Organisational Analysis of Uber: A Case Study on Ethics and Structure

This case study report examines Uber's organisational structure, values, and ethical practices, particularly within the Australian market. The report investigates Uber's workplace environment, addressing issues such as sexual harassment, racial abuse, and discriminatory practices. The research employs a mixed methodology, including primary data from surveys and interviews with Uber employees and managers, alongside secondary data from peer-reviewed articles and news sources. The analysis utilizes Morgan's metaphors to identify discrepancies between the organization's stated values and real-world scenarios. Findings highlight a monolithic organizational structure dominated by male employees, leading to ethical breaches and a lack of diversity. The report concludes with a call for Uber to reform its structure and reshape its workplace environment to address these challenges. The report also covers vision, values, organizational theory, ethics, and diversity.

Running Head: UBER ORGANISATION
UBER ORGANISATION
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1UBER ORGANISATION
Executive summary
Uber is considered to be one of the leading taxi services companies all over the world. Recently
the company is facing severe problem while expanding its business in Australia. There are
several reasons that identify the defects in the organisational structures of Uber along with its
negligence upon the ethics and values. On the backdrop of this context, this report intends to deal
with the organisational structure and values of Uber and find out the loopholes through concrete
research methodology. Both the primary and secondary research data are used in this research in
order to get a conclusive evidence regarding the malpractices that are prevalent in Uber for a
long period of time. Identifying the organisational values and objectives through Morgan’s
metaphors helped to find out the discrepancies between the organisational values and the real
time scenario. Therefore, it can concluded that it is a high challenge for the new CEO of Uber to
refurbish its organisational structure and reshape the workplace environment.

2UBER ORGANISATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................3
Sample techniques...........................................................................................................................5
Analysis of data...............................................................................................................................5
Vision and values of the organisation..............................................................................................6
Organisational theory.......................................................................................................................8
Ethics and diversity..........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

3UBER ORGANISATION
Introduction
UBER is an American multinational transportation network company that operates in
many countries across the globe. Peer to peer ride sharing and ride service hailing are the
important services the UBER offers to its customers accompanied with food delivery. The
operations of UBER in Australia does not have a long history in fact the company is somewhat
new in the Australian market. In October 2012 UBER launched its services in Australia
(uber.com, 2019). Since its inception in the Australian market UBER faces increase in its service
demand but in compare to the average taxi rides. There are some internal factors that affect the
steady growth and competitiveness of UBER in the Australian market. From the report of
Forsyth (2019) it can be derived that the workplace environment in UBER is not flexible and
effective enough to deal with sexual harassment within the organisation and the company is also
failed to deal with the racial assaults and abusiveness that drivers were often faced in Australia.
Based on this understanding, it can be stated that this report is going to investigate ethics and
diversity that UBER is focusing in course of dealing with the employees and the drivers. The
role of the managers and their preference towards ethical and diverse workforce culture in course
of the business orientation in UBER
Research methodology
The reason to choose this methodology is to design a complete framework that is
associated with the variables to identify the research problem. From the research of Clark et al.
(2017) it can be stated that the role of the organisation is to set a number of solutions that are
associated with the research problem and entitled to provide proper mitigation strategy relevant

4UBER ORGANISATION
with the research problem. The case study of UBER is also analysed in course of delivering the
research methodology along with other related methods of generating data. The purpose of the
research methodology is to set a proper identification of the process and strategies that can
formulate an effective measure not only to identify the problems but also a solution that UBER
should follow in order to bring efficacy into its workplace environment.
This research is going to follow a mixed research technique that is resembled with both
the primary and secondary resources highlighting the organisational issues and formulate
mitigation strategy to bring down the issues and recommends solution for the future benefit of
UBER as a sustainable practice. The primary research strategy is coupled with the survey and
interview session with the UBER Australia employees and managers. To be more specific, the
survey questionnaires are set for the UBER Australia drivers and the employees. On the other
hand, the interview will be conducted for the UBER Australia managers. Kelly et al. (2018)
argued that the role of the survey is associated with a close ended questionnaire whereas the
interview session follows open ended questions. Therefore, the questions will be prepared
accordingly and followed the guidance positively. In the process the sample size is always
considered to be an important aspect to deal with the survey and interview. Chatterjee and
Diaconis (2018) advocated that the sample size is referred as the most important aspect for
conducting research interviews and survey because it helps the researcher to get a layout of the
target people who will appear in the survey and interview session. Therefore, the sample size for
the survey will be 100 employees of UBER and for interview it will be 4 managers.
Apart from that there are the secondary resources that will also help the researcher to
formulate an effective measure accompanied with the organisational development. From the
research of Ellram and Tate (2016) it can be opined that the role of the organisation is to set an

5UBER ORGANISATION
effective measure resembled with the peer reviewed articles so that the arguments that the report
implies will be supported and justified by proper information and data. The peer reviewed article
will provide the adequate authentic support in the form of arguments and information that will be
highly rational and relevant enough with the organisational issues faced by UBER. The
secondary data are generated from the peer reviewed articles and journals. Apart from that
newspaper articles are also considered to be important as secondary resources that will provide
adequate information about the topic (Burton et al., 2017). For this research the newspaper
articles play the role of a protagonist to support adequately the main arguments regarding the
organisational development in UBER.
Sample techniques
For conducting the primary research, it is pertinent to set effective measure and follow
proper methods that are highly resembled with the organisational development. Buckwar and
Thalhammer (2017) opined that the sampling technique tools are very relevant in response to the
success of the research methods. In this regard, several sample elements are used in this research
in the form of IT, customer support, finance, cab drivers. Convenient sampling will be the
method to make it effective for the organisation. Accompanied with this for the interview, it is
essential for the organisation to conduct research with the sample size of 5 managers from
different departments.
Analysis of data
Using the simple and statistical method are the core of this research data analysis. It can
be stated that the analysis of data will be depicted in a tale format and represents the performance

6UBER ORGANISATION
of the managers in UBER, Australia. Both dependant and independent variables are used in the
research and coincided with the ethics and diversity of the organisation. It is essential for the
research to deal with the practice of establishing a clear perception of the data retrieved from the
data analysis and has to be evaluated the data effectively (Gregorutti, Michel & Saint-Pierre,
2015). Apart from that data collected from the secondary resources will be analysed with the
primary data findings on the employees and the managers.
Vision and values of the organisation
The mission statement of UBER is to ensure better services to the customers so that the
world can move positively. It seems quite a positive mission statement that UBER follows in its
business orientation and the services that they offered are to some extent meet the interests of
both the drivers and the customers.
Organism- In UBER the primary service is its taxi services. Glöss, McGregor and Brown (2016)
argued that in the initial stage the organisation only provided taxi services to the people to share
ride. In course of time food delivery services and other services are also incorporated into the
services list of UBER.
Brain- Brain metaphor is associated with the notion of collecting data from sources like
customers. The customers are frequently posted their experiences in the apps about the feedbacks
on daily rides and analyse the appropriate decision that is associated with the practice of
establishing a profound knowledge about the activities of the customers and the managers. In
case of any mistakes the knowledge will help to provide adequate measures to rectify the
mistakes.

7UBER ORGANISATION
Culture- It is pertinent for this report to deal with the organisational culture in UBER and this
tangible process is operated by Dara Khorowshahi, the current CEO of UBER. The issues of
external safety, internal issues such as the benefits of the drivers and the process for their safety
are considered to be the most important aspect for the CEO of UBER. It requires a positive
culture of the UBER management that will leave a great deal of impact on the organisational
culture in UBER.
Diversity- It is also a significant factor for the benefit of UBER in course of establishing an
equal opportunity for the drivers and the employees so that they can feel free to develop their
self-interests. For UBER, its continuous criticism over the diversity practice and the public views
resulted the new CEO to take initiatives in order to reshape the organisational environment and
make progress so that the workplace diversity will be coincided with the organisational
objectives.
Psychic Prison- In course of using the psychic Prison metaphor, it can be argued that the UBER
employees especially its female staffs feel high pressure due to the discriminatory organisational
practice and the continuous support from the top executives to continue the discriminatory
practices. Discrimination and sexual assaults on the employees and drivers are common in
Australia but the organisation did not take any initiative to mitigate the issue. As a result of that
it became a psychic prison for the employees and the drivers as well.
Flux or transformation- As far as the transformation metaphor is concerned, it can be stated
that the mission and vision of the organisation is to set on progress and offering opportunity by
setting the world in motion. In this regard, the public relation department and the customer

8UBER ORGANISATION
service unit of UBER are responsible to manifest a positive measure for the efficacy of the
organisation.
Domination- It can be explained that the female employees in UBER are treated with gender
biasness and the all over female employees of the organisation is only 15%. The male colleagues
are often present discriminatory gestures that create obstacle to the growth of an effective and
better organisational culture in UBER.
Organisational theory
The organisational structure in UBER is a monolithic structure that is primarily
encapsulated with white males. According to Larson and Foropon (2018) this kind of
organisational structure is comprised of homogeneous workforce with male employees will
dominate the workforce. Female and minority employees hold a very small number of employees
and due to their small number it is beyond their ability to influence the management adequately.
Lambert et al. (2019) opined that the position of managers are also dominated by the male
colleagues. In UBER also the same profile of organisational hierarchy is seen where the male
domination over female employees is a basic and fundamental characteristic. Harvey, Jas and
Walshe (2015) pointed out that the homogeneity of the workforce leads to workforce conflict
where the dominant groups pressurise the minors. Cultural group identity is also lack in course of
homogeneous organisational culture and ethical breach and malpractices are deeply bestowed
into the organisational practice. It is also evident that the monolithic organisational structure
always follows the traditional measure and rigid to change the existing practices. For UBER also
the same features are found where sexual assault on the female employees and drivers have

9UBER ORGANISATION
become a common phenomenon and the organisation does not have the ability to change its
cultural norms in a rapid pace.
Ethics and diversity
Based on the research findings through interview and survey on the former and existing
employees of UBER, it can be argued that the organisation is going to face several allegations
regarding its ethics and diversity in workplace. One of the major accusations finds out that the
managers are also involved in unethical organisational practices and sometimes incite their
subordinates to practice nefarious discriminatory practices. Lack of security for the women
employees is also an important aspect that UBER was cherished and failed to take adequate
measures to put an end. Moreover, groupism within the organisational culture is also identified
as an important characteristics that UBER is practiced in its international workforce
(theguardian.com, 2018). Throughout the research it was evident that some employees got
preferential treatment from the management and enjoyed to do unethical practice whether it was
based on the workplace diversity or using their innovative ideas. As a result of that the ethical
practice in UBER did not have a clear vision of making diverse workplace culture and the
concept of diversity lost its relevance.
Conclusion
The above discussion is trying to elucidate the impact of ethics, values and cultural
diversity that UBER is practiced in every aspects of its business practice. For an international
organisation it is within the jurisdiction of UBER to set an example of good organisational
culture so that the rests can follow the positive organisational practices of UBER. Instead of

10UBER ORGANISATION
introducing a good workplace culture the UBER management made thing worse where the
organisation unleashed nefarious practices like sexual assault and abuse over the female
employees. As a matter of fact, the drivers in Australia are also feel insecure because the
management did not give any concern over their grievances. Therefore, it can be concluded that
this research helps to identify those loopholes and analysed the functionality of the managers to
manage these kind of situations.

11UBER ORGANISATION
Reference
Buckwar, E., & Thalhammer, A. (2017). 3 Importance sampling techniques for stochastic par-tial
differential equations. Numerical methods for stochastic partial differential equations:
Analysis of stability and efficiency, 73.
Burton, P. R., Banner, N., Elliot, M. J., Knoppers, B. M., & Banks, J. (2017). Policies and
strategies to facilitate secondary use of research data in the health sciences.
Chatterjee, S., & Diaconis, P. (2018). The sample size required in importance sampling. The
Annals of Applied Probability, 28(2), 1099-1135.
Clark, J., Laing, K., Leat, D., Lofthouse, R., Thomas, U., Tiplady, L., & Woolner, P. (2017).
Transformation in interdisciplinary research methodology: the importance of shared
experiences in landscapes of practice. International Journal of Research & Method in
Education, 40(3), 243-256.
Ellram, L. M., & Tate, W. L. (2016). The use of secondary data in purchasing and supply
management (P/SM) research. Journal of purchasing and supply management, 22(4),
250-254.
Forsyth, A. (2019). Employee or not? What the Uber decision means. Retrieved 18 July 2019,
from https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/employee-or-not-what-the-uber-
decision-means-20190612-p51x32.html