1. When he was CEO, Hurd wrote in the Standards of Business Conduct at HP that We want to be a company known for its ethical leadership.... His message in the preface continued: Let us commit together, as individuals and as a company, to build trust in everything we do by living our values and conducting business consistent with the high ethical standards embodied within our SBC.

What is the role of trust in business? How does trust relate to stakeholder interests? How does trust engender ethical leadership? Evaluate Mark Hurds actions in this case from an ethical and professional perspective.

2. Despite hundreds of pages of policies, codes of ethics, organizational values, and carefully defined work environments and company culture, lapses in workplace ethics occur every day. Explain why you think these lapses occur and what steps might be taken by an organization to ensure that its top executives live up to values it espouses.

3. Leo Apotheker, the former CEO of HP who succeeded Mark Hurd, resigned in September 2011, after just 11 months on the jobbut he left with a $13.2 million severance package. Hurd left with a package between $40 million and $50 million. Do you think executives who resign from their positions or are fired because of unethical actions should be forced to give back some of those amounts to the shareholders to make them whole? Why or why not?