During 2005 and 2006, HP board Chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, oversaw a corporate spying campaign to identify top officials who were allegedly involved in leaking internal company information to the press. Secret investigators were hired to impersonate the targeted individuals in order to get private telephone records from phone companies, many board members and journalists were placed under physical surveillance and spyware was emailed to several journalists in an attempt to identify the traitors within the company[1].
Since 1957, co-founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, had established a set of shared values for the company, one of which was ‘uncompromising integrity’[2]. Therefore, the fact that this campaign was approved by Kevin Hunsaker, the company’s Chief Ethics Officer, is evidence that, in HP, the philosophy of the founders had not been adopted by many top managers.
The norms and behaviors of those in authority usually filter down through the organization and influence organizational behavior and culture[3]. This scandal sent a strong message to lower level employees that honesty, loyalty and trust was of little value in the organization. Rather than exploiting their positions of authority, top managers should have set a good example for those in the organization to follow.
References:
1) http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/10/hepa-o02.html
2) http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/about-hp/corporate-objectives.html
3) Organizational Behavior by Nancy Langton, Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge.
4) Picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/HP_New_Logo_2D.svg