If you see something, say something vs corporate culture

I am positive that Tony  Hayward genuinely regrets the accident that is currently costing BP a fortune, destroying his career at BP after a life of climbing the corporate ladder, and possibly ruining the company that funds his pension plan. I'm one hundred percent certain that sitting in front of our congressmen and women today, he wished someone had said something about the problems with drilling that well before the accident happened. Today, if he could go back to before the explosion and be told what would happen, he would certainly believe that he'd have welcomed the news and given that prescient employee a medal and a big bonus.

But the truth is that "If you see something, say something," just isn't the way most corporations operate. Most corporate cultures operate on, "Go along to get along."

Of course the person who fails to predict a disaster may be sacrificed after a disaster. But most people who predict disasters are also sacrificed--or at least back-benched--whether the disaster comes true or not.

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