Issues in Kalanick's Managerial Approach at Uber

This case study analyzes the issues in Travis Kalanick's managerial approach at Uber, including unrestrained workplace culture, unlawful activities, and gender gap. Solutions and recommendations are provided.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
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Executive Summary
Structural features of a governance system related to its size and structure of the board in
addition to the implementation of most efficient practices for assessment, risk, compensation, as
well as progression do not have a reliable or dependable impact on actions, performance and
outcomes of the organization. It has been noted that organization which tend to engage in
misbehaviour or unethical means show an implication to reveal continual problems over time.
These challenges however sheds light on the unconstructive governance might be systemic.
However, it is not apparent he types of roles of organizational leadership as well as culture serve
in contributing to chronic misconduct and the approach in which it tends to intensify right
through an organization. Furthermore, it has been highly unclear to note that once the
organizational culture is shaped the level of challenges organizations are likely to face to reshape
the culture and regain its growth and reputation. Such has been the case of Uber Technologies
during its leadership tenure of former CEO Travis Kalanick. The given case study has offered
insights of Uber’s former CEO Kalanick’s managerial approach. Drawing insights from the case,
the report has identified three primary issues of Kalanick’s managerial approach and has
analysed them with relevant theories and solutions in addition to recommendations.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Identification of issues and problems..............................................................................................4
Kalanick’s approach encouraged unrestrained workplace culture..............................................4
Kalanick’s unlawful activities to achieve success.......................................................................6
Kalanick’s Management Reflected Wide Gender Gap................................................................6
Discussion........................................................................................................................................7
Solutions..........................................................................................................................................8
SMART GOAL...........................................................................................................................8
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Kalanick and Garrett Camp founded Uber in 2009 after each started and sold achievable
companies. Reports of Larcker and Tayan (2017) have revealed that Uber has developed as the
most popular unicorn in the ‘there is an app for that’ financial system at the initial phase of 2015.
Consumer adoption has gradually shifted due to the accessibility of its usage in addition to an
increasing product services as well as geographic scope. Such shift as per the opinion of Jones
(2017) have raised uncertainties among investors to get engaged into the business of Uber due to
its capacity of causing disruptions in industries and its exceptional growth. Berdahl et al. (2018)
have noted that Travis Kalanick, former Uber’s Co-founder and CEO has been credited for the
expansion and growth experienced by Uber mainly due to his competence of predicting,
strategically visualizing, maintaining resilience as well as empower others. It has been noted that
the managerial approach of Kalanick strategically determined Uber’s planned direction and
further managed the resource portfolio of the organization by upholding its cultural patterns by
establishing ethical standards for Uber’s practices. The given case study has provided insights of
Uber’s former CEO Kalanick’s managerial approach. Drawing insights from the case, the report
will identify three primary issues of Kalanick’s managerial approach and evaluate them with
relevant theories.
Background
The given case highlights that although Kalanick has successfully established internal
approach for Uber by strategically cultivating a cult of personality and sexism, his ignorance
towards company’s rules and regulations, his disrespect towards his workforce and customers
has started to reflect a type of mismanagement within the organization. Studies of Larcker and

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Tayan (2017) have revealed that Kalanick’s managerial approach gradually emerged as an area
of concern, with many posing question about the ethicality of his tactics. Moreover, Berdahl et
al. (2018) have speculated the ways in which key stakeholders might continue to respond to
Kalanick’s aggressive decisions. On the other hand, as per the reports of Berdahl et al. (2018),
such a mismanagerial approach of Kalanick has led him to encounter questions on whether he
would be able to successfully address the frequently competing demands coming from diverse
range of stakeholders and the types of demands where he should emphasize on in order to shift
from an aspirant start-up to an individual and well-established business enterprise in the entire
USA taxi-cab market.
At this juncture, it is important to note that majority of the issues regarding Kalanick’s
managerial approach have been linked to highly entrenched stringent internal organization
culture and the consequences of Uber’s ‘win-at-any-cost’ approach that eventually resulted to
increasing level of attrition in the organization (Uber Advanced Technologies Group 2019).
Furthermore, from the given case study, Kalanick’s disregard towards legal regulations and
policies has been identified. Studies of Von Kutzschenbach and Brønn 2017) have claimed that
through Kalanick’s managerial approach, the company used driver lawsuits and software tools
which have been purposed in order to con law enforcement agencies from failing to identify
areas where Uber has been indulgent in unlawful activities to increase its growth in the market.
Identification of issues and problems
Kalanick’s approach encouraged unrestrained workplace culture
Studies conducted by Kamalnath (2018) have revealed unpitying and harsh managerial
approach of Kalanick which led Uber’s workplace culture to be a highly unrestrained one for its

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employees. Reports of Matherne and O’Toole (2017) have revealed a highly pervasive
environment raised by Kalanick that gave many employees the unlawful right to harass and also
backstab or exploit other employees to gain power in the organization. Such an unrestrained
workplace culture has risen as a critical concern amongst many after been reported that
Kalanick’s mismanagement has led managers to harassed their employees and discriminate
against them on the basis of sex, orientation, ethnicity and nationality. Moreover, Larcker and
Tayan (2017) have noted that several employees argued that the 14 established values of
Kalanick rather than promoting a constructive workplace culture encouraged the toxic
environment. Matherne and O’Toole (2017) at this juncture have cited example of one of the
Uber employees who faced severe physical threats for been unable to accomplish the target.
However, in the view of Kamalnath (2018), although Kalanick established 14 values have aided
Uber to develop one of the Silicon Valley’s greatest achievements, the highly competitive nature
and demand of driving the most effective results of Kalanick has triggered a Hobbesian
workplace culture within the organization which led one employee to con the other whereby
every manager has been competing with associates with an attempt to undermine their direct
supervisor to attain the position in the organization.
On the other hand, one of the issues which have been highlighted during Kalanick’s
management approach is the critical case of sexual harassment. Reports of Matherne and
O’Toole (2017) have revealed that unconstructive workplace climate advocated by Kalanick
aggravated an internal crisis situation for its female employees that resulted to women workers
facing sexual harassment or critical backlashes from their male counterparts or managers. The
concept of values and attitudes tend to interact differently based upon the approach in question.
Values and attitude of leaders typically leverage the perception and behaviour of employees.

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Kalanick’s unlawful activities to achieve success
Kalanick while showcasing his managerial techniques in Uber overlooked the fine-line
between pragmatism and desperation which he has clearly surpassed with many of his unlawful
activities to attain success. Reports of Taplin (2017) have revealed that Kalanick’s strategies
have exceeded legislation, regulations and legal norms and further subjugated legal grey areas by
illegally deceiving its stakeholders and employees. The former CEO of Uber has been severely
accused by many of its stakeholders for breach of contract as well as fiduciary duty thus
exploiting his vital position in order to conceal the controversies arising regarding employees
indulging into sexual harassment, lack of reverence for diversity, maltreatment and retaliation
against employees who have been criticizing these ruthless acts endorsed by Kalanick
(Kamalnath 2018). Additionally, as per the reports of Wong (2017), although with an
outstanding revenue trajectory, Uber has been accused of exploiting its price-transparency laws
and alleged theft of schematics along with other documents outlining Alphabet Inc.’s
autonomous-driving technology.
Kalanick’s Management Reflected Wide Gender Gap
Uber’s male domination in its workforce has reflected critical gender gap constituting of
only 15% of women engaged in tech roles. Reports of authors have noted that Uber has been
lacking in Black and Hispanic workers specifically in leadership positions and its male
dominated workplace culture (Cooke et al. 2018). Furthermore, Kalanick’s negatively
constructed culture reflected severe issues regarding female employees to be continually
subjugated and subjective to repeated sexual harassment by male employees and managers as
well as discrimination.

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Discussion
Drawing relevance from the insights obtained from the case of Kalanick’s promoted
unrestrained workplace culture; his ego-defensive type of attitude can be reflected. Such a
tendency of Kalanick has led its subordinates to unethically achieve success to protect their ego
thus leading to a universally negative attitude. Iqbal, Anwar and Haider (2015) have noted that
Kalanick through his ego-defensive attitude has established a work environment, in which
managers have criticized employees’ work without offering suggestions for development thus
developing unconstructive and aggressive attitude within the employees.
The case of Kalanick’s unlawful activities to achieve success reflects Kalanick’s belief in
autocratic leadership style thus showing complete authority whereby followers have obeyed his
instructions without questioning and without receiving an explanation or rationale for such
instructions. Dudley, Banister and Schwanen (2017) have noted that Kalanick’s
acknowledgement of getting involved unlawful activities and breaching price-transparency laws
have reflected heavily centralized command of autocratic leadership style ensures that the system
depends entirely on the leader in addition to the one-sided communication of Kalanick with his
employees thus resulting a major proportion of Uber’s employees to be unknown of the former
CEO’s intention of pushing legal legislations and breaching the policies of the company. At this
juncture, Wong (2017) has suggested that divergent to assertions of close management with
comprehensive instructions to decrease pressure and further enhance employees’ efficiency,
theory of authoritarian leadership reveals that such actions tend to be unconstructive or
demotivating for employees thus resulting to increase tension, misinterpretation and resentment
within the workforce (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015).

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Critical cases of gender gap, sexual harassment has reflected Kalanick’s establishment of
a monolithic concept within the organization. Authors have noted that monolithic concept has
been exhibiting a homogenous workforce. Uber’s former CEO with pursue of monolithic idea
have led men to take majority of managerial positions thus keeping women and other minority
members to remain in a disadvantageous position in the organization. Moreover, in the view of
Foong et al. (2018), due to increasing homogeneity of the workforce, inter-group conflict based
on culture-group identity has been severely reduced. However, as per the view of authors,
Kalanick with its lack of institutional theory has failed to successfully integrate women and
minority sections within its workforce thus faced substantial level of criticisms and disapproval.
According to Iqbal, Anwar and Haider (2015), as per Institutional Theory of Diversity
Management, leaders who have been incompetent to understand the structure of the organization
critically show unachievable outcomes in comprehending the behavioural patterns of employees
thus constraining its vital factors such as legislation, laws, conventions, regulations in addition to
social as well as professional norms (Imasogie, Oyatogun and Taiwo 2018). Considering the case
of Uber’s gender gap and issues of discrimination against female employees, the organization
has been highly incompetent in pursuing these regulations or norms thus its operations have been
questioned and criticized for violating the law.
Solutions
SMART GOAL
SMART GOALS
Specific Kalanick’s ruthless managerial approach towards female employees and
promoting a gender biased workplace culture must be reduced by improving his
communication and leadership skills. Furthermore, his behavioural approach
towards employees of diverse backgrounds must also be developed.

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measurable Reading journals, articles related to dynamic leadership theorise and techniques
as well as attending local leadership programmes will facilitate the level of
understanding to eliminate the highly authoritarian strategies while leading a
thriving organization and thus establishing a positive competitive culture within
the organization. Furthermore, successful exchange of feedbacks and valid
reviews from all the employees of Uber would help in comprehend the
improvement and further support in releasing the current position of Kalanick
within the organization.
Attainable These goals can easily be attained with the increasing rate of technological
services which will further aid Kalanick to achieve accessibility to a range of
business journals, blogs, articles, leadership and organizational management
videos and interviews in relation to effective communication and dynamic
leadership abilities needed for leaders to form constructive organizational culture.
On the other hand, successfully attending leadership development sessions by
renowned organizational leaders along with leadership and behavioural
development courses will help in successfully developing qualified, specialized
and social interactive abilities.
Relevant The goal is relevant as these leadership and behavioural skills training courses
and obtaining insights from various organizational leaders will help them in
understanding attributes of female employees and diverse cultural employees.
Furthermore, watching videos and interviews of organizational leadership and
diversity management theories will provide important opportunities of obtaining
ethical and proficient ways to make lawful decisions and judgements with
stakeholders and employees and can further efficiently value the deep-seated
rationale for employees’ concerns and uncertainties regarding organizational
decision making (Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy 2014).
Time The goal can be attained within the span of 3-6 months.
SMART GOALS
Specific To establish a smooth communication base with employees and manage teams
and groups in organization, must focus on improving communication with female
employees and minority members of Uber who have been facing challenges due
to ruthless workplace culture.
Formation of stronger associations with each and every employee is essential for
leaders of thriving organizations to obtain. Furthermore, for a leader in order to
succeed with the team, efficient leaders must obtain knowledge of successfully
putting their differences aside in order to attain a common goal.
Measurable Attending communication development classes and lecture sessions from
renowned personalities and seeking comments, judgements and opinions from
stakeholders, employees and mentors will facilitate the intensity of understanding
to rise above issues and mismanagement done previously.
Reading various forms of resources regarding diversity management theories and
equal pay concepts will offer insightful information which will have the capacity
to facilitate an autocratic leader to change his vision. Furthermore, regular

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leadership development sessions with skill development sessions by leaders of
renowned organizations would further successfully provide with effectual
managing abilities along with the understanding of their abilities and
competencies and further distinguish level of skills which can be attainable.
Attainable Leaders can successfully accomplish these goals with various resources available
online and from organizational journals and in-house discussion forums. These
will have the capacity to aid leaders in successfully acquiring not only online
resources, journals, organizational studies and videos of communication skills and
ability to manage teams and groups.
Furthermore, efficiently attending workshops, interviewing experts who have
substantial experiences and knowledge on the respective area and understand
their opinion about the leadership skill which has been portrayed till date will aid
leaders to mitigate issues of misinterpretation and lack of communication within
the organization. Furthermore, leadership and management growth courses will
facilitate in successfully enhancing the professional and social interactive
competencies of leaders.
Relevant These leadership and managerial courses and taking interviews of experts and
attending communication workshops will aid them in identifying types and
relevant attributes of diverse individuals.
In addition to this, watching management videos of communication and
supervision skills will offer important prospect of learning effectual ways to
implement direct and unrestricted conversations with employees and further
promote the concept of gender and racial diversity and successful team work
within the organization ( Kamalnath 2018).
Time The goal can be attained within the span of 3-6 months.
Recommendations
To successfully manage gender diversity, the newly appointed CEO of Uber
Technologies Dara Khosrowshahi must possess an individualistic drive to make diversity a
priority for the organization. Not only ensuring effective recruitment, selection and appraisal of
female employees, Uber new CEO Khosrowshahi must have an approach which will effectively
flow through the daily conversations and decision-making processes of the organization.
Furthermore, in order to be a proficient organizational leader, he must engage in selecting

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diverse groups for projects to guarantee the gender diversity approach (Nanjundeswaraswamy
and Swamy (2014. Meanwhile, providing insights to employees about success stories from
gender-diverse work cultures can aid organizations like Uber to connect to the idea of diversity
to enhance diversity in the cultural pattern of the organization.
On the other hand, creating flexible benefit as well as retention schemes will aid
employees to take advantage of the things which are of utmost significance to them. CEO
Khosrowshahi can offer numerous diverse medical-care savings options for both men and
women employees. Furthermore, CEO Khosrowshahi should reformulate Uber’s written cultural
values as it is imperative that the organization reflect more inclusive as well as positive
behaviours. Thus, in order to accomplish this reformulation of the values, CEO Khosrowshahi
can follow several steps such as engage into an established and esteemed organization which has
knowledge in organizational change to regurgitate the values with important contribution from
employees further consider defining the values in an approach that will be more reachable and
implicit for workforce and also adopt principles that are more wide-ranging and contribute to a
shared work environment.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that a manager tends to have
the ability to influence employee’s attitude if the root cause relates to work conditions or work
setting. Thus, the newly employed CEO must develop strong work environment which will be
highly vital for an effective and efficient workplace. It has been noted that leaders who tend to
exhibit constructive managerial approach are likely to stimulate employees and encourage work
environment which will have the capacity to successfully seek solutions and remain loyal, even

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if the business faces financial difficulties. However, it is important to note that fostering
managerial initiatives that influence behavioural patterns of employees do not provide utmost
productivity; Uber in order to stabilize its business operations must show substantial
commitment towards the accomplishment of these initiatives.

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