Hewlett Packard Scandal's Internal And External Stakeholders

All of these technological advances by HP receive the attention of Japan and China where HP expanded in hopes of continuing to invent newer and better technologies in the future. Since the 90’s HP has gone on to invent many other firsts like the first all-in-one device and is the first company to recycle ink cartridges. They have also acquired many smaller companies like Snapfish and Compaq to grow the company to being one of the industry leaders in personal computing. (Hewlett-Packard, 2013).

“Unethical thinking is not just “bad business”; it is an invitation to disaster in business, however rarely (it may sometimes seem) unethical behavior is actually found out and punished” (Solomon, 1997:17) An ethical dilemma happens when an intricate circumstance which often originates from a struggle amongst the moral requirements of two persons.

Are businesses in corporate America making it harder for the American public to trust them with all the recent scandals going on? Corruptions are everywhere and especially in businesses, but are these legal or are they ethical problems corporate America has? Bruce Frohnen, Leo Clarke, and Jeffrey L. Seglin believe it may just be a little bit of both. Frohnen and Clarke represent their belief that the scandals in corporate America are ethical problems. On the other hand, Jeffrey L. Seglin argues that the problems in American businesses are a combination of ethical and legal problems. The ideas of ethical problems in corporate America are illustrated differently in both Frohnen and Clarke’s essay and Seglin’s essay.

Hewlett-Packard Company CEO, Mark Hurd turn out to be mixed up in the workplace. According to (Healthfield, 2012), “Mr. Hurd had failed to disclose a close personal relationship he had with a contractor that constituted a conflict of interest” .”Mr. Hurd also “failed to maintain accurate expense reports, and misused company assets.” This is an example that reflect ethical standards of conduct and financial reporting practices.

Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by two men, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who met in the 1930s while studying at Stanford University. Hewlett-Packard is and has always been a highly innovative company that thrives

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

Hewlett Packard also known as HP was founded by William Hewlett and Dave Packard in a small rented garage in Palo Alto, California which is now known as the original Silicon Valley. HP is one of the world’s largest Information Technology (IT) companies operating on a global level. HP specializes in computers, computer systems and software. Also, in the development and manufacture of hardware, software design, service delivery as well as data storage. Identified Strategies

Enron’s ride is quite a phenomenon: from a regional gas pipeline trader to the largest energy trader in the world, and then back down the hill into bankruptcy and disgrace. As a matter of fact, it took Enron 16 years to go from about $10 billion of assets to $65 billion of assets, and 24 days to go bankruptcy. Enron is also one of the most celebrated business ethics cases in the century. There are so many things that went wrong within the organization, from all personal (prescriptive and psychological approaches), managerial (group norms, reward system, etc.), and organizational (world-class culture) perspectives. This paper will focus on the business ethics issues at Enron that were raised from the documentation Enron: The Smartest Guys

The case study that was analyzed is, “Unauthorized Disclosure: Hewlett-Packard’s secret Surveillance of Directors and Journalists,” by Anne T. Lawrence, Randal D. Harris, and Sally Baack. The ethical issues presented through the case deal with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). HP is a major international company in the computer and technology market. The company describes itself as a “technology solutions provider to consumers, business and institutions globally.” Their credo is called “HP way”, which focuses on points such as trust and respect for individuals, high level of achievement and contribution, business conduct with uncompromising integrity, objectives through teamwork, and encouragement of flexibility and innovation (Newman). The problems faced by HP’s board of directors were a lack of accountability with HP’s credo. If the “HP way” was followed by them, these ethical issues would be avoided. It also promotes a bad example by the high-level of management of this globally powerful organization.

• HP culture was innovation-driven and had an incentive structure that rewarded innovation and not the commercialization of the investment.

Business Industry has witnessed the outcomes of bad moral decisions taken by business leaders. Enron’s story is only one example of corporate scandals and cases of bad moral decisions, which has not only shaken the public trust in corporations, but also affected the bank accounts of investors and employees. Before the bankruptcy of Enron; it was included in one of the fortune 500 companies after its fraudulent accounting case the share went down to $1 (Enron scandal, 2010; PBS, 2002; Godwin, 2006; Godwin, 2008).

It seems like business morals and ethics are being whisked to the side in lieu of the ever growing demand of higher stock prices, rising budget goals and investor profits. Despite the increased regulation of corporations through legislation, such as, Sarbanes-Oxley, some corporations still find themselves struggling to maintain ethics and codes of conduct within the workplace. In reviewing the failings of the Enron Scandal, one can heed the mistakes that both individual and organization malaise, such as, conflicts of interest, lack of true transparency and the sever lack of moral courage from the government, executive board, senior management and others, contributed to the energy giant’s downfall.

Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the

Ethical Lessons Learned from Corporate Scandals Ethics is about behavior and in the face of dilemma; it is about doing the right thing. Ideally, managerial leaders and their people will act ethically as a result of their internalized virtuous core values. The Enron scandal is the most significant corporate collapse in the United States and it demonstrates the need for significant reforms in accounting and corporate governance in the United States. It is also a call for a close look at the ethical quality of the culture of business generally and of business corporations (Lessons from the Enron Scandal).

Hewlett Packard began in 1939 in Palo Alto, California. The company was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who were friends at the time and remained that until both of their passing. Hewlett Packard has been a leader in technology that encompasses globally, into space exploration, the entertainment industry, the medical industry, the hospitality industry, and many others. In the early 2000’s, the economic landscape was changing globally and Hewlett Packard was beginning to feel the financial hardships of a very competitive industry. In an effort to remain competitive, Hewlett Packard and Compaq decided upon a merger that did aid in transforming both companies, but only to a degree.