I found this information from a case study analyzing Union Carbide’s response after the crisis. Interesting because it says the CEO seems to be very sympathetic towards the tragedy at Bhopal. He even went when his company’s attorneys were against it.
“Union Carbide CEO, Warren Anderson felt it was important for him personally to go to Bhopal to demonstrate the commitment the company had to the rescue effort and to the investigation. Most of his executives, and the U.S. State Department (p. 114) advised against his going. Corporate attorneys for Union Carbide were adamant that Anderson’s presence in Bhopal would only serve to tighten the connection between Union Carbide and the Bhopal tragedy.
They and several senior executives continued to advise that, seeing how the Bhopal Plant was actually operated by a subsidiary of Union Carbide (Union Carbide India Limited) (Shrivastava, 1987, p. 51) and that the U.S. based corporation only owned about half the publicly traded stock in the Indian operation, the best strategy would be to distance Union Carbide’ leadership in the U.S. from the events in Bhopal. This might serve to limit future liability as the inevitable flood of lawsuits started to roll in and protect the corporation’s stock price.
Warren Anderson rejected this advice (Kurzman, 1987, p. 115). He felt the scope of the tragedy was so significant and already connected in the mind of the public with Union Carbide that efforts to distance the Company from the tragedy were futile. Anderson traveled to India and was promptly arrested by Indian authorities upon arrival (Kurzman, p.108).
The Company also experienced severe difficulties in getting accurate information from the plant in India regarding the specifics of the incident (Kurzman, p.89) Phone lines were scarce and already packed with calls. The Indian Government was not forthcoming with information, as they intended to shift blame away from themselves to Union Carbide (Shrivastava, p.97). As a result, the company’s first formal release regarding the Bhopal incident came one week after the tragedy (Smith, p. 154)
http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02C2/Union%20Carbide.htm
