Analysing Hewlett-Packard's Organizational Behaviour: A Case Study

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Added on 2024/06/28

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This case study examines Hewlett-Packard's organizational behavior, focusing on challenges faced during a period of reinvention and merger with Compaq. The study identifies key problems such as employee resistance to change, layoffs, and shifts in organizational culture following the appointment of a new CEO. Possible solutions, including supportive and collegial models of organizational behavior, hiring freezes, and early retirement strategies, are proposed to mitigate these issues. The recommendations emphasize the importance of leadership in motivating employees, developing skills within the existing workforce, and fostering a collaborative environment. Potential positive and negative outcomes of implementing these solutions are considered, along with references to relevant research on Hewlett-Packard's organizational dynamics. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

Case study of Hewlett- Packard
Organizational Behaviour

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Contents
INTRODUCTION
PROBLEM
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
RECOMMENDATION
FALLOUT

INTRODUCTION
The case study of Hewlett-Packard founded in
1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard is
given
Hewlett-Packard became one of the best
companies in the top 100 to work for in 1998.
The appointment of new CEO in 1999 led to
downfall of the company due to her new
policies of reinvention
The situation of merger of Hewlett-Packard
with Compaq is given which was opposed but
passed by margin and led to layoff of 15000
employees

PROBLEM
Resistance of the
employees to adopt
‘reinventing’
campaign
• This is a problem
as the employees
were nervous about
the impending
‘reinvention’ of the
company
• They had the threat
of loss of culture
and integrity
Layoff of employees
after merger
• This is a major
issue as the
employees who
were loyal to the
firm since time of
establishment had
to forcefully leave

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Cont..
• This is a major problem
as Fiorina, new CEO
besides launching
‘reinvent’ campaign
could not retain the
traditional culture of the
company causing
voluntary layoff of 6000
employees in 2001.
Change
in culture
of
organisati
on with
the arrival
of new
CEO

Possible solutions
Supportive model of
organisational
behaviour
Hiring freeze and
cutting additional
benefits
Early retirement
Collegial model of
organisational
behaviour
Solutions to
avoid
problems

Cont..
Supporting model
• The solution to the problem of resistance of
employees to adopt the ‘reinvent’ campaign can
be solved by adopting the Supporting Model
of organisational behaviour.
• This strategy will motivate employees towards
their job performance and active participation.
• The employees here will be ready to share the
responsibilities
• The goals of the organisation will be met along
with encouraging the employees and reducing
their resistance to change

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Cont..
Solution to layoffs
• The solution to layoff of employees
after merger could have been
resolved by adopting the strategy of
hiring freeze and cutting the benefits.
• In unavoidable situations, strategy
could have been early retirement to
the loyal employees working since
form’s establishment.

Cont..
Solution to change in culture
• The solution to change in culture could have
been solved with the help of adopting strategy
of retaining the old policies and merging them
with the new ones.
• Also, the collegial model of
organisational behaviour could have been
helpful as in this the structure of the firm is
developed where everyone has to work as a
team
• This retains the firms’ culture and healthy
environment with no superiority of the managers
and the higher authorities

RECOMMENDATIONS
To implement the solutions the
management needs to-
• Enforce the supportive model by identifying the
leaders who can motivate the employees as well as
adopt some financial benefit plans so that the
workforce is encouraged in all aspects to adopt the
change
• Develop a separate strategy for freeze of the
recruitment and develop skills in the existing
workforce to work towards betterment
• Enforce the collegial model by deciding on to not
being bossy to the subordinates rather work as a
team for accomplishing the goal of ‘reinvention’.

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Cont..
The participants here are the workforce of
Hewlett-Packard and the CEO.
The employees may get some training to
improve their skills
The CEO can conduct meetings to know
the opinion of the employees and work
towards the same

FALLOUT
The management adopting the
suggested solutions can witness
positive or negative outcomes-
• The fallout may be supportive model going
wrong by demotivating the employees
• The layoffs could not be resisted as firm is
facing huge financial losses
• The CEO could resist to adopt the
collegial model and continue behaving
superior and take decisions