A Report on Leadership, Management, and Operations at Uber

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and operational management within Uber. It begins by defining the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their significance in the organization. The report then delves into the different roles leaders play in various situations, such as managing complex IT issues, and applies leadership theories like situational and contingency leadership. Key approaches to operations management, including total quality management and lean management, are examined in the context of Uber. The report also considers the influence of business environment factors on Uber's operations and concludes with an overview of the company's strategies. The report highlights the importance of effective communication, time management, and interpersonal skills for managers, and the need for leaders to have innovative visions and provide effective guidance. The report also touches on how Uber adapts to external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic to provide satisfactory services to consumers.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Characteristics and roles of leaders and managers.................................................................3
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................5
Different roles played by leaders which can be applied to different situation.......................5
Application of different theories and approaches of leadership.............................................6
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................7
Key approaches to operation management and role of leaders and managers.......................7
Operations management and values.......................................................................................8
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................9
Factors of business environment and their influence.............................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
Management refers to coordination of different activities in an organisation so that
organisational goal can be achieved. There are a number of factors included in organisation
such as planning, controlling, decision making as well as coordination of different functions.
Management is getting things done from the resources that are present in an organisation.
Operation on the other hand refers to a business function which is responsible for planning,
directing, organising and controlling different activities (Wiech and Friedli, 2020). The major
role of operational management is to increase the efficiency and utilisation of resources in the
business. The following report is conducted on Uber which is an American company that is
offering Food delivery, cab facility and courier services in a number of countries. Uber has
developed an application which is helping for transportation network of taxi company run by
the organisation. The following report consist of different roles of manager and leader in
different functions along with theories and approaches of leadership. Different operation
management rules related to leader and their significance value for the organisation are also
discussed in the report.
Task 1
Characteristics and roles of leaders and managers
Leader
Leader in an organisation is a person who is assisting, guiding and motivating
employees. A leader is creating vision for employers towards the work and influencing all the
employs to conduct various activities. They are also directing and guiding employees
specially when maximum output is to be produced by them. Leaders have to be polite enough
in Uber so that they can train and develop employees of the organisation in an effective
manner.
Role of leader
A leader is playing a number of different effective role in an organisation. Below
mentioned are some of important roles of leaders:
Innovative vision: A leader is required to come up with innovative techniques and make sure
that all the employs in organisation are following the techniques and vision that is set by the
leader. Leader is finding innovative innovation which will help the organisation to grow. In

Uber leaders are having innovative vision so that they can attract and capture huge market
share by providing a number of different vouchers, coupons, discount in order to attract
consumers.
Providing effective guidance: A leader is responsible to guide and train all the employs in
order to make sure that they are fully equipped with all the skills required to perform their job
correctly. It will help in enhancing the capabilities of employees (Techakhod, Kanokhong and
Kruekum, 2020). In Uber employees are trained in order to make sure that all the
organisational goals and customer requirements can be fulfilled.
Characteristics of a leader:
Charismatic: It is a power through which leader can attract all the employs towards the
meaningful vision. It is necessary that the ability to communicate various goals and giving
directions to the employees is done effectively. Uber is a fast growing company and it is
necessary that employees are taught to be polite enough with all the customers in order to
provide the maximum satisfaction.
Effective communicator: It is required by a leader to be a good communicator. It is necessary
that the leader can affect others in the employees by their words. The leaders in Uber make
sure that they are successfully communicating with employees and attracting them towards
organisational goals.
Manager
A manager is a person who is responsible for administration and controlling of staff in
an organisation. Managers play an important role in order to plan strategies and achieve the
organisational objectives. All the managers unnecessarily recruited by an organisation to
maintain discipline within the business.
Role of manager
There are a number of important roles that a manager place in an organisation as mentioned
below:
Development of policies: The major role of a manager is to develop certain policies which
are to be followed by every employee in the organisation. These policies in Uber helps the
manager to generate a positive working environment through which they can retain the
employees in the organisation for a longer period of time.
Authorization of duties: The manager in an organisation is responsible to make sure that
duties are provided to every employee (Jha and Bhattacharyya, 2020). They have the
authority to give permission and also take decisions in the organisation. The managers in

Uber make sure that they are successfully delegating all the task between various employees
and have the authority to keep a check on them from time to time.
Characteristics of manager:
Time management skills: It is required by Manager to make sure that all the activities and
task in the organisation are completed on time. The managers in Uber require to have time
management skills so that they can successfully train the employees in order to fulfil the
requirements of consumers.
Effective interpersonal skills: Interpersonal skills refers to all those skills which are
including listening, communicating, negotiating and so on. These are the major skill that are
required by a manager in Uber to make sure that they can successfully satisfy the employees
in an organisation along with the consumers of the business.
Task 2
Different roles played by leaders which can be applied to different situation
In the transportation industry a taxi or a cab is hired which is run by a driver. A cab is
usually used by a single passenger or a group of passenger or Uber also provides a shared
ride. However a taxi cab conveys pick up and drops of the passenger according to the
location. There were a number of new methods generated for pick up and drop of customers
along with negotiating the payment for transportation in a number of different countries. Uber
is providing services where the amount to be paid according to the pick-up and drop location
is already provided in their app. Various different situations in Uber and managers and
leaders dealing with the situations are mentioned below:
Situation one: Effective management of complex situation
Situation can be taken where due to the mismanagement of IT department the drivers of
company cannot reach the passenger. This is often leading to low productivity and no
motivation for employers (Whitson, 2019). The manager and leader play important role in it
and make sure that they can develop productivity in business. The role of leader in such
situation is as follows:
Role of Leader
 Leader is required to make sure that they are continuously in touch with IT
department and Driver. They are required to solve the problem using management
style in a sustainable manner and also track various details of customers so that it can
be communicated to driver.

 In such cases the leader is required to make effective decision making so that they can
help the driver as well as customers. They are required to make sure that the driver is
provided with the route so that they can successfully reach the customers and drop
them to their location on time.
Function of manager
 The function of Uber manager is to make sure that they are collecting information
about different situation from Driver, customer and leaders. They need to study the
situation in order to make sure that they can deal with customer dissatisfaction that is
rising.
 The managers of overall also required to analyse the internal and external factors in
the industry of transport. It is required by them to provide different schemes to the
dissatisfied customers in order to make sure that they do not lose the customers.
Application of different theories and approaches of leadership
There are a number of different styles used by leaders in order to deal with day to day
situation in an organisation. The leaders in Uber are required to make sure that they are
analysing the entire market situation and using a proper leadership theory for the
management of organisation some of these theories are mentioned below:
Situational leadership
Situational leadership is a theory under which the leaders and managers are directing
and supporting employees in different situations according to the external environment of the
business. In the situation of leadership style they make sure that the best way is used
according to the following situation in the organisation. Some of the major characteristic of
situational leadership style is as follows:
Flexibility: Flexibility in situational theory is to make sure that the ideas that are provided by
leaders and managers can bring flexibility to the organisation and they can change along to
the changing external environment. Due to this the drivers in Uber are now working 24 hours.
Directive: Direction of leaders and managers is important for organisation in order to achieve
their goal. It is required that the leader in Uber is successfully directing employees towards
the goals in order to make sure that they do not lose the interest in work.
Controlling: Controlling is an important factor in situation leadership under which the leader
and manager in Uber is required to provide training to employees (Mallory, 2018). This will
make sure that they can control the mistakes that are to be conducted by employees in the
organisation.

Systematic leadership:
The following theory is used by managers and leaders in order to make sure that they
are successfully developing various capabilities and skills in the employees. They make sure
that employees are trained well in order to deal with different situations and a provided
support successfully. The managers and leaders in the organisation of over her trying to make
sure that they can motivate employees with the proper system in order to achieve all the goals
along with managing and controlling them.
Contingency leadership
The theory of contingency leadership refers to the ways in which leaders can deal
with different situations in the organisation. This theory says that leaders can often be useful
in one situation and ineffective in the other situation. When taking the current market into
context due to COVID-19 the managers and leaders have to face loss of a number of
customers. Under this situation contingency leadership style is to be used by managers and
leaders of Uber. They need to make sure that all the precautions are taken care of in order to
provide satisfactory services to consumers.
Task 3
Key approaches to operation management and role of leaders and managers
The different operation approach management are the unique methods which are
based on operations in order to provide competitive edge to the business.
Total quality management: The total quality management refers to long-term success for an
organisation through consumer satisfaction. Under TQM various efforts of all the members in
the organisation are towards a better process, product service and culture within organisation.
It is a continuous process which is helping to take various decisions in an organisation and
also enhance the participation of employees in the organisation (Monk, Miller and King,
2020). In Uber this process is successfully used to reduce the imperfections and enhance the
awareness about different organisational goals. The employees are required to make sure that
they can successfully communicate decision-making within the organisation. They are
provided with training in order to make sure that time management skills can be generated
within them fulfilling all the organisational goals. It is a great way which can be used by
organisation in order to enhance their profitability and productivity successfully.
Lean management: The major goal of lean production is to enhance quality of service that is
provided by the organisation to their customers reducing the wastage. The lean management

technique have a major impact on transportation and logistics by improving efficiency and
also providing facilities to customers according to their feedbacks. In Uber the driver is
trained in order to eliminate various mistakes that can help them gain positive feedback from
customers. There are a number of different functions which are related to achieving different
business objectives. Some of these are mentioned below:
Provide Directions: Leaders in Uber are playing an important role in the organisation in
order to provide direction and guidance to employees so that they can achieve organisational
goals. Managers are performing number of different functions and responsibilities so that all
the goals can be accomplished in the given period of time (Gasperini, 2017). In Uber the
managers are required to assess employees, coach them, enhance employee engagement in
the work. They are doing this through vestibules school, job enrichment and job enhancement
training. In this way they can successfully provide guidance to the employees for
accomplishing tasks of the organisation.
Bring Excellence: Managers and leaders in organisation are required to make sure that they
are bringing in excellence in the organisation by training and developing employees. Their
major aim is to achieve all the goals and objectives while minimising the wastage of
resources in the organisation. The managers and leaders in Uber are taking a number of
operational factors into consideration so that they can reduce wastage and enhance
productivity and profitability in the organisation.
Operations management and values
Operation management is a process in which controlling and supervising of service
delivery is done. Operation management is necessary for Uber in order to make sure that they
can successfully manage, control, supervise and direct the employs in the organisation.
Effective management of operation is necessary in the organisation to make sure that all the
employees are working to words organisational goals.
Process design: Process this guide is an act in which transformation of organisational goals
and objectives is made through various resources in the organisation (Rutner, Scott, and
Norton Jr, 2019). Uber is achieving a number of different task and process designs in order to
make sure that the managers and leaders can direct the employs towards organisational goals.
Cost reduction: Cost reduction is an important operation through which the managers and
leaders are required to take various steps through which the cost in organisation can be
managed. Uber have successfully manage their cost in order to make sure that they can

provide benefits to their customers. They are providing benefits like vouchers, coupons and
discounts to attract more customers and enhance their customer base.
Global competition: Operations manager is also necessary for an organisation to achieve
different business objectives in the global market. Uber is successfully running in a number
of countries and it is required by operations manager to make sure that they can successfully
set up their business globally fulfilling the requirements of customers in different nations.
Advanced technology: Use of advanced technology by the organisation can be fulfilled by
operation management. It is necessary that Uber is successfully bringing in technological
development in the organisation to make sure that business objectives of the organisation can
be fulfilled. There are a number of different functions in operational management through
which the business objectives can be fulfilled.
Control and system design: The control and design system is one of the primary functions in
a business. It is required by every business to design the process of working in order to reach
their goals. The managers in orders are required to analyse the capability and capacity of their
employees in order to make sure that they can successfully design a process in order to satisfy
customers. Providing feedback facility is one of such control and design system.
Task 4
Factors of business environment and their influence
There are a number of different factors in business environment such as political,
legal, social technological and so on which are affecting operational management in a
business. When taking Uber into context the business environment is affected by the current
pandemic of Covid 19. It is necessary to correctly analyse various factors affecting business
as mentioned below:
Shareholders: Shareholders are the people who are investing in the business. Uber is
required to make sure that they are successfully communicating all the information to their
shareholders so that they can retain them for a longer period of time. Vision fund, Soft Bank
is major shareholders of organisation who are helping the organisation with capital required.
Uber is keeping their shareholders well informed of all the functions going on in the
organisation so that the shareholders feel their value and importance in the organisation.
Ethics: Ethics are related to the moral principles that a governing behaviour of a person in an
organisation. Uber requires to follow a code of conduct and ethics in order to make sure that
the needs of consumers are fulfilled successfully (Wolf, 2018). However the organisation is

facing a number of different lawsuits and they need to work on it ethically to avoid any
negative code of conduct. Uber can successfully fulfil their goals and objectives of enhancing
their business and expanding their market share when they are ethically working in the
business environment.
Corporate social responsibilities: An organisation working in the business market is required
to make sure that they are fulfilling their duty towards the environment and society. They
need to take a number of decisions which will help them to grow sustainability in the market.
When taking Uber into context the organisation is fulfilling their social responsibility towards
employees and customers who are using their facilities. They have responsibility developed a
secure and safe ride for their customers. Along with this all the vehicles which are running
under Uber are keeping a check on the pollutants they are releasing in the environment. Uber
is also providing profits to all the stakeholders which is another social responsibility that is
required to be followed by every organisation.
Conclusion
With the help of above discussion it can be concluded that Uber has effective management of
leaders and managers. The employers in Uber are provided with flexible time of working due
to the changing market requirements. Uber is a fast growing company and it is required by
managers and leaders in the organisation to make sure that they can successfully develop
various rules and regulations in benefit of organisation as well as its customers. Uber is also
contributing towards society and bringing in a number of innovative ideas to attract
consumers and capture market share.

References
Books and Journals
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