Essay: Hewlett Packard analysis

As an organization grows, there are some issues which arise from its activities. Some of these issues and problems can be difficult to manage. Administration and leadership are some of the major issues in some companies where they have not been dealt with. The issues are usually a result of changes in the role of managers and leaders in the organization usually come in place from time to time. As a result, most businesses may end up having wrong choices on whom to play the role of management and leadership (Jennex, 2018, pp. 1-18). Wrong choices affect the operations of the business hence leading to poor performance. However, most of the issues can be resolved through the application of various frameworks. For instance, philosophy can be applied in to solve issues with administration and leadership. This paper will, therefore, provide an overview of operational issues affecting Hewlett Packard specifically on administration. This will assist in proposing a solution by applying philosophy.
Hewlett Packard has been among one of the companies associated with poor corporate governance and questionable financial practices. Over, the number of years, the company has been associated with board management issues due to inappropriate strategic and personal decisions. For instance, the company at once had three CEO within two years. As a result, the confidence in the company’s decision was affected thus affecting the shareholder’s value (Hynes et al., 2016, pp. 75-91). The company has also been under watch on due to claims that the company had been involved in bribery to win contracts in various companies. Additionally, HP has had issues with asset and liabilities and increased in debt to equity ratio.  The various operational issues are as a result of outsourcing where the company intended to decrease its operational costs and achieve profitability. However, this resulted in the company losing its competitive advantage (Olkhovaya et al., 2016, pp. 467-474). Another cause of operational issues affecting HP is bad acquisitions whereby, the company turned acquire some properties to increase its competitive advantage. However, the acquisitions were wrong and resulted in the company draining its resources. Lastly, the lack of innovation has been a major problem in the company which has contributed to the issues facing HP (Hynes et al., 2016, pp. 75-91). However, the various issues can be resolved to allow the organization to regain its stability and competitive advantage.
Management can be described as a philosophy. Thus, issues such as administration facing HP can be resolved using applied philosophy theory. Many philosophers studied the philosophy of human action and its role in understanding the strategic role of management in corporations. Aristotle is one of the philosophers who applied such theories in management and can be used to solve issues affecting HP. Aristotle proposes the two terms praxis and poiesis and suggests that they are different whereby praxis refers to possible actions while poiesis refers to productive results (Fischer et al., 2016, pp. 123-135). A theoretical framework to revisit the differences in the two terms can be proposed to understand the impact of actions on the productive results. Based on the information and knowledge society, services are associated with outclassed products which determine the results of activities of poiesis. Therefore, the framework can be implemented to represent organizational governance and managerial actions.
Autos nomos
Praxis Politics Ethics
Poeisis Management Technology
From the framework, politics are based on praxis which focuses on coming up awareness about the objectives of an action. On the other hand, ethics directs praxis as it, determines values and norms. On the other hand, management is derived from poiesis together with the rules and regulates various actions. Technology directs poiesis since it identifies the sequence of operations which lead to desired outcomes (Handa and Garg, 2018, pp. 123-131). Apart from praxis and poiesis, another concept of the pragma is incorporated to achieved coordination and efficiency. For pragma, the organization determines the means of differentiation and coordination while strategy determines the actions to be implemented.
Autos nomos
Praxis Politics Ethics
Poeisis Management Technology
Pragma Strategy Organization
About the operational issues, the framework can be used to address operational issues such as issues of administration in the case of HP Company by identifying how the various components which affect management and administration relate. The various components have played an important role in achieving efficiency and effectiveness especially when a company is under stability. However, they are also the cause of dissatisfaction and unrest.  Therefore, this suggests that the operational issues are usually as a result of poor management techniques. Management does not change, but leaders change. Therefore, it is leaders who have minor bad habits which affect daily operations hence the performance of the organization in general. Therefore, it is there is a need for change in management habits to resolve issues affecting companies such as HP (Fischer et al., 2016, pp. 75-91). These changes can be achieved by analyzing the exact cause of the problem first and the management components with issues. In this case, a strategy to implement the new philosophy should be rolled out on business practices based on the components of Praxis, pragma, and poeisis. This involves consistent training which may take place from time to time since change is dynamic. Further, there is a need to come up with a hypothetical benchmark to ensure that all the stakeholders are satisfied. Further, change in management requires the involvement of the employees whereby the new policies must be introduced and explained before rolling out changes. The staff must understand how the customers as well as they will be affected by the changes (Zell, 2018, pp. 122-134). This will assist in convincing them that there is a need to incorporate the change in management to allow the values and goals of the business to be met.
Based on Aristotle’s concept, another model known as Data information knowledge and Wisdom (DIKW) can also be used to resolve issues affecting HP. The model which is also known as the hierarchy of cognition is based on the concept that data can be utilized to generate human intervention while information can be used to create knowledge. The knowledge can be used to describe relationships (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016, pp. 122-143). Thus the DIKW model can be used to formulate a framework which can be mapped to Aristotle concepts on Praxis and poiesis. Praxis acts in response to an action and the human capability to act about a goal. Thus it is applied to ethical and political approaches and can use to determine the goals and values. Poiesis, on the other hand, is not based on a goal but functions. Thus it is used to determine the outside facts which affect productivity. Thus the two concepts differ in the objectives since praxis and poiesis focus on works while praxis is activity. On the other hand, pragma addresses the gaps between praxis and poiesis and facilitates effectiveness and efficiency.
Categories DIKW model Application
Praxis Wisdom Knowing why
Pragma Knowledge Knowing how
Information Knowing what
Poie,sis Data Knowing nothing
Based on Aristotle’s concepts, the assumption is that each activity is provided (Belton, 2017, pp. 65-82). This means that has a direction and a goal. Thus doing an activity well means that there is the ability to differentiate what it entails. Thus Aristotle’s concept can be seen as practical wisdom which can be used to make decisions in situations based on emotions and information. Therefore, this can be used to evaluate the advantage and disadvantages of situations which occur thus appropriate actions can be taken. Thus this can be used to solve issues in organizations as strategic terms whereby decisions can be made based on threats and opportunities ( Mingers, 2015, pp. 316-331). In this case, the concept of praxis can be used to know why certain issues are associated with an organization. In this case, the HP administration and leadership issues. On the other hand, pragma is used to know how the organization is affected and what is being affected. However, since poiesis is a function, it is used to identify facts.
In conclusion, there are some issues which arise from organizational activities. Some of these issues and problems can be difficult to manage. Administration and leadership are some of the major issues in some companies where they have not been dealt with. However, most of the issues can be resolved using various frameworks. This paper highlighted issues in HP Company and proposed a model based on philosophical concepts proposed by Aristotle. Hence, this suggests the role of philosophy in creating solutions for business issues.
List of References
Belton, P., 2017. Competitive Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Macat Library.
Fischer, S., Oget, D., Cavallucci, D., 2016. The evaluation of creativity from the perspective of subject matter and training in higher education: Issues, constraints, and limitations. Think. Ski. Creat. 19, 123-135.
Handa, H., Garg, A., 2018. Approach to Reduce Operational Risks in Business Organizations, in Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Development. Springer, pp. 123-131.
Hynes, B., Kennedy, N., Pettigrew, J., 2016. The Role of Business Schools in Framing Entrepreneurial Thinking Across Disciplines: The Case of Allied Health Professions, in Innovative Business Education Design for 21st Century Learning. Springer, pp. 75-91.
Jennex, M.E., 2018. Using a Revised Knowledge Pyramid to Redefine Knowledge Management Strategy, in Effective Knowledge Management Systems in Modern Society. IGI Global, pp. 1-18.
Mingers, J., 2015. Helping business schools engage with real problems: The contribution of critical realism and systems thinking. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 242, 316-331.
Olkhovaya, T.A., Shukhman, A.E., Nevolina, V.V., Amirova, L.A., Zaitseva, N.A., 2016. A Synergy-Based Approach through Developing Cross-Disciplinary Module. Int. Electron. J. Math. Educ. 11, 467-474.
Sekaran, U., Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Zell, D., 2018. Changing by design: Organizational innovation at Hewlett-Packard. Cornell University Press.