Case Name :      Unauthorized Disclosure: Hewlett-Packard’s Secret Surveillance of Directors and Journalists

Authors :           Anne T. Lawrence, Randall D. Harris, Sally Baack

Source :             North American Case Research Association (NACRA)

Case ID :            NA0050

Discipline :        Business Ethics

Case Length :    16 pages

Solution sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

In 2006, Hewlett-Packard (HP) admitted it had hired outside investigators to spy on members of its board of directors and journalists to uncover the source of several leaks of confidential board deliberations. The investigators used methods, including “pretexting” (using an assumed identity in order to access others’ telephone records), which were possibly illegal and almost certainly unethical. This case uses company e-mails, internal reports, meeting minutes, and published memoirs and interviews to present various perspectives on HP’s leak investigations, including those of its non-executive chairman, CEO, former CEO, board members, managers, and investigators. What problem was HP attempting to address? Did the board’s behavior conform to accepted standards of good corporate governance? Were the investigation’s methods ethical? What, if anything, should the company and its chairman, Patricia Dunn, have done differently? How could HP’s new CEO, Mark Hurd, best assure effective governance and ethical behavior in the future?