Organisational Behaviour: Relationship between Culture, Power, and Politics in Uber

This report explores the relationship between culture, power, and politics in Uber and their impact on team motivation. It discusses the mission, vision, and aim of the company, as well as the influence of power and politics on the work culture. The report also analyzes motivational theories and techniques to improve team effectiveness within Uber.

Organisational
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
1. Mission, Vision and Aim of the company..........................................................................3
2. Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, power and politics overall and how this
affects the motivation for team behaviour within Uber in the past and today.......................4
3. Analyse how much of an influence power and politics played in this culture and discuss the
culture now being developed within Uber..............................................................................4
4. Content and process theories of motivation and behaviour and its implications...............7
5. Critically evaluate the theories above mentioned along with motivational techniques that
can help to improve the effectiveness in the teams within Uber............................................9
6. Recommend to show how improved level of motivation within Uber can help in achieving
its organisational goals...........................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour refers to the study as to how people in the workplace shall
behave within the groups. In order to ensure that business is operated effectively, its principles
are applied. This study is done to improve the job performance, job satisfaction, encouraging
leadership and promoting the innovation so that business objectives are achieved effectively.
Motivation plays a key role in improving the effectiveness of the workforce so that they feel
charged up in working for the organisation and an effective culture is also maintained to take the
company to higher level of success (De Sousa Sabbagha, Ledimo and Martins, 2018). This report
studies the organisational behaviour of Uber, a public company dealing in transportation, food
and courier. Its headquarter is situated in San Francisco with operations in 900 metropolitan
areas across the world. This report shall cover the overview of company, relationship between
culture, power and politics together with its influence on work culture. Further motivation
theories and levels of motivation shall be dealt.
MAIN BODY
1. Mission, Vision and Aim of the company
Uber is a public company founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick. It is
situated in Sans Francisco, USA with expanding its business in 69 nations with 900 metropolitan
areas. The main operations of its business include food delivery, transportation, courier, package
delivery and partnerships through electric bicycle, lime and motorised scooter rentals.
The Vision statement is clear which states about improving the accessibility and
providing economic opportunities for every person of global workforce. Uber works to create
job opportunities for every person across the globe.
The mission statement of Uber is simple and clear, that is, to bring the transportation
everywhere and for everyone. It focuses on transportation the most as compared to its other
divisions and works to improve its quality for providing best service experience to all.
The aim of Uber is to empower the local commerce across the world and become one
stop shop for movement of the people (Jacobs and Manzi, 2020).

2. Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, power and politics overall and how this
affects the motivation for team behaviour within Uber in the past and today.
Power refers to the ability through which the behaviour of an individual can be
influenced in order to get their work done.
Organisational culture refers to the system where values, assumptions and beliefs are
shared which shows the appropriate and the inappropriate behaviour to the employees.
Politics in simple words mean when the power is in action which leads to politics. It may
refer to those activities which are not needed for performing any formal role but it influence the
working conditions.
Uber struggles to maintain a balance between power, culture and politics. These influence
the daily operations of the business as the atmosphere of the workplace depends upon it. The
power and politics have an impact on the organisation which define its work culture.
In past, the work culture which was developed involves limited power and politics which
helps the employees to work in their comfort zone. This motivates the workers to work towards
organisational goals (Larijani and Saravi-Moghadam, 2018). But in the recent years, Uber was
subject to many controversies where there were many accusations of the sexual harassment at
workplace which resulted in degraded culture.
Impact- The use of excessive power and politics in the organisation resulted in
discouragement and demotivation for the employees which affected its working due to unethical
culture. The workforce was unable to work in team spirits and started working for their personal
objectives rather the organisation's goal which resulted in reduction of profits and the stock
prices were also affected. So there is a need to make improvements in the work culture of the
organisation.
3. Analyse how much of an influence power and politics played in this culture and discuss the
culture now being developed within Uber.
POWER
Power refers to possession of influence and authority which one has towards other. It can
be used as a tool to create either negative or positive environment into the organisation (Miao
and et. al., 2020). The power being used in Uber are classified in different theories which are
discussed below to influence the work culture in the organisation-

 Formal power- This kind of power is received by an individual by virtue of its holding a
position through which it has an ability to either reward or coerce others. In Uber, this
kind of power is exercised by the person based on rank like CEO or Director, etc.
 Coercive power- This type of power is exercised to influence a person through threats,
sanctions or punishments. It helps in controlling the behaviour of the employees so that
they are subject to adherence to organisational policies and norms. In Uber, the leaders
and managers exercise coercive power on junior staff in order to make their work done
which results in unpleasant environment at workplace.
POLITICS
When the power comes in action, politics begin. Political terrain includes four domains
which are weeds, rocks, high ground and woods. There are two dimensions to this, one is that
every organisation involves political activity which may begin either at individual level or at
organisational level. And the other is source of power, which can be either soft or hard. Soft
power is informal and hard power is formal.
The four metaphors of organisational politics involves the following-
 The weeds- Informal network and personal influence takes place. Under this the informal
group involves in making the sound financial organisation. It is exercised for the good of
the company.
 The rocks- It involves individual interactions in formal way. The higher authority
exercise hard power on the workforce to overcome any crisis situation.
 The high ground- It involves combination of organisational system with the formal
authority. It acts as guide to the rocks.
 The woods- Every organisation involves hidden assumptions, implicit norms that act as
formal guidelines or processes which provide safety to the people in the organisation
(Majumdar, 2018).
In Uber, the managers and leaders use this politics negatively to fulfil their personal
motives which results in unhealthy work culture. The employees feel demotivated in working for
the organisation which has affected the growth of the company.
CULTURE

It refers to the values and beliefs which are followed in the organisation to develop a
healthy culture. Handy's four classes of culture will help in giving more clarity to the term
'culture' which is discussed below-
 Power culture- Under this, the power is rested in few individuals who spread their
influence in whole organisation. The person in power decides the rules and regulations
and express rules are less in number.
 Role culture- This culture is based on rules. The person's role or position in the
organisation determine the power. There is a long chain of command which results in
slow decision making.
 Task culture- Under this, power is rested to a team which is entrusted with a task for any
specific project or problem. If the teams work with mixture of skills and leadership, this
may give outcome of high productivity.
 Person culture- Under this culture, the people see themselves as superior and unique and
this kind of culture involves collection of the individuals who work for the organisation
(Muchiri, Shahid and Ayoko, 2019).
In Uber, power culture is followed which is toxic due to its strong influence on the
organisation. The people in power is responsible for creating this culture who misuse their power
and create unhealthy and unsafe environment.
Influence of power and politics on culture
Too much excessive power can create an environment where the employees may loose
their interest while working for the objectives of the company. The individual's performance can
be affected by this and it may give rise to complexities which in return affect the organisational
progress. Excessive negative politics may result in degrading the performance graph of the
employee and its interest is also loosen in the work assigned to him. Similarly if any individual
gets involves in politics, the same legacy may be followed by its subordinate which may result in
bad organisational culture.
Culture development in Uber
The Uber has been subject to rapid change in terms of culture, politics and power which
have affected the dynamics of the company. Due to hardships being exercised by the senior
management on subordinate staff, the company has been facing several controversies which has
affected its global expansion. The cases of sexual harassment has created an unsafe environment

in the workplace due to which it has lost many skilful employees which has affected its global
position (Nguyen, 2019). People culture from Handy's model is being followed in Uber where
the individuals feel superior and unique to themselves which has resulted in lack of democratic
style of working and resulted in aggressive and unrestrained culture at workplace. The use of
illegal technologies by the company has created a stoked culture by the top level management
due to involvement of internal politics. The evasion of law enforcements and spying on users has
led to infringement of privacy which resulted in loss of trust and confidence in the company.
4. Content and process theories of motivation and behaviour and its implications.
The theories of motivation helps the organisation in motivating the workforce in order to
increase their productivity and efficiency so that organisational goals are achieved effectively.
The following theories will help in motivating the workforce of Uber-
 Maslow's need of hierarchy- This theory provides that people can be motivated to
achieve the needs and these needs are classified into different hierarchy. After achieving
needs of each level, an individual is motivated to fulfil its next need. The pyramid of
needs involves following needs-
1. Physiological need- This need is at the bottom which involves basic needs for survival
like food, shelter, clothes, sleep, etc. After fulfilling this need, the individual is motivated
to achieve next level need.
2. Safety needs- It involves security and safety needs after fulfilling physiological needs.
These are fulfilled by society and family, for example financial security, emotional
security, etc.
3. Love and belongingness/ social needs- Next level need is social needs. It motivates an
individual to build inter personal relationships like friendships, trust, love, etc.
4. Self esteem needs- It indicates need of reputation and respect from others. After
achieving above level needs, the individual is motivated to achieve this need which
involves recognition also.
5. Self Actualization needs- This is the highest level of need where an individual seeks
peak experience and personal growth. It is a desire to achieve everything which a person
can.

Implication- This theory helps the organisation to motivate employee at each level so that it can
fulfil all its needs and desire. Fulfilling need of each level motivates the individual to achieve
more by giving best to the organisation.
 Mintzberg's theory- This theory provides breaking down of responsibilities and roles to
organise the the company's efficient culture which helps the individual to build its own
skill (Omar, Jayasingam and Bakar, 2019). Mintzberg break down organisation into five
components by considering the roles of each to coordinate the activities which are-
1. Strategic apex- This element is made up of senior executives and directors whose
role is to define and interpret the mission of the company.
2. Operating core- It involves carrying on activities which are necessary to deliver
outputs.
3. Middle line- It gives link between the above two elements.
4. Technostructure- This element is made of teams and individuals who performs
business functions.
5. Support staff- It includes public relations, legal services and research and
development whose output did not contribute to the objective of company directly.
Implication- This theory gives the framework in which the organisation must complete its
activities in order to work effectively. The roles are divided in such a manner that a healthy
culture is developed for the members to work efficiently.
 Elton Mayo's theory- This theory is based on the Hawthorne experiment which provides
groundwork to motivate the team dynamics. Mayo stated four combinations in this theory
with its effect on teams which are discussed below-
1. The groups which have low cohesiveness and norms are ineffective as no member is
motivated.
2. The groups with low cohesiveness and high norms have little degree of any positive
impact as individuals accomplish something.
3. The groups with high cohesiveness and low norms create negative impact as few
members only encourage the negative behaviour.
4. The members with high cohesiveness and norms are effective with having the most
positive impact because everyone motivates each other to excel (Vaughan, 2019).

Implication- This theory will help in making the work groups effective so that employees get
motivated to work in team spirit and the ineffective groups shall be eliminated in order to
increase the productivity.
5. Critically evaluate the theories above mentioned along with motivational techniques that can
help to improve the effectiveness in the teams within Uber.
Motivation is the key to make the work effective and efficient. It helps in increasing the
morale and confidence of the employee to give its best. Some of the motivational techniques can
help in improving the effectiveness of teams in Uber- Maslow's need of hierarchy- This hierarchy of need theory motivates the employee to
work harder to achieve the needs one by one so that it can get what it desires for. The
managers in Uber can offer rewards or flexibility as motivational technique in order to
motivate the employees to work effectively to achieve each level's need. Mintzberg's theory- This theory can be used to create an efficient culture by breaking the
organisation into elements which can help in coordinating the activities of the
organisation. The managers in Uber can show confidence and trust in employees to make
their efficient culture so that employees get motivated to increase their productivity leve.
 Elton Mayo's theory- This theory can be used to build the efficient team which creates
positive impact on the team members so that they get motivated to work for
organisational goal. In Uber, managers can build a culture of recognition and
appreciation so that employees get motivated to work in team spirits.
6. Recommend to show how improved level of motivation within Uber can help in achieving its
organisational goals.
The managers in Uber can motivate the workforce to work with their full efficiency so
that organisational goals are achieved. Reward system shall be initiated in order to motivate them
and appreciation and recognition should also be put in place so that the morale of the employees
are boosted. This will help the managers in creating positive impact so that the organisational
goals are achieved effectively and efficiently (Verma and Mohapatra, 2020). Continuous
feedbacks can help in widening the scope of improvement for employees and their inner skills
will be improved which will help in increasing their productivity level.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that organisational behaviour helps to study the
human behaviour of the employees. Uber has been surrounded with several controversies in
recent years which has badly affected its workplace culture which has lowered the morale of the
employees. By applying the Maslow and Mayo's theory, Uber can motivate its employee to
perform better which will help in creating positive environment. The power and politics have
greatly affected the culture of Uber which has affected its global expansion and profits. Further it
is concluded that motivation techniques like rewards, recognition, appreciation and continuous
feedback can help in increasing the effectiveness of the team members in Uber.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Nguyen, T.M., 2019. Do extrinsic motivation and organisational culture additively strengthen
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Organizational Ethics. Emerald Publishing Limited.