Unethical Business Practice of Bribery by Shell

Unethical Business Practice of Bribery by Shell 1.3 Introduction As globalization increases many organizations indulge in unethical practices to achieve growth and profit maximization. Consequently, the examples of such companies include LOreal, Nike, Wal-Mart, Shell etc. Shell, is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. They have their headquarters situated in Hague, the Netherlands.ÂÂ  The parent company of the Shell group is Royal Dutch Shell plc, which is incorporated in England and Wales. Shells operated in more than 90 countries and has an approximate of 93000 employees. Their production mainly consists of forty eight percent of natural gas and around 3.3million barrels of gas and oil is produced per day. Shell has established forty three service stations worldwide. According to a survey conducted in 2010, theyve sold an estimated 145 billion litres of fuel. The Company has two main streams, upstream which explores for and extracts crude oil and natural gas and Downstream which refines supplies, trades and ships crude wo rldwide, manufactures and markets a range of products, and produces petrochemicals for industrial customers. According to their financial report of 2010, with the capital invested of $30.6 billion and $1 billion in Investment in research and development, they had an income of $20.5billion with revenue of $368.1 billion (Shell, 2010). 1.4 Historical Background Shell was born during days of the oil boom and started out in the shadow of John D. Rockefellers Standard oil monopoly. Royal Dutch/Shell was the result of a merger in 1907 between the British-based Shell Transport and Trading Company, which pioneered the use of seagoing oil tankers and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, which made its fortune developing new oil fields in Borneo and Sumatra. Marcus Samuel was an enterprising fellow who decided to greet ships returning to England from India, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East and offer to buy any trinkets and curious that sailors had collected abroad. In the 1890s, the French Rothchild family decided to go into business exploiting the oil fields opening up in Baku in Russia. Needing a partner to help them transport and sell the oil, they turned to Marcus Samuel the younger. After a brief trip to the Caucasus, Marcus Samuel decided that the only way to take on the near monopoly grip that Standard Oil held was to radically reduce oil tr ansportation costs. During that time kerosene was transported in crates of tin containers. Loading the fuel into these relatively small containers, crating them, and loading them onto ship as time consuming, expensive and inefficient, Samuel argued. It would be much preferable to just pipe the oil into a tanker ship. In 1907, Sir Marcus Samuel and Henri Deterding merged the Shell Transport and Trading Company with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company to create Royal Dutch/Shell. The company is owned forty percent by the Shell Transport and Trading Company and sixty percent by the Royal Dutch Petroleum (History of Business, 2010). In the 1980s, Shell sought to grow through acquisition. It bought out the remaining 30% shareholding in Shell Oil in 1985 to consolidate its American operations. The 1980s saw the development of offshore exploration projects, which were in much more challenging conditions than had previously been attempted.ÂÂ  The 1990s Shell saw the technology of biomass fuels and Gas to Liquids make giant leaps forward.ÂÂ  Shell was criticized over the Brent Spar episode in 1995, which centered on its plans to dispose of the storage platform. The Group learned that public opinion had become much more sensitive to environmental issues. In the next decade, the Group worked much harder to open a dialogue with interested parties regarding its environmental impact and to develop good relations with the communities affected by its work. Another problem to hit the Group arose from its presence in the Nigerian region of Ogoniland. The tribal minority in the Ogoni were aggrieved with the Nigerian government because they felt denied a proper share of federal revenues from the oil, and what they saw as other fundamental human rights. Their champion was the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. The oil companies were targeted as collaborators with the corrupt government. Shell was accused of environmental despoliation. The story achieved international notoriety when Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues were sentenced to death by hanging for their activities. Shell has since strived to follow a policy of demonstrating its community of interests and reciprocal good feeling with both the governments and the local populaces it deals with. The 1990s were notable for Shell for the development of the LNG gas business. Improved transportation and rising demand made this area of the Groups activities increasingly important and are expected to continue to do so in the first decades of the twenty-first century (Shell, 2010). 1.5 Report Preview This report examines various unethical practices of Shell. Firstly, it investigates upon the historical background of Shell. Moreover, we have related Shells immoral issues to the ethical theories. Along with these principles we also suggest some recommendations which could be reasonably essential for Shell to operate in a better and efficient manner. Finally, the report concludes with importance on ethics, corporate social responsibility and with our suggestion on its unethical action. 2.0 Shells Unethical practices: In 2010, Shell was accused of bribery practice with Nigerian officials in order to gain profit. Shell bribed Nigerian officials to make it easier for them to import goods and equipment, get lower taxes and avoid the customs. Shell said that it paid 2 million U.S Dollars to its Nigerian Workers in its deep water Bonga Project. Shell actually knew that part of the money will go to Nigerian officials whom will make shell avoid the customs process. This will give shell an obvious competitive advantage in the market. Shell actually gained $14million profit from this bribery of the Bonga project. Shell will pay $48.1 million dollars in order to settle probes by the U.S Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. In January 2004, fraudulent overstatement of proven hydrocarbon reserves by Shell in Form F20 returns filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission(John Donovan,2007). Shell has given misleading and wrong statements about its reserves. It paid a $120 million fine for this claims settlement. One of the famous unethical practices by Shell was causing the high levels of pollution in Nigeria.40% of shells oil spills worldwide was in Nigeria. The oil spill also caused water contamination. It caused oil pollution in the Ogoniland region for the past 40 years or so. The pipelines were built in front of the peoples houses and in their farmlands. They suffered oil leaks through the pipelines. This has totally destroyed the environment over there. It killed the aquatic life; killing many fishes. Also enveloped the land with oil. This has been really devastating for the Ogoni people, economically and healthy, since their economy depends mainly on fishing and farming. People suffered respiratory diseases such as bronchial asthma; and cancer. Lots of vegetation is dying, especially Mangrove swamps, due to wastes of oil in the Niger River. The reason Shell has been successful in doing these unethical practices in Nigeria is because they used to bribe the Nigerian officials frequently to ease the process. Royal Dutch Shell Blames oil spills on sabotage to its equipment ( Chima Williams,2009). This explains how rude and unethically they take responsibility for their awful actions. According to the Covalence ethical ranking in 2008, saw Shell in the 510 position out of 541 multinational companies. Covalence s ethical quotation system is a reputation index based on quantifying qualitative data and It is a barometer of how multinationals are perceived in the ethical field(John Donovan 2009). The covalence ethical ranking is based on important issues such as Human rights policy, Waste Management, Labor standards and product social utility. A research done by Management and Excellence in 2005 sees Shell as the number 1 most ethical oil company in the world. But by the end of 2011, Shells position is expected to deteriorate much due to the bribery scandal it suffered for the last few months. 2.1 Conoco Phillips: Conoco Phillips is a Non-government owned American oil and Gas Corporation. Its the 3rd largest of the oil majors worldwide. It works in all different aspects in oil and natural gas industry such as Midstream, Petrochemicals, and Refining and Marketing. The company was formed as a result of a merger between Conoco and Philips in 2002. Its major competitors are Shell, British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil. Conoco Philips is one of the few Oil companies that suffer unethical issues. According to Conoco Philips, Our mission is to do more than to deliver energy. It has a long term commitment to achieve the top ethical standards and create a culture that encourages honesty and responsibility in everything they do. Conoco Philips values the importance of corporate transparency and ethics as they are a major drive for consumers and stakeholders confidence. A proof of ConocoPhillipss environmental concern is that it spent $80 million dollars to develop new technologies for unconventional and alt ernative energy sources. ConocoPhillips is a member of the U.S Climate Action Partnership, which is a group of businesses, major corporations and environmental organization with a goal to pressure the U.S Government to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. ConocoPhillips spent around $150 million dollars 2007 on research and development of alternative energy sources and new technologies- which is almost a 50% increase compared to the $80 million dollar spent in 2006. 2.2 Shell vs. ConocoPhillips Shell is the 2nd biggest company in the world in terms of revenue, which makes it more profitable than ConocoPhillips (16th). Actually, after the recent bribery issues about Shell, its position will eventually drop in the next few years. They will suffer from employee turnover, loss of company reputation and lots of other disadvantages which will not enable them to be more profitable like before. Whilst for ConocoPhillips, its very predictable that this company will get closer to Shell in terms of revenue and why not surpass it, due to its ethical practices! Thats why Shell should have good ethical policies like that of ConocoPhillips and actually adapt this policy and not violate it. 3.0 Recommendations and Facts: 3.1 Recommendations First of all if Shell wants to get back its reputation after the Nigeria bribery incident, they have to change their vision, not the written vision statement, in fact they have to change their insight toward the business they are doing and try to change their practices in a way that help and satisfy people instead of hurting them. They should keep in mind that business is not about gaining profit from whatever way, rather it is about gaining profit from providing services in a way that satisfies customers and if they act ethically eventually they will gain enough profit as they have satisfied people behind their back who support the company (Tempo, 2005). Shell should be considered guilty in this case and be fined for their unethical business practice. Furthermore, Nigerian government should be accountable and responsible for their action as well. The amount of fine that usually determined by courts should be either used for research purposes or as financial aid to help people around the globe. If they do so, Shell will force to do something that they escaped from and try to improve their instruments and facilities by doing research and development instead of trying to gain profit without thinking about safety and effects of their action on stakeholders (Tempo, 2005). More strict rules and regulations regarding the bribery issue and control of governments over their companies can lead to termination of bribery in long term. If Shell maintains a strict No Bribe policy, in long term bribe takers wont ask for it anymore. Then even if they fail in their business they wont blame themselves for paying bribes and they will know that there was something wrong with their facilities and services. 3.2 Facts The main reason that shell wanted to bribe Nigerian government was that they wanted to pay less taxes and easier import of their needed equipment, which eventually leads to higher profit. Thus they only looked for profit and to reach that, they choose bribery as an unethical practice. They shouldnt do that because even if we dont consider bribery as an unethical practice it was illegal and against law in Nigeria, however we know that bribery is an unethical practice indeed. The next thing is that bribery encourages corruption, and this action hurts the poor the most as they have to pay for something which is free and they get into trouble for paying the amount, because they cannot afford it. When a large company like Shell practices, in this case bribery, which is defiantly unethical, this act will spread to the whole society and affect the society in large (Tempo, 2005). Moreover when you start paying bribe for the first time it leads to demand for more bribes and work as a kind of temptation. So it is better never start it. Aid agencies trying to provide free services for those who need help and it is not morally accepted and expected from officials to try to make money from those services that supposed to be free. We believe and agree that Shell did something which is morally wrong and ethical person wont advocate it, but there is a positive point in shells case. Shell accepted that they did and unethical and wrong action and admitted their mistake, they also agreed to pay $48m in criminal and civil fines. However shell had to admit their mistake but still we can consider it as a positive movement from shell and we can hope that Shell try to be an ethical company from now onwards, stop their unethical business practices and try to gain profit while following ethical business practices (Temp,2005). 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, we all agree that bribery is an unethical business practice and it is not expected from large company such as Shell to practice such actions. It is not only the case that Shell paid bribe, the most important thing is that such actions, eventually leads to corruption of society which all of us believe to be destructive. Shell can follow Conoco Phillips and invest in research and development and try to improve its facilities, and by doing this they might earn less profit in the short term but they can be proud of themselves by being an ethical company and gaining more profit than their competitors in the long term as they will have new technologies and facilities in future because they invest in research and development today. Shell Should be accountable for what they did and be responsible for their unethical behavior and try to stop such acts in future if they want to build their reputation again as people and stakeholders wont trust Shell as long as they continue bein g unethical. However if Shell really wants to be changed and get back its reputation they can do it by clarifying their vision among themselves and act ethically.

Nuclear Fusion :: essays research papers

Nuclear Fusion For a fusion reaction to take place, the nuclei, which are positively charged, must have enough kinetic energy to overcome their electrostatic force of repulsion. This can occur either when one nucleus is accelerated to high energies by an accelerating device, or when the energies of both nuclei are raised by the application of very high temperature. The latter method, referred to the application of thermonuclear fusion, is the source of a lot of really cool energy. Enough energy is produced in thermonuclear fusion to suck the paint of 1 city block of houses and give all of the residents permanent orange Afros. The sun is a example of thermonuclear fusion in nature. If I was a atom, I could only wish to be in a thermonuclear reaction. Thermonuclear reactions occur when a proton is accelerated and collides with another proton and then the two protons fuse, forming a deuterium nucleus which has a proton, neutrino and lots of energy. I have no idea what a deuterium nucleus is, but is must be 10 times cooler than just a regular nucleus. Such a reaction is not self sustaining because the released energy is not readily imparted to other nuclei. thermonuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium will produce a helium nucleus and an energetic neutron that can help sustain further fusion. This is the basic principal of the hydrogen bomb which employs a brief, controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction. This was also how the car in the Back to the Future movie worked. It had a much more sophisticated system of producing a fusion reaction from things like, old coffee grounds, bananas, and old beer cans. Thermonuclear reactions depend on high energies, and the possibility of a low-temperature nuclear fusion has generally been discounted. Little does the scientific community know about my experiments. I have produced cold fusion in my basement with things like: stale bread, milk, peanut butter and flat Pepsi. I have been able to produce a ten-megaton reaction which as little as a saltine cracker and some grass clippings. But enough about my discoveries. Early in 1989 two electrochemists startled the scientific world by claiming to achieve a room- temperature fusion in a simple laboratory. They had little proof to back up their discovery, and were not credited with their so-called accomplishment. The two scientists were Stanley Pons of the university of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton in England. They described their experiment as involving platinum electrodes an electrochemical cell in which palladium and platinum were immersed in heavy water. These two losers said that

A company, interested in the design Essay

Gabriel Oak’s character has developed a lot in ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. He started off as ‘clumsy and foolish’ and he ended up as ‘heroic’. A hero is a man admired for achievements and noble qualities; In this case this word does not refer to someone with superhuman powers! The first description of Gabriel Oak: ‘on working days, he was a man of sound judgement, easy motions, proper dress and general good character’. Hardy’s description implies that there is nothing special about Farmer Oak; that he is just an average man. Hardy also states, that on a Sunday, a non-working day; Oak is a kind of pepper and salt mixture. This means that he is normal; he is a man with ‘balanced’ morals. Another thing that Hardy uses to bring across Oak’s personality is the way he dresses. This gives people more idea about Oak’s character and personality. His clothes were very practical but they made him look ‘clumsy and foolish’. Hardy also states that Gabriel was a source of some amusement; his watch was very difficult to get out, apart from being amusing, this also demonstrates that Oak doesn’t need to use modern conventions to tell the time. He can use the position of the sun and stars to tell the time. This is an example of how close he is to nature. This is also hinted in his name: Gabriel ‘oak’, the word oak is used to describe him as ‘natural and sturdy’ like the oak tree. In the 1st chapter, Bathsheba is in a carriage laden with goods, she is stopped at a toll gate and she refuses to pay the toll. When Farmer Oak sees this he steps in and pays the man at the gate the money needed to let Bathsheba pass. This shows that Oak is a generous and bold man. Generosity is one of Oaks many ‘noble qualities’. In chapter 5, Hardy demonstrates one of Gabriel’s first changes in character: one of Farmer Oak’s dogs rounded up and chased all of his flock over the cliff. This lost him a lot of money as the sheep were not insured and ruined his livelihood. His first thought was of pity, he felt pity for the sheep, after this Gabriel muttered: â€Å"Thank God I am not married: what would she have done in the poverty now coming upon me! † This proves Oak to be a very humble and kind man, he did not think of himself or the debts he now had. This demonstrates another noble quality that Farmer Oak has: selflessness. It also shows Oak’s true feelings about Bathsheba. In chapter 6, Hardy also demonstrates Oak’s heroism: there was a fire at the farm in weatherbury, a rick of straw had caught fire in a barn. There was a crowd of spectators all panicking, none of them new what to do. Gabriel immediately and calmly took charge of the panicking crowd. He called for a ladder and began putting out the fire himself with no concern of his own personal safety. This was a very heroic act by Gabriel. He was described as ‘bold’ by one of the bystanders. In chapter 21, there is another disaster at Bathsheba’s farm, one of her flocks of sheep managed to get into a clover field and they are all going to die. Bathsheba sends for Farmer Oak; he is the one who knows how to cure them, as Oak has just been sacked from the farm, he is reluctant to come back and help. Although, Gabriel swallows his pride and goes to the farm and began to cure the sheep very calmly and precisely: â€Å"Gabriel began to use it with a dexterity that would have graced a hospital surgeon. † This is a very heroic act, he swallows his own pride and helps someone else, he didn’t even think about receiving a reward, he did it out of his own kindness and his own concern for the animals. In chapter 36, Gabriel realises that there is lots of Bathsheba’s produce exposed to rain. He goes back inside to fetch help but everybody has passed out because they were drunk. Gabriel, rather than leaving it and hoping it would not rain, begins work atop the rick with no concern for his own safety. This is a very helpful and heroic thing to do. In chapter 37, Gabriel Oak is working on top of one of the ricks of straw in a powerful lightning storm. Bathsheba comes up to help Oak; they then begin to engage in an intimate conversation in which Bathsheba turns to Gabriel for guidance. Once again, Farmer Oak puts his own feelings aside and guides Bathsheba. Thomas Hardy made Gabriel Oak the hero in this novel, at the end of the novel, Gabriel’s noble qualities finally paid off and he managed to marry Bathsheba Everdene; he was always the one standing by her side, supporting and helping her in whatever she did. Hardy implied this by his name- he was a ‘rooted’ form of support. This shows Farmer Oak as a true hero, putting his feelings aside to help others.

Definition and Examples of Stative Verbs

In English grammar, a stative verb is a  verb used primarily to describe a state of being  (I am) or situation (I have). Its how something is, feels, or appears. These verbs dont show physical action (I run) or processes (It prints). Stative verbs can describe a mental or emotional state of being (I doubt) as well as a physical state (Kilroy was here). The situations illustrated by state verbs are unchanging while they last and can continue for a long or indefinite time period. Key Takeaways: Stative Verbs Stative verbs are not action or dynamic verbs.  Stative verbs describe how something is or seems or a mental process.Revise them out of your writing to increase imagery and details in a passage. Common examples include be, have, like, seem, prefer, understand,  belong, doubt, hate,  and  know, such as in the saying, We  are  what we  believe  we  are. These types of words are also known as  being verbs (especially in the case of be, am, is, are, was, and were), or  static verbs.  Contrast them with  dynamic verbs, which show action. Types of Stative Verbs Four types of stative verbs include: senses, emotion, being, and possession. Theres no one right way to classify them, of course, and some words can fit in multiple categories, depending on the context of their usage. Geoffrey Leach and colleagues group the four types this way: (a) Perception and sensation (e.g.  see, hear, smell, hurt, taste)...(b) Cognition, emotion, attitude (e.g.  think, feel, forget, long, remember)...(c) Having and being (e.g.  be, have, have to, cost, require)...(d) Stance (e.g.  sit, stand, lie, live, face) (Geoffrey Leech, Marianne Hundt, Christian Mair, and Nicholas Smith, Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study. Cambridge University Press, 2012) Sensing Verbs Senses and perception verbs include data coming into your five senses: SeeHearSmellTasteSeemSoundLookSense Emotion and Thought Verbs Emotion and thought verbs include: LoveHateAdoreLikeDespiseDoubtFeelBelieveForgetRememberLongAgree/disagreeEnjoyNeedThinkRecognizePreferUnderstandSuspectAppear Possession Verbs Possession verbs include: HaveBelongIncludeOwnWant Being/Qualities Verbs Verbs that describe states of  being include: Be/Are/IsWeighContainInvolveContainConsist Writing Advice: Revise Them Out Some writing advice will tell you never to use to be verbs, but sometimes theyre unavoidable. Of course, if you can revise a paragraph that has a bunch of lifeless verbs into one where theres more action, thats typically the way to go, as it makes your writing more dynamic and sensory for the reader.   For example, look at the sentence, His room was a mess. This description could mean a lot of things to different people, such as a neat freak vs. a clutter bug. But if you revise to include sensory imagery and more description, youll have a much fuller experience for the reader and less ambiguity. Revised description: Piles of dirty clothes rose from the floor, books and papers covered the desk, and trash overflowed the wastebasket. Grammar: To Be but Not to Being Though stative verbs can be in the present, past, or future tenses, theyre not usually in motion. That is, stative verbs usually dont occur in the progressive  form (an -ing verb form paired with a helper, such as in are trying; you wouldnt say, for example, I am having a pencil.)   Of course, our malleable English language is made up of exceptions to the rules. Susan J. Behrens, in Grammar: A Pocket Guide, notes, [T]here is some advertising that plays with stative verbs. The McDonalds slogan Im loving it uses a stative verb in the present progressive form (Routledge, 2010). These types of usages are becoming more common, denoting conditions that are temporary, such as in, Youre looking awesome tonight. Some argue that you cant use them in the imperative mood (the command form, such as in the sentence Come with me), but there are plenty of exceptions here, too, because even though the contexts where you use them in this way would be pretty narrow, they still exist. You could give someone an item and say, Have it. You could plead with someone, Love me, or make a person bristle by forcefully imploring, Understand this... Exceptions: Both Stative and Dynamic English also has plenty of gray areas, where a word isnt always only in one or the other category—sometimes words are stative and sometimes active. As with so many things in English, it depends on context. Sylvia Chalker and Tom McArthur explained, It is generally more useful to talk of stative and dynamic meaning and usage  [rather than types alone]...Some verbs belong to both categories but with distinct meanings, as with have in She has red hair  [stative] and She is having dinner [active] (The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press, 1992). Another example could be with the word feel. Someone can feel sad (a state of being), and a person can also physically feel a texture (an action). They can also  tell others to check it out as well: Feel how soft!   Or even think can be in both categories, even though it doesnt seem like a very dynamic process. Compare the usage of  I think thats really lousy with the famous scene in Back to the Future when Biff comes up to George in the cafe and commands him, Think, McFly! Think, while knocking on his head.