This paper examines Carly Fiorina's leadership as CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, using her tenure as a case study in leadership context. The paper identifies key elements of leadership she demonstrated — including creativity, organizational support, and intrinsic motivation — before analyzing the reasons her leadership ultimately failed. These include deficiencies in moral reasoning, emotional intelligence, and delegation. The paper then applies transactional and charismatic leadership theories to her scenario, comparing how each framework diagnoses and might have corrected the visible failures. Together, these analyses illustrate how strategic vision alone is insufficient without moral grounding, humility, and effective people management.
Carly Fiorina — formally Carleton Fiorina — was one of the most powerful businesswomen in America in the year 2000, having been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard, a technology giant. Her appointment made her the first woman to lead a Dow 30 company in the United States. Fiorina had a remarkable career trajectory, rising rapidly through the ranks at AT&T and Lucent Technologies before joining HP. However, her tenure at HP came to an abrupt end in 2005 when she and other members of the firm's board were dismissed for their failure as moral persons and moral managers. This situation provides a compelling case study of leadership in context, examining elements of leadership, the application of leadership theories, and the probable reasons for her leadership failure.
Effective leadership is important for any organization to achieve its specific objectives (Sheninger, 2014). Achieving effective leadership requires the application of various elements, such as modeling, discipline, creativity, insight, and values. While Fiorina's tenure as CEO of HP ended abruptly in 2005, her time at the company illustrates several notable leadership elements.
The first element of leadership demonstrated is creativity — the capability to create or shape the future. This is evident in Fiorina's introduction of three major changes that transformed HP's organizational culture following her tour and examination of the company's facilities. The second element is support, which encompasses visible components such as company benefits, organizational structure, and resources. This element is visible in Fiorina's transformation of HP's existing culture: she reduced 83 operating units to just 4, attempting to promote collaboration across the company's various facilities and business segments. She also changed the organization's reward metrics by replacing its profit-sharing plan with an incentive program that awarded bonuses when the firm met its financial targets.
A third leadership element present in the article is not seeking buy-in, which some frameworks regard as essential to effective leadership. Effective leaders in this model use intrinsic motivation to establish and sustain change without treating employee buy-in as a prerequisite. Fiorina demonstrated this element by relying on intrinsic motivation to initiate the three major changes aimed at enhancing the firm's operations and profitability. She did not solicit buy-in from employees and removed those who opposed the change initiatives.
Although the appointment of Carly Fiorina as CEO of Hewlett-Packard was welcomed by many employees, it ultimately proved problematic for several reasons. One primary reason for her leadership failure was her failure as both a moral person and a moral manager. The success or failure of a leader depends on moral reasoning as well as strategic thinking (Johnson, 2008, p. 191). While Fiorina was effective at strategic thinking, she largely failed at moral reasoning, which eventually contributed to the collapse of her leadership. She excelled at developing and selling her vision but was poor at the moral reasoning required to manage daily organizational operations.
A second reason for Fiorina's failure was a lack of emotional intelligence, which led to widespread employee dissatisfaction. A survey of 8,000 employees revealed prevalent unhappiness attributable to poorly implemented decisions and poor communication — factors driven largely by deficiencies in compassion, integrity, and humility. Despite being described as compassionate by colleagues at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, Fiorina appeared far less compassionate at HP, creating distance between herself and employees and prioritizing her own needs. With respect to integrity, she had a tendency to initiate broad policy changes without fully understanding their impact and frequently made empty promises. When outcomes fell short, Fiorina blamed organizational culture and other managers rather than accepting personal responsibility. Lack of humility is considered the single most significant contributor to her leadership failure. The considerable media attention she attracted was accompanied by an inability to conduct realistic self-appraisal, an inflated sense of transcendence, and a diminished openness to new ideas.
A third reason for leadership failure was Fiorina's neglect of employee needs combined with excessive control over organizational projects. Although she was a highly motivational speaker, she neglected employee needs, resulting in increased dissatisfaction and a perceived absence of equity during the major reorganization. She also under-delegated, maintaining control over numerous organizational items and projects. For instance, when she transformed one of the company's departments, Fiorina failed to allow that department to operate independently and retained personal control (Stempeldrang, n.d.).
Several leadership theories are applicable to Carly Fiorina's scenario and help illuminate the sources of her failure. The first is transactional leadership theory, which focuses on the fundamental management processes of organizing, directing, and short-term planning. Transactional leadership involves motivating and directing followers by appealing to their self-interest. Leaders who use this approach typically motivate followers through systems of incentives, rewards, or punishment tied to the achievement of desired outcomes (Management Study Guide, n.d.). This theory applies to Fiorina's scenario in terms of how she engaged employees during the major reorganizations. In practice, she relied on punishment far more than rewards, created distance between herself and employees, and sought to be treated differently from them. Rather than motivating and directing employees on the basis of their own self-interests, she allowed her personal intrinsic motivation to drive decisions, policies, and change initiatives.
The second applicable theory is charismatic leadership, in which a leader cultivates a powerful self-image that naturally attracts followers. Charismatic leaders typically build this image through visible self-sacrifice and by taking personal risks and responsibility. They derive their power from personality and charm rather than from formal authority or external power. This theory applies to the scenario in terms of Fiorina's source of power and personal style. She was more concerned with her own self-image than with the firm's success, combining remarkable vision with a charismatic yet demanding and egotistical leadership style (Mulcahy, 2005, p. 10). Nevertheless, Fiorina did take personal risks by instituting major reorganizations in pursuit of her vision for transforming HP.
"Transactional and charismatic theories applied to Fiorina"
"Comparing how each theory corrects leadership failures"
Sheninger, E. (2014). Essential elements of effective leadership. The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 10, 2015, from
Stempeldrang. (n.d.). Leadership styles of Carly Fiorina and Steve Jobs. Stempeldrang. Retrieved November 10, 2015, from
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