Insurance and procedural ethics: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. (2011)

Given insurers’ highly significant role… it would be relevant to reflect on their possible catalytic role … on the ethical conditions under which project risks are managed.

A. A. Kyrtsis, University of Athens
Journal of Business Ethics, 103(1), 45-61.
Insurance of techno-organizational ventures and procedural ethics: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

“Insurance underwriting for techno-organizational projects…can under certain circumstances significantly influence the internal processes in organizations or consortia undertaking projects which require sophisticated management of operational risks.

“This does not imply that insurance underwriters and other staff commissioned to monitor contracts should be regarded as responsible for ethical conditions which could facilitate operational efficiency and the avoidance of industrial accidents.

“However, given the highly significant institutional role of insurers for business ventures, it would be relevant to reflect on their possible catalytic role, or at least on the potential impact of insurance underwriting on the ethical conditions under which project risks are taken and managed.

“….. If insurers want to keep companies involved in complex techno-organizational ventures in the insurance market (ie. if they do not want to declare high risk projects as uninsurable), and this without excessively costly implications, they will have to do something about this. They will have to think about insurance innovations in the direction of combining care for procedural ethics (as the basis of loss prevention), with provisions and obligations extending over time, as part of formal insurance contracts.”

Access the full article here: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon explosion.