Research Paper on:
Organizational Culture of British Petroleum

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
followed the "old style" of management (involving hierarchies and other corporate structures), corporations were forced to change in response to cycles in the economy (the recession of the late 1980s  forced the "lean mean" culture of today) and globalization, in which corporations had to shed outdated notions in order to compete effectively not just locally and regionally, but worldwide. As  such, corporations have had to go through changes --or perish. Business books are littered with the failure of such companies that refused to change; Pan American Airlines, once the pioneer  in world travel around the world, folded during the 1990s because the companys management still lived in the 1930s. The same thing  has occurred with the energy industry. For the most part, many energy corporations have been slow to initiate change simply because senior management prefers to do things a certain way  and is loathe to change. In one such situation, however, British Petroleum has gone the opposite of its competitors and has initiated a great deal of change in a variety  of areas, areas that will be outlined and examined in this paper. Known today as one of the "great British Brands"  (Anonymous, 2002), British Petroleum, now known as "BP" operates in 100 countries in six continents, runs 26,500 gasoline/petrol stations and employees 110,000 people (Anonymous, 2002). Its rise from humble beginnings  in the Middle East, when the Shah of Persia (now Iran) in 1901 granted Englishman William Knox Darcy a concession to explore oil, to the powerhouse it is today is  no accident, however. Much of BPs success has certainly come from its many mergers, however, it has also come from its organizational culture, and the ability of its leaders to