Should Patricia Dunn Have Been Forced to Resign?

Was what Patricia Dunn did over the top? Being given the task and responsibility to resolve a leak controversy to a company the size of Hewlett-Packard can cause many sleepless nights for anyone. While I think Ms. Dunn had good intentions doing what she felt to be right, as her duty or obligation, I think she took an extraordinary step, giving an outside investigation team the authority to look into people’s personal telephone records.

When the Wall Street Journal published confidential and sensitive information that only Hewlett-Packard’s board members were privy to, this action violated standards and ethical boundaries. All trust and morals were out the window at this point, damaging to a company of this stature’s reputation. With such pressing information (no pun) being leaked to the press, an investigative firm used pretexting in order to determine where the leak was coming from.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), pretexting is the practice of obtaining personal information under false pretenses…illegal. After consulting legal experts who reassured Dunn that this practice was legal, her defense seems more than fair. The firm took extreme measures that involved the impersonation of members of the board and other employees, journalists obtained phone records, spying on certain targeted people and their relatives, examining their garbage; all to find the person(s) responsible for providing the confidential information to the press.

Having the ability to watch employees at any given moment throughout the work day, attributes to a lack of trust. When a company wants to look into the acts and ethics of its employees, going through emails, phone records, garbage, etc. should be the last resort of option. Each employee has a right to privacy. Employees have been known to sign contracts; however, this was not the type of contract that made them give up the right to invade their personal records.

Obviously, there was a leak in the company,...