Organizational Strategies for Uber: An Analysis

Understanding Organisations 1
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Understanding Organisations 2
Introduction
Throughout this report, you will find a comprehensive analysis of the organizational
strategies that lie within Uber. This report is written concerning the issues raised
surrounding the underpayment of Uber drivers whereby a negative outlook and work
environment is created. Uber is a privately-owned company that continues to expand
exponentially worldwide founded in March 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett
Camp, the company is a type of ridesharing transportation company with their
platform being accessed through their website or mobile apps allowing for users to
access a variety of different kinds of transportation depending on what the user
requires. Uber’s drivers use their vehicles to transport users, though drivers are seen
as contractors due in no small amount of flexibility and control drivers have when
providing their services, however Uber drivers are faced with being underpaid due to
the services being significantly cheaper than for instance using a taxi service, thus
leading to drivers being unsatisfied and unhappy. Using organizational theories as a
reference to recommend better strategies to implement into how the company runs its
operations to be more satisfactory and fairer (Blain, Levy, & Ritchie, 2015, p.330)
Change is not enforced from this report though suggestions and steps on how to
implement these strategies are made. Firstly, the organizational theories that will be
applied to Uber will be described and defined, the approaches to be introduced are;
the contingency theory, which suggests that each arising situation should be dealt with
differently thus adapting to each environment. The other organizational approach that
will be introduced is an organizational culture where the behaviours and values of
people that are shared patterns of meanings. Secondly, these theories will be further
explored relative to Uber, to highlight the issues that surround the company and where
to start developing action, where the origins of the problem will be explored with a
focus on the structure of the company and how using the wrong structure may
negatively impact the business (Scapens, 2016, p.21) Then evidence will be used by
the organizational theories to make recommendations on an improved structure to
increase the satisfaction of the drivers. To conclude the report, the corporate theories
should be seen as situational and are dependent on the desired outcome of Uber;
therefore, management should choose the best strategies or combination of strategies
to meet the needs of both their customers and their drivers/contractors. It is important

Understanding Organisations 3
to also understand the organizational structure of Uber so as to understand how it
operates
Organizational Structure
Uber is headed by an overall executive called the Chief Executive Officer(CEO). The
current CEO is Dara Khorsorwshahi. Different departments are subdivided and
representatives are appointed to head those departments and report to the CEO. These
departments include Technology, Legal, Human Resource, Product Management,
Security, Finance, Engineering, Business, Leadership and Strategy; and Policy and
Communication. Uber uses different strategies to execute its business successfully. It
uses a mixture of service range in order to have a solution for the inclusion of more
numbers. This means that it factors in the different financial capacities of different
people in whichever state or city it invests. The variety of products that Uber provides
include Uber X, Uber XI, Uber Pool, Uber AUTO, Uber MOTO, Uber Access and
Uber Premium. These have different prices, preferences, choices and level of comfort.
The customer is given options to choose from. Uber is known for its high degree of
user convenience. The application is effortless to use on any android phone. There is
no need to queue for their services, to make calls or wave for a taxi to stop. Clients are
only required to tap request on their phones whether they are at home, school, church
or any other place. The Uber driver who is the closest location to the client will get
the request and reply with an ‘arriving now’ notification to the client. Previous data
shows that an Uber driver takes approximately 1-2 minutes to get to the client. Its
level of convenience is also experienced in its payment method. The client’s user
account handles everything digitally. When the client boards his or her ride the timer
is set to calculate the cost of the trip. It is done using the distance of the journey and
the duration. On reaching the destination, the account automatically calculates and
deducts the payment fee from the account. It is efficient and safe for both the client
and driver. Uber has also been at the forefront in cost-saving through innovations
(Conger, & Kanungo, 2014, p.283). The application has eased manual laborers to
assist in transactions such as looking for a taxi, drivers and cashiers. The changes
have also put Uber on a global map through its competitive ideas.
Organizational Theories
Contingency theory.