plagued Prudential since the late 1980's. After a 30-member task force with representatives from 11 states and the District of Columbia concluded that agents communicated improperly, Prudential Insurance is paying millions of dollars in restitution to over 10 million policy holders to settle allegations of impropriety. When evidence was uncovered showing agents had persuaded customers to convert the built-up cash value of older policies to finance newer, more expensive ones, it became clear that some customers did not fully understand the (Merrill Lynch, 1995; Gilpin, 1996). Prudential was guilty of misrepresentation and paltering. Persuasion, whether executed individually, or as the collective behavior of individuals in an organization, is the act of motivating an audience to voluntarily change an attitude, belief or behavior (O'Keefe, 1990). According to Aristotle, coercion and manipulation, the sometimes subtle deviants of persuasion, occur when communicators lack character, goodwill, and the desire to be virtuous (Oswald, 1962). Paltering, or talking in an insincere, equivocal manner, occurs when communicators ignore ethical values. Character, goodwill, and virtue comprise the core of communication ethics, which attempts to distinguish normatively the roles and responsibilities of the ethical communicator and the boundaries of ethical communication. Reinsch's definition of management communication ethics as 'the study of the rhetorical rights and duties of persons performing the role of manager in business transactions (1996, p. 350) focuses on both the obligations and the privileges inherent in communication. This essay explores communication ethics, including the rhetorical rights and duties of managers, by examining discourse and actions of The Prudential Company. Its corporate communicative behavior is contrasted against the fretwork of assumptions which lie behind ethical behavior. Documents which address Prudential's recovery from the ethical crisis have been analyzed to examine how the company has addressed the crisis and attempted to repair its reputation. Organizational Crises Like Union Carbide (Ice, 1991), Exxon (Tyler, 1997) and NASA (Suchan, 1995), Prudential suffered an ethical crisis. Because organizations build and maintain numerous relationships with diverse publics (Katz & Kahn, 1978), an ethical crisis, particularly if it is handled poorly, can strike a severe blow to the organization's reputation. Crises require that an organization manage its legitimacy (Allen & Caillouet, 1994) and restore its external image (Benoit & Brinson, 1994). In order to avoid a recurrence, the organization must develop effective external communication strategies along with a necessary cultural change in the organization (Ross & Benson, 1995). Corporate discourse, used to shape public perceptions of the corporation (Crable & Vibbert, 1986), is especially important in a crisis, yet the crisis management literature frequently neglects the communication component (Hearit, 1994). Public opinion must be managed to produce positive impressions and minimize damage (Sturges, 1994); different audiences must be addressed individually. If insufficient attention is paid to rhetorical strategies across diverse publics, organizations may not recover from their crises. Ice's cogent analysis of Union Carbide's Bhopal incident reveals its failure to analyze various audiences and respond accordingly (1991). In reviewing corporate accidents and crises, Marcus and Goodman found rhetorical strategies of accommodation useful to both victims and shareholders and evidence that stock prices responded positively when both were given due consideration (1991). Scandals, perhaps the most organizationally devastating kind of crises, are events which disgrace, discredit, and compromise the organization's reputation. …

The Mad cow crisis: health and the public good

The announcement that BOSER might cause a fatal human disease Creutzfeldt- Jacob disease CJD triggered enormous media attention, public alarm and government wrangling that threatened the future of European integration.; As Scott Ratzan argues: is my belief that the [BOSER crisis] represents a quintessential case that will go down in history as the Exxon Valdez Union Carbide's Bhopal accident, and other such cases of interdisciplinary study.; This book offers lessons learned from the crisis, with contributions from experts with different viewpoints - veterinarians, Eurocrats, public relations experts, politicians, policy- makers, journalists and representatives of the beef industry.; It also offers a compilation of the key reports from governmental bodies. as a case-study in policy-making, scientific/health discovery and dissemination of information, as well as looking at the issues from the perspective of psychology and media studies.

Union carbide's Bhopal incident: A retrospective

This article examines the actual events of the Bhopal gas disaster as a prelude to considering the social treatment of catastrophic risks of this variety. In the context of the conference, Bhopal is held out to be symbolic of man-made catastrophes having sudden impact and is therefore the contrasting episode to an examination of the symbolic episode for gradual man-made catastrophes, asbestos liability. Bhopal is then connected to the circumstances which created a shortage of commercial catastrophe liability insurance in the 1980s. Its influence on the restructuring of the market is then discussed. A commentary on the buying habits of large industrial corporations is also included.

The Bhopal accident

The events preceding and following the accidental release of methylisocyanate (MIC) at Union Carbide's Bhopal, India, plant are examined. Three types of error are described: human, technological, and system. Policies involving toxic materials handling in developing countries are clearly inadequate and require modification.

Re-evaluating plant safety

release of toxic methyl isocyanate gas from Union Carbide's Bhopal, India, plant into a highly populated area on Dec. 3, 1984, triggered a worldwide re-evaluation of health and safety procedures for control of hazardous materials. The Chemical Industry after Bhopal publishes the papers presented at a symposium held in London in November 1985 that explored various aspects of chemical health and safety from an international viewpoint. 15 papers represent the thoughts of experts from the U.S., the U.K., and India who explored how the future of the chemical industry and related industries will be influenced by world reaction to Bhopal. book presents both generalizations and highly specific data. For example, a paper by Ian Smith on pressure relief systems as an integral but often overlooked part of plant design and control is an especially strong starting point for anyone seriously concerned about reassessing plant systems. book discusses the experiences and safety programs ...