ABSTRACT
With this paper we rejoin the debate on the reframing of resistance to change (e.g. Dent & Goldberg, 1999; Piderit, 2000). Sustainable change management is often presented in terms of management’s decisions to do some new things that improve the green credentials and image of a company. Think of an organization such as British Petroleum (BP) that morphed into bp (beyond petroleum). Globally their petrol stations reflect the green ethos that they transmit in their advertising and
branding. Practically, however, in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, which is considered as the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, these representations are in tatters. When image and practice collide corporate representations can expect to take a hammering, especially when they become subject to forensic investigation in court. In the court proceedings launched by the justice Department in New Orleans prosecutors will seek to prove that gross negligence caused the 20 April 2010 blast that killed 11 workers and sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, gushing millions of barrels of oil into the sea.
