PRESENTATION

CASE STUDY 2 :ETHICS AT HEWLETT-PACKARD

Financial Management

Juliana UNG MA2N0239 GMBA 2014-2015

Summary

A few words about HP

Brief summarize of the case study’s content

Issues raised in the case study

Basic ethics « lessons » to learn from this study

A few words about HP

Founded in 1939 by Bill HEWLETT and Dave Packard

An American multinational information technology corporation

Headquarters in Palo Alto, California, United States.

It provides hardware, software and services Targets: consumers, small- and medium-sized

businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health and education sectors.

Brief summarize of the case study’s content (1)

1 – Merger with Compaq

What happened?HP management team filed

suit alleging …: Walter Hewitt (board member) for

misstatement of financial facts Deutsche Bank (shareholder) for improper

pressure

Brief summarize of the case study’s content (2)

2 – 2006, HP spying scandal

What happened?Start of an internal investigation to find the source

of news leaks within HPCall for a subcontrator: A team of independent

security experts + several journalistsIssue: Questionable means have been used in

obtaining information process – pretexting = people posing as someone else

to gain access to personal records

Issues raised in the case study

Through both cases of HP, we may noticed that the action taken had not fulfilled the ethical viability defined by Robert A. Cooke:

Method conducted during the investigation (pretexting) had deceived people and manipulated them. Thus, common and basic respect towards another individual and his/her privacy has been violated – the action has affected moral standards as well as legal rights.

The disclosure of the investigation report could have been less harmful if it had been thought through properly, may have alternative courses of action.

Basic ethics « lessons » to learn from this study (1)

When recruiting an independent team for investigation, HP should have:

- conducted a more thorough research over each investigator’s background (license, reference, qualification, experience ..)

- stated more accurate terms on the investigating process (setting limits over the range of the method employed to legally acceptable, a better grip over the confidentiality of the whole investigation, monitoring performance and progress…)

Basic ethics « lessons » to learn from this study (2)

Whatever action HP decided to conducted, it should ensure to lessen or avoid as much as possible the harm towards the company’s reputation and image (concerned all the hierarchy of HP, importance of executive oversight)- Impact too strongly over corporate’s reputation, employee

moral, ability to attract and retain leadership (dicredit over the leader’s ability to take correct decisions)

The company should review and/or rethink its policies over Employee Ethics and Code of conduct, terms related to Expectations of Privacy in Workplace, border of Public domain (individual privacy and social responsability)

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION !