H-P and Pretexting
When the long-term strategic plans of HP were featured in CNET News, Patricia Dunn who was the company’s chairman ordered for investigations in order to determine the board of directors involved in leaking out such pertinent information concerning the company. The investigative firm hired by HP Company used a very controversial and illegal method of sourcing information. Pre-texting which is the method used by the investigators refers to misrepresentation of ones identity in order to have access to privileged information (Guerin, 2007). Several methods of misrepresenting the information were employed by the investigators who used telephones to solicit information from the company’s directors. The investigators therefore obtained access to the telephone calls of home phones which the directors of the made in order to identify the culprits of the vice. Through pre-texting, the investigators posed as someone they are not thereby getting information from a company. Tom Perkins who was identified to have leaked the information explains that the investigators used the last digits of the social security fund number to get information.
While presenting her petition, Patricia Dunn acknowledged that pre-texting is an illegal procedure to solicit for information. In this regard, while there are no specific federal laws which prohibit pre-texting especially when using telephone calls Patricia Dunn felt that the calls for her resignation were unfounded. Although it is Patricia Dunn who initiated the investigations, she did not authorize the investigators to undertake pretexting as a way of making investigations. Thus it can be concluded that the investigators need pay particular interest in the manner in which the organizations carried out its duties. HP chairperson Patricia Dunn stepped down in order to make room for the investigators to undertake their tasks. The blame lies on her solely since the top management of the HP Company as well as the court officials believed that Patricia Dunn knew about the tactics employed by the investigators.
In her defense, Patricia Dunn holds that pre-texting is a generally unlawful undertaking except when involving financial institutions. No state or federal laws clearly ban pre-texting. Utilitarianism which bases its ideas on the moral worth of an action is determined by the ability to provide happiness as well as pleasure. Thus the phrase the good for all people is addressed by the utilitarianism. Deontological ethics do not regard the consequences of an action based on moral worth or virtue ethics. Based on deontological view, the tactics employed by the investigators of the case are not right since the privacy of the directors was infringed, and the entire process was detrimental to HP’s reputation. The board members of the company are held in high esteem by members of society due to the public trust accorded to the individuals. As the management of the HP Company realized, pretexting is indeed an illegal and unethical undertaking. Thus the company was at risk of facing potential charges incorporating criminal fraud, issues of deception and usage of spyware as well as grand violation of laws protecting stakeholders/ customers (Guerin, 2007). Thus legal and public relations troubles have tainted the functionality of the company. Several consumer protection laws are available which the individuals whose rights have been infringed on can utilize.
The federal trade commission has stipulated Acts which largely ban deceptive as well as unfair trade practices from being undertaken. Based on the fact that lying and deception is an unfair business strategy, the HP investigators used unethical means to derive information from the directors of the company through pre-texting (Gilliland & Steiner, 2007). More often than not, some forms of social lying as well as social engineering in order to solicit information from unaware sources is not prohibited from the law and neither are there legal provisions in the laws to cater for such eventualities. The HP lawyers involved in the HP case are at a loss in regard to the legality of pretexting as employed by the investigators. Allegations of electronic espionage have been revealed whereby detectives attempted to plant software into journalists computers so that they could trace the source of the messages sent to the journalists. In another twist of events, the private investigator’s lawyer has presented legal opinion stating that the investigative techniques employed are legal. As drawn from utilitarianism, in order to take advantage of the advice accorded by the counsel defense, it is vital to seek and uphold good faith for all individuals.
As the investigations revealed, the undertakings to determine who leaked out information were outsourced to another investigative body thus there is no direct connection that links Patricia Dunn to the legations that she ordered the investigative body to employ pre-texting. Nevertheless, this move can be counteracted based on the fact that all the investigations were largely supervised by the HP’s company director of ethical issues who is also the senior counsel to the organization. Thus if the senior counsel of the company approved of the dubious method which were being used by the investigators he had the backing of the chairperson of the company. Major jurisprudential mistakes have been exhibited in regard to the manner in which the investigations were undertaken (Jennings, 2008). This is because the investigators spied on dissident directors thereby questioning the ethical implications of such form of conduct. A highly held belief is that Patricia Dunn underscored the commitment of HP to conduct their business without comprising the integrity of the organization. Before the occurrence of this scandal, HP Company had been recognized in many facets incorporating corporate responsibility in such areas as employee development strategies, employee diversity, privacy as well as philanthropy which were all ruined by the pretexting scandal.
The manner in which the HP management handled the aftermath of the discovery of the pretexting issues clearly demonstrates that the company realized that the practices were quite unethical. The company ensured that they apologized to the affected journalists, their families and more so the HP board members who were affected by the pretexting saga. All ties which Patricia Dunn had created with the investigators who undertook pretexting were severed. The management team also condemned the practice and made calls for the practice to be made illegal. Resignation of the Patricia Dunn who played a major role in the whole saga was thus preeminent. The appointment of an independent director of the board charged with the task of reviewing as well as reporting to the board of directors of HP the compliance as well as ethical requirements of the company is a clear demonstration of the fact that the HP Company intended to follow the stipulated legal and ethical compliance issues in the workplace.
While the decision to have Patricia Dunn to resign from HP was recommended by the current board of directors the move was unfair considering the fact that mechanisms to help mitigate such ethical risks had not been put in place. For instance, the company did not have a compliance council or a compliance officer who would be consulted before such decisions as those to probe the senior board members are undertaken. Lack of compliances officer as well as senior officers in place who would be charged with the task of chartering ethics as well as compliance programs to the employees of the company make such loopholes as pretexting to be used on the senior board members of the company (Lane, 2003). Lack of guiding principles which the company employs to probe the employees as well as management of the company made the investigators to use any available mechanism to obtain information. If guiding principles had been put in place, then the only mechanisms which are approved by the compliance council would have been followed thereby mitigating the risks which fell on the company. Although it is Patricia Dunn that authorized the investigations to be carried out, other committees also failed drastically on the ethical test. For instance, the audit committee is tasked with guiding the senior management as well as employees on the ethics as well as legal compliance mechanisms which ought to be followed by all stakeholders in the company. Since this committee did not involve Patricia Dunn or the investigators in dialogue in order to determine the investigative approach to be adopted, then the blame does not lie on Dunn alone thus even the audit committee need be put to task in regard to the entire pretexting scandal. Lack of internal communication concerning legal and ethical investigative procedures which the HP Company uses made it easy for the investigators to use pretexting. This is because the investigators would obtain information quickly about the directors involved in leaking information about the company’s strategic plan. If the standards of business conduct of HP Company were strengthened the employees as well as the investigators hired by Patricia Dunn would have been aware of the ethical and legal standards which are adhered to. Training in privacy as well as ethics should have been undertaken in order to have the investigators follow the customs and norms set aside by the compliance committee of HP.
In conclusion, Patricia Dunn need not be forced to resign from her position since all company stakeholders were involved especially the perceived inability in providing ethical training to all employees. It is important to have employees as well as investigators to undertake specific ethics as well as compliance training in order to reduce the susceptibility of a company to such unethical activities as pretexting (Jennings, 2008). Since the image of this Palo Alto, CA based firm was tinted then based on moral grounds making an overhaul would salvage the situation rather just having to sacrifice Miss Dunn alone. In this regard based on deontological grounds, it would be more appropriate to have all stakeholders, and perhaps even George Keyworth fall-suit as the entire investigation procedure went beyond what Patricia Dunn could solely manage.
References
Gilliland, S & Steiner, D. D. (2007). Managing social and ethical issues in organizations. New York, U.S.A: IAP Publishers.
Guerin, L (2007). The essential guide to workplace investigations. The essential guide to workplace investigations.
Jennings, M. M. (2008). Business Ethics: Case Studies and Selected Readings. Florence, KY: Cengage Learning Publishers.
Lane, F. S. (2003). The naked employee: how technology is compromising workplace privacy. New York, U.S.A: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Publishers.