1. Describe the difference between leadership and management. Which CEO was more of a leader, and which was more like a manager?

2. What leadership behaviours did the new CEO exhibit that helped turn Hewlett-Packard around?

3. This case study best describes which situational theory of leadership?

Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., established in Montreal in 1961, is a wholly owned subsidiary of California-based Hewlett-Packard Co., a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses, and institutions around the world. H-P Canada has an extensive network of dealers and authorized service personnel in Canada and operates 28 offices across the country.

In the past decade, Hewlett-Packard has been plagued by a number of significant problems, the first of which was H-P’s strategic vision, which the previous CEO had repeatedly described as “digital, virtual, mobile, and personal.” While this sounded good, no one was quite clear what it meant. Was it a bad strategy, or was H-P just doing a poor job of executing it? Another problem was the confusing matrix organizational structure, which blurred lines of accountability and slowed decision making. A third problem was the reward system, which was so complex in its calculation that no one understood how their performance affected their bonuses. And finally, it was well known that H-P was struggling financially. Under the former CEO’s guidance, H-P had paid $19 billion to acquire Compaq Computers and then spent an additional $10 billion to integrate Compaq into H-P. 

But what was most worrisome was the deep sense of distrust that pervaded H-P, from first-level employees, to executive suites, all the way to the boardroom. Executive staff were leaving left and right, and H-P was unable to attract talented replacements. Out of several dozen top executive posts filled in the last few years, just one was filled by an outsider. The board of directors had become dysfunctional: After a board director leaked confidential information to the press, the board chair authorized an investigation to spy on board members’ phone records to determine who was sharing company secrets. When the leak was identified and confronted, another board member angrily resigned, and contacted the press to air the story. The end result was a huge scandal.