The Social Performance of Hewlett Packard Essay (Critical Writing)

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Updated: Feb 29th, 2024

Introduction

Hewlett Packard Company is an Information Technology company which was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. The firm has its corporate headquarters located at Palo Alto in USA. Over the years, the firm has been able to enhance its awareness globally. As a result, the firm has managed to be among the most respected organizations in the world through incorporation of corporate social responsibility.

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The discussion of this essay is aimed at conducting a comprehensive analysis of Hewlett Packard Company with the objective of its performance in the society. It achieves this by highlighting its achievement and highlighting the areas where the firm’s management team should improve on.

Environment conservation

Over the recent past, there has been increased concern with regard to the increment in the volume of waste resulting from electronic technology companies. Some of the stakeholders concerned include customers, governments and business organizations .Electronic waste includes various products such as laptops, iPods, cell phones, TVs, printers among others.

A recent increase in electronic wastes has made it an issue of concern among these stakeholders due to their hazardous nature. This is because E-waste contains lethal substances such as mercury, lead and arsenic. This is one of the reasons why HP embarked on recycling the used electronic components since 1987. At the moment, HP is providing the customers with ways of returning the computers already purchased when they become obsolete.

Leasing is proving to be effective means of combating unorthodox means of disposing electronic garbage. Selling original print cartridges is meant to reduce negative impacts of environment pollution by not dealing with remanufactured cartridges. In 2005, the company managed to recycle print cartridge and computer hardware weighing at least 140 pounds.

Being a global giant in providing computer hardware, it is the first company to report greenhouse emissions associated with its production and manufacturing process. This illustrates how that the company is applying transparent techniques and is encouraging others to join the fight against electronic pollution.

In 2007, Hewlett Packard was able to drastically cut down and reduce carbon emission by approximately 4%. Wal-Mart Stores had invited the technological company to design a product which has minimal impact. It is important to acknowledge the fact that since it won the award, it has provided solution that greatly reduces environmental impact of Personal Computers.

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The design does not have conventional shipping materials hence HP products are greatly reduced in size (Environment leader, 2010). In 2008, it was awarded the Green Recycling Asset Disposal for the Enterprise (GRADE) certification by IDC which further boosted its image. GRADE aims at providing organizations with ideas on how to dispose information technology assets.

Education

HP has been in the forefront with regard to promoting education. This arises from realization of the fact that high quality education is crucial for sustainable economic growth. Equal opportunities for both men and women in Africa are essential in eliminating poverty (Isaacs, 2002, p. 3).

As a global information technology leader in innovation, the company provides sophisticated equipments and technical services to learning institutions around the world. HP has been supporting teaching with aid of technology in many American and Canadian schools. In 2005, it provided 35 universities with wireless technologies for mobile communication around the world.

In an effort to ensure that consumers access education, the company has incorporated the HP Scholarship Program. The program targets mainly African Americans, the Native Americans and the Latinos. The selected students pursue engineering and computer science in any of the HP partner universities such as North Carolina A&T, UCLA (University of California Los Angeles), University of Washington, San Jose University and Morgan State University.

Other than concentrating on promoting education in US and Canada, HP has taken the initiative to fund various projects in other parts of the world such as Africa, Middle East and Europe. It aims at achieving goals such as connecting most secondary schools across 20 African countries and also imparts the technology to the Africans. In part of being a global citizen, HP believes that for continuous growth of economies, countries should embrace innovation.

HP believes in conducting its activities in the emerging economies through open and fair trade. In an effort to promote sustainable growth in these countries, HP constantly works with the governments to create regulations, standards and policies to fulfill the countries needs. It is crucial to note that HP collaborates with education stakeholders to promote equalities in education. It works hand in hand with education policy makers to develop relevant curriculum.

This is evident by HP collaborating with the government of Japan to create programs that enables young people to make good use of information technology and propel forward the country’s IT industry. Working together with governments and non governmental organizations has enabled HP to become leader in providing quality IT infrastructure. This is because it has extensive networks of suppliers around the world (Hewlett Packard, 2010).

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HP has been offering education grants which are aimed at transforming learning process in the classrooms. This is attained through integrating information technology in classrooms, increasing the number of pupils and the students progressing towards high-tech careers’ and assist students pursuing mathematical, engineering and science.

Combating climate change

According to Environmental Leader (2010), Issues related to climate change have been considered to be of great concern. Various governments are pledging millions of dollars towards curbing global warming. Technological companies such as HP have not been left behind. HP is currently collaborating with other stakeholders such as non governmental organizations, the governments and other information technology firms.

It constantly pressing tor formulation of laws and policies to curb green house gas emissions and increase energy efficiency in the whole world. The formidable organizations that are working closely with HP include The Green Grid association which deals with improving data centre efficiency, Climate savers Computing Initiative, Smart Energy Alliance among others (Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise, 2010).

Promote healthcare

In an effort to promote global health, HP Company has encouraged its employees and the retirees to be involved in their local communities. There are several ways in which employees are volunteering. For example, in United States, they volunteer by providing assistance to American Red Cross. During natural calamity, HP responds immediately. HP employees donated approximately $4.4 million to be used for rescue purposes and for medical attention.

Some of the volunteering programs that employees of HP involved themselves include HP forest which involved HP Costarican employees planting trees, Habitat for Humanity involving HP employees from Philippines, HP Israel Doing Well Day which involved Israelis employees, Byron Nelson Championship golf tournament and HP legal pro bono work which focuses on the needs for low income Americans.

Human rights

HP is committed at promoting Human rights in the world. It recognizes that human rights must be protected at all cost (KRD Research and Analytics, 2009). The company has been maintaining equality and enhancing democracy within the organization. For example, it prohibits harassment and subjecting other people to harsh treatment. HP does not also overwork its employees, and if the workers have to work extra time, they are paid overtime dues.

Philanthropy

Since its inception, Hewlett Packard Company has become popular for its philanthropic activities. It has a philanthropy leadership which has earned it various prestigious awards. In India, HP was awarded certificate of excellence due to its efforts in rehabilitating devastated areas after Tsunami (Hewlett Packard, 2005).

Global supply Chain

Hewlett Packard has huge network of suppliers dealing with various product materials and components. It has a well established manufacturing and distribution network (Hewlett Packard, 2010). As a result, the firm has been able to establish an effective supply chain.

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This is one of the reasons why HP has been experiencing a challenge for raising and maintaining environmental and the societal standards in the supply chain as a serious affair. HP strives to ensure it maintains long term working relationship with its suppliers (Hewlett Packard, 2010).

Stakeholders

A stakeholder is a person with direct or indirect interest in a business. HP ha s various stakeholders such as the customers, employees, Investors, legislators and regulators, universities and other institutions of higher learning, communities, suppliers, non governmental organizations and the media.

Its actions are bound to have an implication on the stakeholders. For example, if the company dumps obsolete computer hardware to poor countries it will lead to accumulation of electronic waste. This will eventually be hazardous to the society. This is one of the reasons why the firm has launched various projects to help local African firms in dealing with electronic waste (Amorim, 2007).

By partnering with learning institutions, both the students and the institution benefit. For example, the students can gain a lot via immense technological superiority, gained especially by students taking engineering and science courses. When HP introduces new technology which turns out to be successful, the investors and the government stands to benefit.

High profitability will lead to high share price in the stock market hence the shareholders will receive higher returns. On the other hand, the government benefits through corporation tax. NGOs and HP collaborate in several occasions to for a common goal for example to curb climate change.

Despite of all the positive achievements, HP has failed to meet some obligations. Some of these relate to ethics. For example, HP has major ethical problems (Park, 2010). One of its ethical problem relate to the recent corporate governance failure which led to resignation of CEO Mark Hurd.

It is claimed that Hurds submitted inaccurate reports relating to expense so as to hide romantic liaison with a certain contractor (Toronto Sun, 2010). This raises serious questions whether the board of directors was made aware of such brewing scandal. This scandal will cost the company at least $ 40 million in compensating the ex CEO. Another situation whereby HP failed the society relates to a scandal which led to resignation of few board members (Branson, 2006). This also revolves around its corporate governance issues.

Another area that it has failed is its involvement in insider trading which is a criminal offence in any country. There have been instances of insider trading within the company with some instances where its confidential information was released to the market thus affecting its shares.

In some cases, the company has failed to meet the needs of the customers. There are unconfirmed reports of HP failing to service malfunctioning hardware which had valid warranties. It is an undisputed fact that poor servicing in one customer will lead to other customers developing a negative attitude towards the brand.

Conclusion

HP can be regarded as one of the most successful companies within the information technology industry. Its constant innovation has enabled the firm to attain a high competitive advantage thus becoming a global leader. In addition, incorporation of corporate social responsibility has enabled the company developing a strong brand locally and globally. However, despite its success, the firm has some ethical issues to deal with so that to enable it flourish more strongly.

Reference List

Amorin, Catarina. 2007. Hewlett Packard to aid Africa’s e-waste battle. Web.

Branson, Douglas M.2006. Private Sector: Hewlett-Packard’s problems teach lessons About corporate governance. Web.

Environmental Leader. 2010. . Web.

Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise. 2010. Web.

Hewlett Packard. 2005. . Web.

Hewlett Packard. 2010. HP global citizenship: Supply Chain responsibility. Web.

Isaac, Shafika. 2002. ICTs as an instrument in advancing girls’ and women’s Capabilities in school education in Africa. Web.

KRD Research and Analytics.2009. Hewlett Packard Company. Web .

Park, Douglas Y. 2010. Corporate governance failure ah HP over CEO Hurd? Web.

Toronto Sun. 2010. One in 10 workers report sexual harassment. Web.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "The Social Performance of Hewlett Packard." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-social-performance-of-hewlett-packard/.

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IvyPanda. "The Social Performance of Hewlett Packard." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-social-performance-of-hewlett-packard/.

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