Integrating Management: Innovation and Leadership at Uber Corporation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation and leadership at Uber. It examines the company's business case for innovation, highlighting its use of technology and its impact on the transportation industry. The report delves into leadership challenges, including poor corporate culture and contractor relationships with drivers, and how these issues affect the company's brand image and employee satisfaction. It also explores specific innovation challenges, such as the rideshare rating system, technological innovation, and surge pricing, offering insights into their impact on both drivers and customers. Furthermore, the report presents a framework for innovation, emphasizing the importance of leadership in fostering a creative and collaborative work environment. The conclusion summarizes key findings and suggests strategies for Uber to overcome its challenges and sustain its competitive edge.

Running Head: INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP 1
Integrating Management:
Innovation and Leadership at
Uber

INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP 2
Table of Contents
The Business Case for Innovation............................................................................... 3
Leadership Challenges................................................................................................ 3
Poor Corporate Culture............................................................................................ 3
Contractor Relationship with Drivers.......................................................................3
Innovation Challenges................................................................................................ 3
Rideshare Rating System........................................................................................ 3
Technological Innovation......................................................................................... 3
Uber’s Surge Pricing................................................................................................ 3
A Framework for Innovation....................................................................................... 3
Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 3
References.................................................................................................................. 4
Appendices................................................................................................................. 5

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The Business Case for Innovation
Innovation and leadership are two important components for an organization as it supports its
growth and success. In an organization, combination of innovation and leadership influences the
employees to generate innovative ideas, services and products. In this practice, the major role is
played by the innovation leader. Each and every organization needs to set some priorities for
developing innovation and leadership in its working environment (Adams, 2006). For this
discussion, Uber Corporation is chosen here that is using continuous innovation to stay
competitive in taxi and transportation industry. Uber is the organization with higher technology
that has started its business operations in the year 2009. This company is operating its business in
different areas such as food delivery, ridesharing and transportation network. Currently, Uber is
running its business activities in more than 55 nations and headquartered in San Francisco,
California (Uber Technologies Inc., 2018).
Innovation has been playing a vital role in the growth of Uber since its establishment. It can be
noted from the fact that it is connecting transportation sector with the information technology as
its platforms can be used through its mobile applications and websites. There are some factors
such as market trends, evolution in transportation and competition, which led Uber to prioritize
innovation in its operations. The company used innovation in different forms like shared value,
new technology or ride sharing. In addition to this, Uber is adopting innovation to provide a
better and affordable ride experience that cannot be provided by traditional taxies. It aligns its
business model with innovative practices, so that they can increase profits and improve
experience of both passenger and driver (Casadesus-Masanell, Makenzie and Didiomov, 2015).
Leadership Challenges
Leadership is the process or action of leading a people’s group in an organization. This is a term
that shows the ability of firm’s management to establish and attain challenging objectives, take
appropriate actions, deal with the competition and motivate other people to perform effectively.
Working as a leader can be really rewarding, but it can also be very tough. Leadership
continuously presents challenges to the leader and whole organization. These challenges are an
indication to grow to another level, to examine and enhance the process (Jordan, 2017). Under
these situations, the leaders need to show that they can attain something, which is complex or

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even impossible. The leadership at Uber is beginning to attain something complex to imaging
during past few months of boardroom infighting and scandal (Christensen, Raynor, and
McDonald, 2015). Apart from this, the organization is facing various leadership challenges,
which have adverse impact on the brand image of organization. The leadership challenges to
Uber are stated below;
Poor Corporate Culture
In this context, it can be stated that corporate culture is directly linked with the brand reputation
of an organization. It has been found that Uber has a poor corporate culture, which is continued
unchecked by leaders for several years. In February 2017, an employee of Uber blasted the
company over sexual harassment and endemic sexism. This was the major reason that ended the
duration of Kalanick. The corporate culture of the company has become wicked under constant
pressure. The leaders at Uber were unable to manage its culture and employees that has affected
its brand reputation adversely. In the past years, employees were engaged in harassment acts
with the colleagues. Currently, a former employee Susan Fowler exposed to media that she was
sexually harassed by her colleague (Latham, 2014). To overcome this leadership challenge,
current CEO of Uber needs to adopt visionary leadership and improve its corporate culture.
Implementation of this leadership style will assist the leaders in establishing a supportive and
inspiring culture in the organization. Through this, Uber will grasp how to revitalize the teams of
employees far from its headquarters and readdress the attention to future.
Contractor Relationship with Drivers
In addition to this, another leadership challenge at Uber is that organization is adopting a
contractor relationship with its employees and drivers. The major problem is that company has
executed contractor relationship with its drivers. This is the primary issue, because company is
breaching the rights of drivers by seeing them as drivers only, not as actual employees. Because
of this, drivers were not able to use their employee rights. The leaders of Uber were not taken
this issue seriously and they have not taken any action against this. The deactivated drivers of the
company had filed a case of unfair dismissal against Uber. The employees of the company
thought that the actions of company are not justified and they are not included in the decision
making process of company (Taylor, Cornelius and Colvin, 2014). Top management did not
include its employees and drivers in decision making process that led them to dissatisfaction and

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increased employee turnover at Uber. To overcome this leadership challenge, the leaders at Uber
can use and practice democratic leadership style. Democratic leadership style (Participative
leadership) is shared leadership, in which people of a group can take participative role in
business and decision making process. By the use of this leadership framework, the top managers
can distribute the responsibilities equally and involve all the people in decision making process
(Bhatti, et al., 2012). It can adopt the below-given leadership framework for the effective flow of
information.
In addition to this, Uber needs to consider the ethical theories such as; stakeholder theory and
right theory, which offers employee rights and responsibilities to drivers of Uber. The adoption
of democratic leadership framework will assist Uber in developing job satisfaction and
enhancing motivation among drivers and other employees.
Innovation Challenges
Innovation is one of the strongest factors in the process of building competition and for the
growth and survival of company in competitive business environment. It is essential for a
company to understand that what processes and factors can drive innovation in the organization
and it can help the firm in simplifying it by the use of effective leadership, strategies, systems
and corporate culture. Innovation has a critical role in business performance of company
(Pontefract, 2017). However, Uber has started its business operations with several innovative

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processes, but now transportation and ridesharing industry has various competitors. So, company
is facing various challenges in relation to innovation. These innovation challenges at Uber are
stated below;
Rideshare Rating System
Uber operates its business in an industry, in which trust between strange people is very
important. This trust provides a comfortable and safe ride for both the driver and passenger. To
deal with this issue, the company has made innovation and created a rating system to assure this
reliability and trust between drivers and passengers. This system is known as rideshare rating
system. For Uber, this innovation has also posed a challenge due to the way that the company
has established this system without considering benefits of customers. Company’s policy of
maintaining a five star fleet was disadvantageous for Uber’s drivers (Elliott, 2015). The
competitors of Uber have also implemented same policies such as Lyft asks its customers that
anything less than 5 stars shows dissatisfaction and unhappiness with the ride. Uber stated that
the people, who fail to enhance their scores, will lead to permanent deactivation. It has led the
drivers and employees to lower morale and job dissatisfaction. To overcome this issue, the firm
should not rely on rating system only as it depends on rider’s mood. The organization should
make changes in this system and use some other criteria to measure the ride experience.
Technological Innovation
Technology Innovation is one of the major innovations at Uber that assisted the organization in
establishing its business operations in taxi and transportation industry. However, this innovation
was unique and better for the growth of organization, but it posed various challenges to the
company. It was challenging because there were various employees and drivers, which were not
familiar with the updated technologies and smart phone applications. There were several drivers,
who didn’t know that how to operate the Uber’s application (Rainey, 2010). To overcome this
challenge, Uber needs to offer an effective training and development program for drivers. This
training program will assist them in learning that how they can use and operate modern
technology and mobile application. The organization can use open theory of innovation and it
should use the inflow and outflow of knowledge to develop the internal innovation. After
developing internal innovation, the company should implement other innovative practices.

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Uber’s Surge Pricing
Surge pricing is one of the most interesting innovations at Uber that was adopted for its labor. It
is the technique, under which the company can charge higher prices in some specific situations.
This was the innovation that was not welcomed by the customers and they criticized for paying
higher fares during various times. The major reason behind this innovation is that organization
faced the issue that they do not have sufficient drivers in particular location at specific times. So,
they use this system to bring more drivers to those locations (The Economist, 2018). It has
affected the buying decisions of customers towards Uber’s services and there was a decline in
the client base of Uber. According to Diffusion theory of innovation, an organization that is
introducing any innovation, should consider the target segment. Thus, Uber should understand
the needs and level of its target audiences, and then it should develop a pricing strategy. To deal
with this issue, Uber should use an effective pricing strategy and give some discount coupon to
the customers. After completing the ride, the organization should pay total ride fare to drivers. It
will assist the organization to satisfy both the drivers and customers as well (Vaccaro et al,
2012).
A Framework for Innovation
There is a significant relationship between innovation and leadership in any organization. One of
the major priorities of leadership at Uber is to engage the drivers and employees in innovation
and creative work. Under leadership, the first priority of Uber is to engage right persons at right
time to the right extent in innovative work. This process of employee engagement starts when
top managers change the roles and responsibilities of employees. By using effective leadership,
the leaders at Uber are managing the drivers and implementing policies to maintain a better
relationship with drivers and other employees. With the assistance of creative direction, the
leaders are developing and encouraging collaboration. In this way, leadership is playing an
important role at Uber and company is able to create a working environment, where employees
are happy and satisfied (Santacreu, 2015).
Apart from leadership, there are various priorities, which have forced Uber to adopt innovation.
Innovation has played an important role in Uber’s organizational life as it assisted the
organization in establishing and then growing its business in many countries. Through this
technology innovation, the company as planned to provide a better and unique ride experience to

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riders. This organization uses both open and disruptive types off innovation, which assist it to
stay competitive in today’s transportation industry. Now, various new players have entered in the
market, but still Uber is able to maintain its image by adopting innovative practices. Thus, these
are the priorities, which led the organization towards innovation and leadership. To overcome the
above challenges, Uber Company should use effective strategies and leadership styles (Slimane,
2015). These strategies will assist the company in managing the drivers and their conflicts. In
addition to this, the organization should introduce something new, which is beneficial for
organization, drivers and customers as well. The pricing strategy of the company should be
effective, so that customers can afford the riding with Uber.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that Uber is a well-established organization that has
implemented both innovation and leadership. Innovation and leadership are two important
processes, which support an organization to deal with the competitors and retain its customer
base. However, both approaches assisted Uber, but it faced various challenges related to
innovation and leadership. These challenges are such as corporate culture, relationship with
drivers, technology innovation, rideshare rating system and surge prices. These challenges have
affected the brad image of Uber in today’s competitive business environment. By implementing
effective strategies and leadership styles, the company will be able to overcome these challenges
and regain its brand reputation. Furthermore, there are some priorities of Uber in the relation of
innovation and leadership. Both processes play an important role in the growth and success of
Uber Company.

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References
Adams, K., 2006, The Sources of Innovation and Creativity, National Center on Education and
the Economy.
Bhatti, N., Maitlo, G.M., Shaikh, N., Hashmi, M.A. and Shaikh, F.M., 2012. The impact of
autocratic and democratic leadership style on job satisfaction. International Business
Research, 5.
Casadesus-Masanell, R., Makenzie, I., and Didiomov, D., 2015, Uber and the Taxi Industry (pp.
1-12). Massachusetts: Harvard Business School.
Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., and McDonald, R, 2015, What is disruptive innovation
Harvard Business Review, 93.
Elliott, R. E., 2015, Sharing App or Regulation Hackney: Defining Uber Technologies, Inc. J.
Corp. L., 41.
Jordan, J.M., 2017. Challenges to large-scale digital organization: the case of Uber. Journal of
Organization Design, 6.
Latham, J.R., 2014. Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a
framework for future research. Taylor & Francis Publications.
Taylor, Cornelius, C. and Colvin, K., 2014. Visionary leadership and its relationship to
organizational effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35.
Pontefract, D., 2017, Five Key Leadership Actions For Uber's New CEO, available from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2017/08/29/five-key-leadership-actions-for-ubers-
new-ceo/#e8c4f9c125c4 on 14 March 2018.
Rainey, D.L., 2010. Sustainable business development: inventing the future through strategy,
innovation, and leadership. Cambridge university press.

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Santacreu, A. M., 2015, Innovation, diffusion, and trade: Theory and measurement, Journal of
Monetary Economics, 75.
Slimane, M., 2015, Relationship between Innovation and Leadership, Elsevier Journal, 181.
The Economist, 2018, Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its short history, Available from
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21719509-can-ride-hailing-giant-stay-fast-lane-uber-
facing-biggest-crisis-its-short on 14 March 14, 2018.
Uber Technologies Inc., 2018, Uber Ride Sharing Company, Available from
https://www.uber.com/en-IN/, on 14 March 2018.
Vaccaro, I.G., Jansen, J.J., Van Den Bosch, F.A. and Volberda, H.W., 2012. Management
innovation and leadership: The moderating role of organizational size. Journal of Management
Studies, 49.

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Appendices
Company Logo
Disruptive Innovation
Growth of Uber

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