Deepwater Horizon Biases

The extent that decision making biases placed in the decisions for the Deepwater Horizon case and the specific bias present was availability heuristic bias. The crew on the Deepwater Horizon had never encountered a situation of this magnitude before. The employees of Transocean and BP were arguing about what to do because of the negativity test. They were both relying on information from memory on how to handle the situation. Another biases present in this situation was escalation of commitment bias. Since the authorities had already set out on a course of action and at first they were not alarmed, they continued to monitor the situation instead of taking action. During the investigation the authorities discussed the fact that there was a misunderstanding as to the seriousness of the situation (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). …show more content…
The characteristic of normative decision making in this case is that the crew’s decision making was bounded rationality. The decision makers failed to evaluate all potential solutions to the situation. When the negative test first happened they ignored the warning signs and proceeded with the steps to complete the well. The crew was not paying attention to the amount of fluid that was leaving the well. The characteristics of the garbage can model was that by the time the situation was critical nobody really know what to do to stop the pressure in the well from rising. With the pressure rising on the drill pipe and workers losing control, the workers were at a loss of what to do. The managers in charge were arguing about the situation which left the workers with no other choice than to act on their own (Kreitner & Kinicki,