Danubius International Conferences, 7th International Conference The Danube - Axis of European Identity

The Management of Crisis Situations in Public Relations - "Deepwater Horizon” Petroleum Platform

Mihai Teodoru
Last modified: 2017-07-03

Abstract

Researches in the field have shown that, apart from the economic-financial and classical managerial aspects, one of the main factors that can lead to the failure of an organization is a public image that is not workable. Here are some legitimate questions: how much is the trajectory of an organization of its public image affected, how is this picture affected by the emergence of a crisis of any kind, and especially how it affects the public image of an organization, the confidence of its audiences? The motivation for choosing this theme derives from the curiosity and willingness to document this subject, because I consider it very present and up-to-date and of utmost importance to any organization, and at the same time it is also a real challenge. This is the Beyond Petroleum Company and the way it handled the oil spill crisis at the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. We chose this case both because of its size and the huge impact it had the subsequent economic dynamics of the company concerned, its publications, and the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.