Lose Control in Gas and Oil Industry Term Paper

Lose Control in Gas and Oil Industry - Term Paper Example Often, these salt producers found the oil and gas that erupted along with the salt brine to be a nuisance. However, some intrepid salt manufacturers sold it for medicinal purposes, or to burn as lighting fuel. Although the natural gas industry is purported to have begun in 1821, George Bissel and Edwin L. Drake created the first drilling rig that was ever used for the specific production of oil on August 28, 1859 near Titusville, Pennsylvania. This well, named the Drake, is considered the first intentional well drilled for oil, as other wells that were drilled at the time were for salt brine or water. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ History_of_the_petroleum_industry_in_the_United_States) The drilling for oil became a phenomenon that sparked many new enterprising companies to start their own oil-related ventures. This â€Å"boom† as it commonly referred to, created a need for workers on a massive scale that was not there in the past. They now needed refineries, drilling tools an d most importantly, manpower. There was so much money to be made in the drilling and production of these new wells that loss of a man’s 2 life became known as acceptable risk, and simply turned a blind eye to the likelihood of being injured or killed. In the oilfield’s infancy, the most common cause of death for these men was the well caving in on them, fires, and explosions. It was not until the year 1900, when a Texas man by the name of Curt Hamill came up with the revolutionary idea of using mud in the hole to flush it out as they drilled, instead of water. This proved to be a remarkable act, as not only did it allow the cuttings to surface, it prevented the hole from caving in. mud is used in just about every drilling operation world wide since. (http://www.enpetroleum.com/texasoilboom.html) 2. Training and Impact on the Oil and Gas Industry In today’s oil and gas industry, there is no longer an acceptable risk hazard associated with the work itself. A singl e death is not acceptable, regardless of the circumstance. Most commonly, deaths occur from either fire or unsafe work, although there are many variables in the number of recordable deaths in the oil and gas sector each year. Given today’s higher standards, the oil and gas business have implemented a wide variety of standards, assessments, and analyses on each type of work performed. These new instructions have greatly improved the production, as well as significantly increased the health and safety of all employees involved. The training of potential employees is extensive, with much emphasis on safety procedures and equipment. They receive this training before they are allowed to enter a location where drilling or fracturing is taking place. Even with company specific training, there are still many other classes all potential and present employees must attend. These include but are not limited to fall hazards and protection, tripping hazards, pinch points, chemicals and the ir uses, confined space 3 training, among other certifications. Another key point in the training of new employees is the stress put on what is commonly called stop work authority. This enables any employee to stop work if any perceived or real unsafe condition exists, without repercussion. This can include shutting down a job completely, and cost the company millions of dollars. This was implemented to ensure safe procedures, and safe work

Organisational Learning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisational Learning - Case Study Example This is particularly demonstrated at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, as explicated by Jack Dwyer (2004). According to Dwyer, Eglin's Air Armament Center (AAC), under the leadership of Gen. Robert W. Chedister, has become a learning organisation in the true sense of the term. Making this possible, is the motivation and focus of each individual and each team within the AAC to use learning in order to increasingly produce results. This is the ultimate aim of the paradigm shift that Gen. Chedister is leading in his organisation. To facilitate the process of creating a learning organisation, Gareth Morgan (1997) suggests using metaphor in order to view the organisational structure. Whereas organisations during the Industrial Age were largely viewed in a mechanistic way, the human factor has increasingly imposed itself. Since the 1960s particularly, managers have increasingly begun to realise that job satisfaction and the meaning derived from the work day positively influences the quality of the work delivered. Hence the mechanistic metaphor for the organisation has also made way for a more organic, flexible, and generally humanistic view. within a certain environment that it influences and that influences the organisation in turn. As such, the organisation adapts and survives according to and in response to the changes in the environment. In this way, the mechanistic view of the organisation makes way for a much more flexible view, in which organisations are open systems that can adapt to change rather than being destroyed by it. At the basis of this is the recognition that an organisation is a combination of human, business, and technical needs. This is very important for the learning paradigm. Larsen et al. (1996) emphasizes that individual learning translates to the benefit for the organisational organism as a whole via systems thinking. Systems thinking entails that the individual focuses on a whole system, rather than only its parts. In this way, patterns of behaviour are derived from the systems observed at work, and team learning can ensue. This is why the vision of the workplace as an integrated organism is important. Each individual has a role to play, but these roles do not exist in isolation. Instead, each role affects each other role, and the organisation's success depends upon the quality of each individual's work. As mentioned above, understanding this integration provides the individual with meaning and motivation at the workplace. Understanding the effect of his or her own work on the performance and success of others, provides the individual with work satisfaction, and the motivation to deliver the best possible work. Innovation as Learning Paradigm According to Dwyer (2004), this is precisely Chedister's point of view. The latter recognises the current business environment as one that demands innovation in all aspects of the company, including training methods. Indeed, Chedister himself adheres to the organic, learning business metaphor by applying his own work experience to his plans for the future. It is his aim to create an integrated business model, by means of which Eglin's collective learning assets can be