Business Ethics: Uber Driver Assault Case and Social Responsibility

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of an ethical issue involving an Uber driver in Sydney who allegedly assaulted a female passenger. It examines the ethical breaches of the company's policies and the shortcomings in its decision-making processes. The report explores the impact of the incident on Uber's corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the broader implications for business ethics. It delves into the responsibilities of the company and the driver, the importance of ethical codes of conduct, and the need for appropriate punishments and preventative measures. The report also discusses the potential consequences of such incidents on the company's reputation and market share, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing ethical behavior and CSR activities. The report concludes by outlining a framework for ethical decision-making, including identifying the issue, collecting relevant information, evaluating solutions, and implementing decisions to ensure justice and promote ethical practices within the organization. The report uses several references to support its arguments.

RUNNING HEAD: Comparative Business Ethics & Social Responsibility
Comparative Business Ethics & Social Responsibility

Comparative Business Ethics & Social Responsibility 1
Introduction
Ethics is related to the moral principles and social responsibilities of a person towards the
environment in which they need to fulfill. The below mentioned report provides a brief
introduction about the ethical issue caused in the company Uber, it talks about the unethical
relations of the Uber drivers with the company in Sydney. Under the new article stated in the
MSN News, an Uber driver allegedly assaulted a women passenger in his car. The report
explains the ethical breach of the policies of the company and the inefficiency of the decision
making process (MSN 2018). Further, the report also explains the issue rose in the news and an
appropriate decision for the issue. Further, more details about the case are discussed below:
The taxi facilities are one of the most prominent and trending business present in the
international market. Uber is one such company that provides taxicab services to people
worldwide. The business under this industry grows repeatedly that is highly contributing to the
economy of countries. The company present in this industry has taken major share in providing
employment and increasing GDP of countries as well (Delgado 2014). Further, while
implementing a business that grows with such faster pace, the company faces many ethical issues
while initiating the business functions as one is discussed in the given case. Employing a person
in the organization to work is very important for the organization because that employee
becomes the face of the company in the external market. The customers come in contact with the
drivers of the company directly, so they are the people who create as well as damage the image
of the company in the target market. Further, relating it to the case, it should be noted that the
company Uber is involved in providing cab services to people in Australia (Yeager 2015). The
drivers of the company are the face of organization, thus if these drivers perform some negative
actions in the society with the customers then it ultimately hamper the image of the company. All
around the world, people talk about the safety of women and if any person attempts to assault a
female allegedly without their consent. Then, it is regarded as an illegal and criminal act for
which the accused is punished in the eye of law. The article states that it is unfair and an
unacceptable act for a person to do such things when they are at the course of their job. The duty
of an Uber driver is to drop the customers at their location safely. The driver has failed to
perform the work according to the standards of the organization due to which the company will
take legal actions against them (Shapiro, and Stefkovich 2016).

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The article states that the driver breached the ethical code of conduct managed by the company
Uber for which he is liable for legal charge against him. Every person who is employed in the
company is checked as per their standards maintained in the society, if the person does not fulfill
those standards then the company do not provide them job. Thus, the main question of ethics
raised in this case is that the company employed a person who breached the safety and
responsibility ethics of the company (Martinez, and Wueste 2016). The driver is taken into
account for disappointing the guidelines implemented by the organization on all the people of the
company. The driver did not responsibly drop the customer at their respective place, instead he
assaulted her allegedly (Iphofen 2016). Safety of women customers traveling with the people of
Uber is the major concern for the article and the company as well. Every organization needs to
take care of their employees who come face to face with customers, they need to train them be
polite and perform good acts in such a way that it does not breach the ethical compliances of the
company. With this act, the CSR activities of the company are also affected (Hartman,
DesJardins, and MacDonald 2014).
Further, according to my understanding, one major issue that is related to the safety and security
of who are traveling with the drivers is raised through the article. The news clearly states that the
driver of the company attempted to assault the female women of 21 years without her consent.
Resulting to which, the organization seized the driver from performing his responsibility in the
society. In today’s scenario, one of the major topic that is attracting the concern of people
worldwide is the safety and security of women, and responsibility of the society towards women
to keep them safe in the present environment. Assaulting a woman when she is your
responsibility is one of the biggest crimes which should not be left so easily. So, in my personal
opinion, along with the employee, the company is also at fault to hire a person who does not
adequately fit to the ethical code of conduct of the company (Goodall 2014). The driver should
be adequately punished in the society according to the punishment given by the lady given to
him. The lady with whom the cruel act initiated by the driver so hold the responsibility to acquire
the driver and give him a suitable punishment that shows that he has done a major mistake by
assaulting a woman. The punishment should be given as an example to other employees of Uber
and other companies that the result of performing such acts can be worse than this also. Further,
talking about the punishment that is to be given to the company, it should be noted that the
taxicab service works on the basis of trust and responsibility towards each other in the society.

Comparative Business Ethics & Social Responsibility 3
The company UBER should be held liable in the society for employing a person who does not
adequately stand upon the basic ethical requirements of the company. Thus, the company should
appoint a person to work with them only when they adequately fulfill the social as well as
corporate responsibilities of the company present in the environment. So, the company should
also be held liable for fine under the eye of law (Lanzel et. al., 2017). With the happening of this
incident, the company should warn all the other employees working with them for the cons of
performing such illicit activities that are against the name of the company in the society. Further,
it should be noted that after this incident, people will not prefer going in Uber cab services due to
the threat of safety and security, resulting to which the company will subsequently decrease its
market share as well. So, now Uber should take extra efforts in employing good and qualitative
human resource for the organization to work with, they should aim to change their image formed
in the society with the happening of this event. Thus, apart from taking legal actions against the
driver and their breachment of ethical responsibilities, the company should convince the
customers with the corporate social responsibilities activities in the environment (Abel,
MacGlashan, and Littman 2016). Thus, I believe that the most ethical decision for the
organization is to punish the driver who attempted to assault the 21 year old woman.
Additionally, it should be noted that the ethical decision are not taken or implemented within just
few minutes, however, it is important to take proper ethical decision by judging all the available
circumstance and outcomes of the event and then only take an accurate decision that properly
initiates a good result in the society. Every country has their different law and order on the basis
of which the decisions are regarded as ethical and unethical in the society and the punishment is
given accordingly. Further, the ethical issue stated in the article is a major issue that defames the
image of the person and the company. In response to which, proper analysis of the scenario is
undertaken so that a proper verdict is evolved for the case (Weiss 2014). So, the proceeding is
mentioned below:
Identification of the issue: The problem that has been evaluated in the article has to be identified
in terms of the theories of ethics. Like, in the given case of Uber and the actions taken by the
police in response to the article. They identified the issue in the case with the driver that affected
the women. This will helping in concluding to the issue.

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Collection of relevant information: The information about the issue should be attained according
to the terms and conditions of the law and court. In the given news article of Uber, all the rules
regulations that were avoided earlier by the driver should now be evaluated properly and actions
should be taken (Kopnina, and Blewitt 2018).
Evaluation: The evaluation of all the adequate solutions and alternates should be made for
problem in the environment. There must be many outcomes of this event but the most accurate
solution has to be made according to some parameters.
Consideration: Considering the most appropriate solution for the problem that is to punish the
driver according to the stated way. Thus, the best result has been considered in order attain
justice in the event (Clear 2017).
Implementation of decision: The decision for the case was accounted according to the CSR
activities of the company and the safety and security of women. Thus, the decision formed
should be implemented according to the issue and the regulations of the company. The
implementation of the decision that was implemented by convicting the drivers and banning him
from performing his duties for the company.
Review: Lastly, the act of controlling and checking the decisions that are to be performed, the
company needs to watch that whether the proceeding done according to the implementation of
objective (DesJardins, and McCall 2014).
Conclusion
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events , it should be noted that the above report
explained the ethical importance of the decision implemented of the company Uber. Further, the
report explained the ethical issue under which the driver of the company attempted to harass his
female passenger. It has become the need of the business to prioritize their social responsibility
towards the society. Further, any wrong act can majorly affect the image of the company in
external. Thus, in order to implement the right decision, an organization need to adequately look
for the pros and cons for the event for them and then initiate actions properly.

Comparative Business Ethics & Social Responsibility 5
References
Abel, D., MacGlashan, J. and Littman, M.L., 2016. Reinforcement Learning as a Framework for
Ethical Decision Making. In AAAI Workshop: AI, Ethics, and Society (Vol. 16, p. 02).
Clear, T., 2017. THINKING ISSUES What's driving uber?: values in computing and the'sharing
economy'. ACM Inroads, 8(4), pp.38-40.
Delgado, A.B.H.S.A., 2014. Ethical Decision Making. Advanced Practice Nursing: An
Integrative Approach, p.328.
DesJardins, J.R. and McCall, J.J., 2014. Contemporary issues in business ethics. Boston:
Cengage Learning.
Goodall, N., 2014. Ethical decision making during automated vehicle crashes. Transportation
Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2424), pp.58-65.
Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., 2014. Business ethics: Decision making for
personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Iphofen, R., 2016. Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer.
Kopnina, H. and Blewitt, J., 2018. Sustainable business: Key issues. UK: Routledge.
Lanzel, A.F., Soucie, J.M., Meeks, S.L., Sidonio, R.F., Ortmann, L. and Barrett, D.H., 2017.
Ethical Decision Making Framework in Previously Untreated Severe Hemophilia A Patients.
Martinez, N. and Wueste, D., 2016. Balancing theory and practicality: engaging non-ethicists in
ethical decision making related to radiological protection. Journal of Radiological
Protection, 36(4), p.832.
MSN., 2018. Sydney Uber driver allegedly assaults passenger in car [online]. Available from <
https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/australia/sydney-uber-driver-allegedly-assaults-passenger-in-
car/ar-AAxfj7t > Accessed on 25 May 2018.
Shapiro, J.P. and Stefkovich, J.A., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.

Comparative Business Ethics & Social Responsibility 6
Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.
Yeager, A.L., 2015. Ethical decision making. The Journal of the American Dental
Association, 146(8), pp.568-569.

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Appendices