1. The original lawsuit filed in the HP case claimed that the executives breached their fiduciary responsibilities. What are the fiduciary responsibilities of executives and members of the board of directors to shareholders? How were these obligations violated in the HP case?
2. Describe how “ethical fading” influenced the actions taken in the pretexting scandal including those identified in the HP investigation. Are there similarities between the actions of management in the HP case and those in the Challenger Shuttle Disaster?
3. Recently, in 2011, Hewlett-Packard Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Jon Hoak talked about renewing H-P's commitment to a culture of integrity at a meeting with members of the Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. In his presentation that addressed the pretexting scandal, Hoak said “The people involved were only concerned about whether pretexting was legal. Nobody asked, 'Even if it's legal, is it the right thing to do?'" What is the relationship between legality and what is the right thing to do in making business decisions?