Public Services in Contemporary Society: A British Petroleum Analysis

This report analyzes public services in contemporary society, emphasizing the impact of digital technology on service delivery, particularly within the context of British Petroleum (BP). It examines the development of public services, highlighting the shift from manual to digital operations, and how firms like BP leverage technology for innovation, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. The report delves into BP's operational structure, differentiating between upstream and downstream activities, and details how technology enhances exploration, extraction, refining, and marketing. It further identifies funding sources for public sector organizations and their allocation strategies. The study underscores the importance of digital transformation in improving public services and driving business growth within the oil and gas industry, providing insights into how BP adapts to technological advancements to maintain a competitive edge. The report also discusses the role of social media, data analysis, and automation in improving operational efficiency.

Public Services in
Contemporary Society

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Analysing the development of Public services. ..................................................................1
P2. Analysing the development of British petroleum................................................................2
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................4
P3. Identifying the operational structure of British petroleum ..................................................4
P4. Analysing the way public sector is held responsible for its activities as well as directions
both operationally and strategically............................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5. Types of sources of funding available to the public sector organization. ...........................7
P6 Identify how funding is allocated to different public sector organizations...........................9
P7 Describing the strategy, structure and role of British Petroleum........................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Public service is basically services which is provided by government to domestic people.
Contemporary society can be referred to as setting characterized by technological innovation.
The main motive of public enterprises is to provide basic services as well as facilities to people.
Emergence of the digital technology has bought positive change in the way the services are
delivered by public sector organization. Advancement in technology has enabled public
enterprise to improve the quality of services being delivered to people. Some of the technology
such as MIS and artificial intelligence has made significant contribution in assisting public
enterprise in increasing the productivity.
The report has focus analysing the way digital technology has influenced the service
provision of the public sector organization in context of British petroleum. It is basically a most
popular oil and gas company in UK. Study also emphasizes on analysing the operational
structure of public sector organization. The strategy which is utilized by the public sector
enterprise will be highlighted in the assignment. Objective of assignment is to the way funding is
allocated for different public sector firm.

TASK 1
P1. Analysing the development of Public services.
Public services are services which are provided by government. Public sector in United
Kingdom has undergone drastic change after the digitalization. Advancement in technology has
provided public enterprise with an opportunity to provide more services as well as facilities to
customers. But with the advancement in technology the expectation of the customers from the
public limited companies are increasing. People in the society wants to have access to products
or services offered by public limited firm irrespective of time as well as place. It is considered to
be as a bigger change which public enterprises required to bring, as all the work in such firms
was done manually as well as offline (Andrews and Ashworth, 2015.). For instance, with the
support of the digital technology, companies in oil and gas sector such as British Petroleum has
implemented the digital technology in order to provide online payment facilities to customers.
The advancement in the technology has enabled the companies in oil and gas sector to
facilitate innovation. Firms in oil and gas industry are enjoying the benefits of digitalisation.
As since many years business entities in oil and gas industry was dependent on huge amount of
data for discovering as well as developing the understanding about the potential of their
reservoir. The advancement in technology has enabled public limited firm in oil and gas industry
to explore as well as capture more production opportunities which has positive effect on their
growth. In addition to this, Emergence of digital technology, such as social media has provided
companies in oil and gas industry to gain the feedback from the customers, which can be
beneficial in terms of bringing improvement (Elston, 2017). It is the social media which has
enabled public enterprising in developing the understanding as well as meeting the expectations
of clients.
The advancement in the technology has positive effect on the development of public
services. It is the advance technology which has provided government with more effective ways
to protect as well as maintain infrastructure. In addition to this, advance technology has enabled
government to have safe as well as secure interactions with Citizens. In context of UK, legal
authority in nation is planning to implement the digital transformation project. ^The main aim of
government in relation to embedding of digital transformation services is to provide 86 digital
services top people in the society (Gatenby and et.al., 201). After the implementation of specific
project, people in the society will able to accomplish their objectives by just complying with

simple online procedure. The public limited firms need to concentrate on bringing improvement
in their infrastructure. By adopting the digital technology, public limited firm has been able to
provide its workers with flexible working hours or remote working. One of the biggest
challenges which is to respond to the demands of remote working by employees. In context of
UK, the government in the nation expects public limited firm to follow Small working code of
practice, for that the public limited organisation will require to implement the advance
technology for supporting flexible working for civil servants.
P2. Analysing the development of British petroleum
British Petroleum is basically a Multinational oil and gas company. An organization has
its headquarter in London. Business entity is among the world seven oil and gas firm. It is one of
among 6th largest enterprise in context of market capitalization. British Petroleum ha got the 12
th rank in relation to the top revenue earning organization. The different operations performed by
an enterprise are exploration, production, refinement m distribution of oil and gas. An
organization is having its business operations in approx seventy countries. British petroleum has
approx. nineteen thousand service stations globally (Omar, Weerakkody and Sivarajah, 2017.).
In year 2019, The British Petroleum has announced that they are planning to expand business in
other nation as well as Gulf of Mexico. Business entity has successfully identified the additional
oil resources which could assist firm in capturing the growth opportunities in relation to
production hub its operations in particular region. The $1.3 billion Atlantis Phase 3 development
is the latest example of BP’s strategy of growing advantaged oil production through its existing
production facilities in the Gulf. It is the digital marketing strategy which has provided firm an
ease in expansion of business.. An organization has gained the recognition in the global market.
Business entity has employed approx. 74500 employees (Denhardt and Denhardt, 2015.). The
products or services offered by British petroleum are natural gas, petroleum, Motor fuels,
aviation fuels etc. An enterprise has the highest number of oil reserves that is approx. 17.810
million barrels.
But Over the last few years, there has been great decline in the growth rate of British
petroleum. Consumption of the energy during the year 2016 has increased by one year. There has
been consistently decline in the revenue of the British petroleum. But in 2016, British Petroleum
has been successful in generating the revenue of $ 183 billion through sales of products or
services. The company in order to foster its growth needs to implement new technology at

workplace. The implementation of new technology will provide firm an ease in increasing
productivity (Pollitt, Birchall and Putman, 2016). Employment of new technology will help an
organization in improving its marketing activities which is very much essential in order to
increase sales and profitability. The marketing team in British Petroleum can use the social
media platform for interacting with customers continuously. It is the marketing tactics which will
help an enterprise in developing the strong relationship with customers which is very much
crucial in order to foster business growth (Freedman, 2019).
The digital technology has completely changed the way British petroleum produces the
goods or services as well as utilizes energy. The British petroleum. In context of British
Petroleum, by implementing the digital technology has able to reduce the per unit operational
costs per barrel which has helped business entity in increasing profitability. In addition to this,
with the support of advance technology British Petroleum has been able to recover more amount
of reserves by applying selective application in intelligent oilfields through collective computing
as well as sharing the real time information with employees working at different level of
management (Omar, El-Haddadeh and Weerakkody, 2016). Some technologies which has
assisted the British petroleum is internet on things, Artificial intelligent, cloud computing etc.
all these technologies has enabled British Petroleum to improve its recovery, minimize the cost
of extraction through automation. In addition to this digital technology has assisted an
organization in accelerating the strategic decision-making which has positive effect on the
growth of an organization. Advance technology has provided management in British Petroleum
an ease in controlling as well as administrating assets from the anywhere in the world (Black
and et.al., 2019. ). In addition to this, advance technology has assisted the British petroleum in
improving their demand as well as supply forecasting and helped business entity in increasing
the profitability. In addition to this, British Petroleum has implemented the digital sensors which
has provided management an ease in monitoring as well as reducing the oil theft. Employment of
the digital technology at workplace has assisted British petroleum in gaining the competitive
advantage. Morden technology has helped business entity in improving safety, reliability as well
as operational efficiency in business operations of British petroleum. In context of the British
Petroleum, an organization has achieved leadership position in oil and gas industry in terms of
unconventional oil and gas development.

TASK 2
P3. Identifying the operational structure of British petroleum
Operational structure is basically hierarchical arrangement of line of authority,
communication, rights as well as duties of employees in an enterprise. British petroleum has its
operations in 70 countries globally. The different business operations of the British Petroleum
can be categorized into two these are Upstream and downstream. The Upstream functions of
British petroleum involves identification of potential crude oil as well as gas fields. It also
includes drilling as well as operating exploratory well in order to recover crude oil (Loeffler and
Bovaird, 2019). In relation to the upstream operations of British petroleum, the advancement in
the technology has assisted an organization in reducing the cost associated with extraction of the
crude oil or gas from the surface. It has provided firm an ease in identification of the potential oil
as well as gas fields. The advancement in technology has highly influence the way firms in oil
and gas sector identify sources of energy, extract as well as store oil or gas. Advancement in the
technology has assisted British petroleum in increasing the recovery by improving reservoir
sweep and displacing more oil from rock at the pore-scale.
In context of British Petroleum, an organization uses the Seismaic imaging technology
which is basically a powerful lens which is put into the subsurface. It is the technology which is
utilised by British Petroleum for mapping the subsurface in order to identify hydrocarbons while
exploring. Seismic imaging technology has provided business entity an ease in detecting the
changes in oil and gas reservoirs (Weerakkody and et.al., 2016. ).
In context of British petroleum, the downstream activities of firm involves refining,
manufacturing, trading, transportation, marketing, trading as well as supply of crude oil. The
downstream business operations of British Petroleum is mainly responsible for British Petroleum
fuel, petrochemical and lubricant business. The British petroleum has its operations in 15 nation
globally. The aviation department in the British petroleum is liable for providing the fuel.
Lubricant and other services of similar nature. The shipping department in the British petroleum
is mainly responsible for management of logistics. It is the duty as well as liability of the
shipping division in the British telecom to supply the oil and gas to market. It is the duty of
employees in shipping division to manage the large fleet of vessels.
In context of British petroleum, the main objective of an organization is to become
leading digital Upstream firm by developing the interlinked Upstream business operations

(Korac-Kakabadse and Korac-Kakabadse, 2019). An organization in order to accomplish the
desired business objective is concentrating on mainly three aspects these are connecting people
as well as data, conjugating physical as well as physical assets etc. In addition to this,
management in British Petroleum is taking high initiatives to connect machine intelligence with
business decisions.
In relation to developing the connections between people and data, the management in
British petroleum has implemented the advance technology in their supportive business
operations so that employees could get ease in analysing the information as it has proven to be
useful technique in context of increasing productivity as well as promoting innovation at
workplace.
In context of connecting physical as well as digital assets, the management in British
Petroleum has developed applications that combines as well as interrogate information from the
reservoirs. Integrated approach to business operations has assisted in optimizing production
from wells ( Omar, El-Haddadeh and Weerakkody,2016 )
In relation to developing the relationship between machine intelligence with business
decisions, the British telecom is utilising machine learning as well as automation whioch has
provided firm an ease in enabling as well as embedding data driven business decisions for
instance, automating manual procedures.
P4. Analysing the way public sector is held responsible for its activities as well as directions both
operationally and strategically.
The accountability of the public enterprise nowadays has become complex issue for
contemporary government. It is the responsibility of the public limited companies to deliver the
quality services to people in the society. The accountability is based on the hierarchical as well
as external relationship. Main responsibility of public limited enterprise is to retain inward
source of control. The public servant is responsible for their own actions. In context of British
Petroleum, management in an organization is required to make their own judgement related to
appropriate behaviour, and they are required to perform independent assessments in order to
make sure the legality of their actions. The public limited organisation is mainly responsible for
negative effect of their operations on environment as well as on health of people living in the
society. In context of British Petroleum, an organisation has taken the responsibility of reducing
the harm caused by its business operations to environment or society. An organization has

integrated other operational strategies with its corporate social responsibility in order to reduce
the adverse effect of its operation's environment and people.
Accountability refers to the fact or condition for being accountable and responsible for its
actions and directions. Accountability can be defined as effectively handling the control element
of the management in terms of actions and directions. The conduct of public organization is
changing and gets scrutinized by various factors including legal rules and legislations. For
example, British petroleum can be held accountable for the directions and actions by investing
attention and time in building the environment of accountability. The management needs to
improve the principle mechanism which involves producing compliances in the hierarchical
manner and it also needs to have associated authority. The public sector company can be held
responsible and accountable for its actions and direction when the sense of ownership is present
within their team members regarding the results and outcomes of their contribution. There needs
to be support, control and freedom for navigating the competing priorities in both strategically
and operationally.
In relation to the British petroleum the high level authority in an organization is required
to set an effective business structure as well as procedures for making sure that there statutory
responsibility towards their stakeholders as well as people living in the society are properly
fulfilled. In addition to this, management in British telecom need to design special procedure for
making sure that all the applicable norms are followed. Public sector companies is mainly
accountable for delivering services directly as well as indirectly to people in the society. Public
limited organization such as British petroleum is required to establish an appropriate mechanism
for making sure that they do not exceed their functions (Johnson, Rubery and Grimshaw, 2019).
As the British petroleum is operating business in oil as well as gas sector through which high
level and different types of pollutions are generated. British Petroleum needs to pay much
attention in order to reduce the negative effect of their business operations on environment as
well as society, as this tactic will assist them in eliminating the legal issues. In addition to this,
the high level of management in British Petroleum should give senior executives with
responsibility in order to make sure that all the regulations are being complied by employees
while performing different business operations.

TASK 3
P5. Types of sources of funding available to the public sector organization.
Financial is considered to be as one of the crucial resource without which the different
operations in the public enterprise can not be executed. Public sector organization are generally
owned as well as managed by the government in the country. But in some cases public enterprise
can be partially owned by both government and private organization. Public sector enterprise
such as British petroleum can obtain funds by issuing of shares to public. In addition to this, the
sources of equity finance which can be utilized by the British Petroleum which is a public limited
company to raise funds are :
Business angels : These are basically those people who make investment in order to get high
rate of return as well as for share in business. In relation to the British Petroleum, an enterprise
can obtain funds from the angel investors, As raising funds from angel investor is less risky.
Other advantage of Angel investors is that the it does not contain extra charges.
Loss of control on business is considered to be as major drawback of raising funds through
business angels.
Venture capital : It is also known as private equity finance. In context of British Petroleum, an
organization can seek financial assistance from the Venture capitalist. They are those people
who seek to make huge amount of investment with the intention to get high rate of return, The
main advantages of the venture capitalist is that British petroleum can get valuable guidance as
well as consultation. Loss of control on business operations is one of the major drawback
associated with raising the funds from the Venture capital.
Crowdfunding : It is a source where number of people make small amount of investment of
money in order to assist the public limited enterprise in gaining the funds required for fulfilling
business needs. In context of British petroleum, firm through the crowd funding can fastly raise
finance for fulfilling business requirements. The main drawback of crowdfunding as a source of
finance is that if project get failed it might have negative effect on reputation of firm.
Stock market: In relation to the British petroleum, an organization can joint the public market as
through which it can easily raise equity finance (Maher, 2019). It is the source of raising finance
which can assist British Petroleum in aces sing the capital for growth. The accessing the funds by
public limited company through stock market has become possible only through the
advancement in the technology.

The advancement in technology has given rise to new trends in financial services. The
advancement in the technology has provided Public limited companies to raise funds through
different channels. For instance, In digital world, The new sources which can be used by public
limited companies such as British petroleum for raising funds are crowd investing. In addition to
this, British petroleum can now use social trading platform for raising the funds. The main
advantage of crowdfunding is that it increase the ability of an enterprise to raise capital for
meeting business requirements. In addition to this, by using the social media, public limited
company such as British petroleum can make appeal to public for purchasing shares and can
seek financial assistance. The advancement in the digital technology has provided public limited
firms an ease in raising the funds at low cost.
P6 Identify how funding is allocated to different public sector organizations.
Funding is allocates to different public sector organization in different ways such that
initially public sector organization collect money from tax which is paid by different firms
whether they are public firm or private firm. It has been analysed that high level of tax is
necessary for the welfare of public in order to fulfil their obligation. Apart from this, they also
issue their share to private firms in order to collect the money. In the same way, British
Petroleum also financing through different sources and then take initiatives for the welfare of the
society (Chang and Johnston, 2019). Apart from this, different public sector also uses their funds
in different ways such as:
Bank: Public bank mainly collect the fund from different sources, but they use those
financial resources into different ways such that they distribute the salary, such that World's
Bank also provides different fund for implementing PFM reforms and donate some money for
the welfare for the public and on the other side, the Public Finance management reform programs
are also developed by the support of Bank which helps to strengthen the budget preparation as
well as execution (Ramanadham, 2019).
Public company: Public companies mainly collect the fund from the tax and government
also support by providing financial resource which helps to increase their efficiency in better
way. For example, British Petroleum uses advancing energy to improve the people's live and also
invest its money in order to deliver the energy products to the people who are in the world. The
company also provides the energy which British Petroleum produce to support for the economic

growth and also improve the quality of life of people. In addition to this, it is mandatory for
every public firm to share at least amount for the welfare of the public (Perea and et.al., 2019).
Charity: Another important public organization that also work for the welfare of the
business such that there are many charities who work for the public, and they also donate some
amount for the education of poor people. This shows that the public sector organization is share
their contribution for public. They also collect the fund from donation but their main motive is t
serve for the welfare of society, and they also provide job opportunities to different people so
that at least they feed their family (Faggio, 2019). In addition to this, it is also realized that
government of UK also provides fund so that they work for the welfare of the society as well as
public by managing their financial resources.
P7 Describing the strategy, structure and role of British Petroleum
Strategy of British Petroleum: BP is one of the leading international firm of oil and gas
company which provide fuel to transportation and energy for heat as well as light in retail
services. Therefore, as the society is demanding for solution for more energy and that is why BP
is delivered the same in new and better ways for low carbon future in order to meet the dual
challenge. Further, the quoted firm also allow to be more competitive at a time when prices,
policy as well as technology in evolving rapidly (Ashok and et.al., 2019). Therefore, by using
effective digitalization technique, the company also establish new marketing strategy so that it
will deliver the best practices to their customers without any delaying.
Structure of British Petroleum: BP follows hierarchical management structure in which
the company has leaders and the authority is also assigned in ranks and employees which take
direction from their superiors. This type of management definitely encourages the effective use if
specialist managers and even the employees of the firm are also loyal for their work and
complete the assigned duties in defined time as well. Apart from this, through this structure, the
employees are closely monitored so that it will help to manage the production level of the firm
and then maintain the consistent at world-wide brand image (Cahill and et.al., 2019). Therefore,
it has been analysed that through the system, the influence of digitalization will also assist the
business in positive way. Because British Petroleum has employees and if they hire a specialist
then it will help a business to use advance technology in its workplace in order to generate high
revenue as well.

Role of British Petroleum: It has been analysed that opportunities in public sector are
increases, and they always find a way to provide benefit to the public. In the same way, British
Petroleum also actively involving in the development of renewable energy resources because
they believe that in the end of century, worlds reserve of conservatives fuel deposit will vanish
and that is why, it always uses new strategy in order to prevent the fuel (Petroleum, 2015). On
the other side, it also uses advance technology and for marketing it uses digitalization in order to
attract wide range of customers. Though the firm may also faces some key issues which affect
the brand image among customers. But it has been analysed that public sector plays a big part in
order to keep ensure that they provide cost effectively and sustainability products to their
customers.
Illustration 1: Organization structure of British Petroleum
(Source: Organization structure, 2018)

In addition to this, in this modern era, people are living in digitalization world, that is
why it is essential for the firm to use advance technology because it creates positive impact upon
the business and also saves its operational cost as well. Apart from this, it is also analysed that
public sector organization also provide high quality of products without a motive of profit
maximization because they work for the people. For example, British Petroleum which is the
first company who realize that future demand for energy should be increase by 50% in next two
decades. Thus, the company also work in which its 85% of energy demand will be met by fossil
fuels.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the report that digital technology has brought drastic
improvement in the way services are delivered by public limited companies. The other fact
which has been discovered from the assignment that digital technology has provided public
companies with opportunities to provide more quality services as well as facilities to customers.
It has been concluded that emergence of new technology has given rise to the new trends in the
financial services, now are many more sources such as crowdfunding utilizing which public firm
can obtain funds for fulfilling the needs of business. The other fact which has been concluded
from the report that public sector enterprises is liable for its activities as well as direction both at
operational as well as strategic level. It has also been concluded from the report that the
advancement in technology has great influence on the way funds are allocated by the public
organization. The other fact which has been found is that the digital technology has great effect
on the organizational structure of the public limited enterprise.
The different strategies have been highlighted in the report can be utilized by the public
limited firms for bringing improvement in its business operations.

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