Assignment Overview
All organizations have internal politics. However, most
organizations keep their political battles private and it is rare that the
public will know the details about political intrigue within the major
corporations. However, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is rare in that its political
battles were waged publicly. HP will make for an ideal case study both because
of the intense political behavior occurring at the top and because many
articles have been written about these political battles.
HP has been through five CEOs since 2005, and each change of
CEO has been controversial. The drama started in 2005 when then CEO Carly
Fiorina was under attack from several members of HP’s Board of Directors. Some
board members even took the dispute public by leaking information to the press.
Fiorina fought back by investigating the leaks, but ultimately lost the battle
and was ousted as CEO. Her replacement, Patricia Dunn, continued to investigate
leaks by the board through the use of private investigators. Even more
controversy emerged when it was discovered that the investigators used the
method of “pretexting” in order to obtain phone records of board members.
Case Assignment
For this assignment, make sure to first carefully review the
background materials regarding the causes of political behavior, types of
political behavior, and the ethics of political behavior. Examples of the
causes of political behavior include competition for resources, ambiguous
organizational goals, lack of trust, and performance factors. Examples of types
of political behavior include blaming others, selectively distributing
information, managing impressions, and forming coalitions. Regarding ethics,
consider the three main factors:
Does the political action violate individual rights?
Does it improve the welfare of those involved?
Does it increase distributive justice?
Review the background materials and do some research on the
political dramas at HP. There is a lot written about HP’s many dramas over the
years; here are some articles to get you started:
Pearlstein, S. (2011, Sep 25). How HP, Silicon Valley’s
darling, became a soap opera. The Washington Post
Veverka, M. (2011). The soap opera at HP continues.
Barron’s, 91(39), 25.
Kessler, M. (2006, Sep 08). Controversial HP probe started
under Fiorina; stock falls as board continues public feud. USA Today [ProQuest]
Harwell, D. & Paquette, D. (2015, Sep 27). Fiorina’s
divisive legacy. Washington Post. [EBSCOhost]
Once you have finished reviewing the background materials
and have completed your research on HP’s internal politics, write a 4- to
5-page paper addressing the following issues:
What individual and organizational factors of HP and its
senior leaders led to the intense political behavior? Refer to some of the
specific factors discussed on pages 877-883 of Robbins (1997) that you think
apply the most to HP in this situation.
What types of political behaviors did HP’s board members and
CEOs exhibit? Be specific and use the types of political behaviors discussed in
pages 297-301 of Luthans et al. (2015).
Were the leaks to the press by members of the board ethical?
Was the investigation by Patricia Dunn into the links ethical? Use the ethical
framework discussed on pages 896-898 of Robbins (1997) to guide your answer.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
