Travis Kalanick was not ethical enough to steer Uber

Travis Kalanick was not ethical enough to steer Uber

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Overview of the case.............................................................................................................................2
Discussion of ethical theories................................................................................................................2
Analysis of Uber’s operations from an ethical standpoint.....................................................................3
Discussion of the semiotic square..........................................................................................................4
Its application to Uber...........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Ethics can be defined as the moral principles and social values which basically distinguishing
between good and evil. It involves moral principles and values which enable us to judge if an
action is wrong and right. The main idea of ethics is to avoid bad things and do more of good
things (Melden, 2013). Business ethics of the company involves professional ethics that
analyse the ethical problems, principles, values and morals in the business organization
(Weiss, 2014).
The global taxi technology Company called Uber is headquartered in San Francisco,
California, United states. It is working in 633 cities in all over the world. It extended its
market from car transportation to food delivery mobile apps. Under this the drivers can also
use their cars and even they can have the cars on rent to drive with Uber (Pullen, 2014). In
recent years its behaviour has been criticized and it is in the position of having its license
revoked. The main aim of this report is to present the ethical practices by the CEOs, using
Travis Kalanick, Uber ex CEO, as a case study. This report includes the study of ethical
theories on the basis of which the ethical behaviour of the CEO of Uber is going to be
critically evaluated. It also includes the ethical stand point on the basis of which Uber’s
operations is to be evaluated.
Overview of the case
‘Travis Kalanick is not ethical enough to steer Uber’ as he did not realise his responsibility as
a CEO of the Uber. He behaved very disgraceful for too long as noticed by some of the
executives working under Uber (Mulliken and Tuchman, 2017). He didn’t even bother for
the security of the employees. No initiative has been taken by Mr Travis Kalanick when some
of the drivers were robbed and killed in Brazil. Only the identity of the riders were checked
when the first murder occurred. One of the employees Susan Flower, a former Uber engineer,
experienced sexual harassment several times in the organization by the executives of Human
Resource Department that is why she defined the organization as in complete and unkind.
After that a very disappointing situation aroused, one of the customer of Uber was raped by
the driver in India, 2014 and nothing happened that driver was dismissed off. Mr Kalanick
neither bothered about the safety and health of the employees of the organization nor about
the customer’s satisfaction. He placed growth and beating rivals above basic humanity. He
failed to recruit enough safeguards for the employees (Gapper, 2017).

Discussion of ethical theories
Ethical theories can be explained as the theories which guide people to judge what is actually
wrong and right. It serves the right solutions for difficult situations in people’s life. It
involves following theories:
Utilitarianism: It can be explained as the theory which considered the best action is the action
which maximizes utility. The approach of the theory utilitarianism is to select the course of
action and then evaluate the outcome of that action. It basically tells about the sufferings and
happiness created by the person’s action (Hamilton, 2017). The main focus of utilitarianism
is to maximise the share of happiness and minimize the share of sufferings. There are two
forms of utilitarianism which are as follows:
 Rule utilitarianism: It deals with the rules which ultimately help to increase the utility.
Most of the rules are the great guide which will lead us to have the great amount of
good for many people.
 Act utilitarianism: It does not include the rules but it rather judges the situations when
it occurs. The actions are judged on the basis of amount of happiness and pain.
Virtue: Virtue refers to the kind of behaviour which shows high moral standards. This theory
is very different from other ethical theories as it focuses on the character of an individual not
on actions necessarily (Cowton, 2017). Basically this theory first considers the reputation of
the person in case of any unethical practice performed by him/her. Secondly it considers the
motive behind performing that unethical practice. For example if an employee is absent
during an important meeting in the organization and not even informed about that. Then the
virtue theory will first check the past records of the employee and then find out whether the
employee is guilty or not. So it decides the results in terms of right and wrong on the basis of
past records
Deontology: This theory focuses on the results of one’s actions considering duties and
responsibilities (Panza and Potthast, 2010). It places the focus on the link between duty and
morality of human actions. The main idea of the theory deontology is one should act
according to his or her morals and it should be the responsibility of an individual to perform
his/her duty morally. For instance if an employee steal some food from the organization with
the motive to feed his/her family then it would be right according to the deontology theory.