Hewlett-Packard (HP) was founded in 1939 in Palo-Alto by William Redington Hewlett and Dave Packard. Initially, it was a small, one-car garage, company. In several decades, it had expanded significantly in both size and the volume of manufactured goods. Nowadays, HP is a multinational company. According to the assessment of the United States Security and Exchange Commission (2012), its annual revenue reaches up to $120.357 billion.
The ever-growing expansion of the market and increase in revenues can be explained by the company’s business and marketing strategy that is aimed at increasing the number of its consumers all over the world. According to HP’s annual report (2010), these goals can be reached through adhering to the following ideas: Passion for customers, trust and respect for individuals, promotion of teamwork, innovation, and integrity.
HP understands the gross significance of its human resources that they are the most important precondition for the company’s development and prosperity. This is the main reason why HP takes all necessary measures to create friendly working environment that corresponds to all employees’ expectations and needs. Firstly, the company declares the ideas of respect and fairness to its employees. This idea is realized through the introduction of the “open door policy” (HP, 2010). This means that an employee who has a claim to his working environment is encouraged to discuss this situation with his manager. He can also contact the Ethics and Compliance Office if he cannot discuss a particular problem with his team manager.
Secondly, HP creates the working environment in which all human rights are honoured. The company’s working environment can be characterised the following way: It promotes the ideas of equality irrespective of one’s race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation (HP, 2010); the company maintains secure work environment, including the creation of drugs-free working area, compliance with international safety standards, and adequate reports about health or safety threats (HP, 2010); HP encourages the maintenance of harassment-free environment; the company respects the privacy of one’s life and protects one’s personal information from passing to third parties.
HP pays close attention to constant development of its human resources which are the driving force for innovation and expansion of the new markets. The maintenance of favourable team-climate and integrity are considered to be the most important preconditions for the company’s succeed. Prior is realized through the encouragement of one’s prominent team-playing and leadership skills; it is also realized through the encouragement of one’s initiative and commitment to innovation.
Latter is realized through the introduction of measures that are aimed at preserving the company’s identity and independence from the outer influence. Above all, these measures include the following: The deliberate use of the company’s personal and financial assets; the maintenance of accurate business records (HP, 2010) which ensures the security of all significant business information; avoidance of the conflicts of interests; and deliberate acceptance of gifts or entertainments. The latter is limited by the gifts that in no way impose restrictions on the company’s independence and the freedom of its self-expression in the …