BMSK5005: UWTSD Report on Workplace Culture & Uber's Efficiency

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Uber's organizational culture and its impact on the company's efficiency. It begins by introducing the concept of organizational culture and its importance, followed by a detailed examination of Uber's culture, values, and ethos. The report highlights the various issues and scandals that Uber has faced, including sexual harassment, ethical breaches, and controversies with drivers. It further analyses the internal and external factors affecting Uber using SWOT and PESTLE analyses. The report also delves into the ethical behavior within Uber, discussing the company's code of ethics and recommendations for improvement. Key ethical theories and models are applied to the case of Uber, providing a deeper understanding of the ethical practices within the organization. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of a positive organizational culture for Uber's success and offering recommendations for addressing the company's internal weaknesses and improving its image.

Running Head: Workplace Culture and its Impact on Organisational Efficiency
Assignment Title:
Workplace Culture and its impact on Organisational Efficiency
Student name-
Student No-
Module Name-
Module Tutor-

Table of Contents
Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................3
1.0 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................4
2.0 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE IN UBER........................................................................................5
2.1 Culture, Values and Ethos of Uber...............................................................................................5
2.2 Cultural Sustainability in Uber.....................................................................................................6
2.3 UBER AND ITS ENVIRONMENT.....................................................................................................7
2.4 CSR activities of Uber...................................................................................................................7
2.5 Cultural and Ethical Behaviour in Uber........................................................................................7
2.6 Relationships between departments and people in Uber...........................................................8
2.7 Personal Ethics, Values and Beliefs in Uber.................................................................................8
2.8 Ways to overcome barriers for effective functioning of Uber.....................................................9
2.9 Theories and Models Apply on Uber..........................................................................................10
3. SWOT Analysis of Uber....................................................................................................................11
4. PESTLE Analysis of Uber...................................................................................................................13
5. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................15
6. References...................................................................................................................................16
2

Executive Summary
Organisation culture is a major aspect of any business organisation. The corporate culture of the
organisation determines the way of success or direction of progress. This report is based on the
organisational culture and its practices and issues in Uber. Uber is one of the leading start-up
companies in the USA that started its business in 2009. But in 2017, Uber faced a number of scandals
such as sexual harassment, stolen technology, and unfair treatment of employees, the resignation of
staffs and controversy with drivers related to their compensation. This all issues and conflict show a
poor organisational culture of Uber. This report helps to understand the organisational culture of
Uber and all the issues related to the corporate culture.
This report is based on four parts. In the first part of the report, the organisational culture and its
issues have been discussed with a short introduction of organisational culture and its importance in
the business organisation. In the second part of this report, a critical analysis of various external and
internal factors of Uber has been done with the help of SWOT and PESTLE analysis, which shows the
detailed analysis of various factors that describe how these factors impact the business operation of
Uber. In the third part of critical analysis has been done on cultural and ethical behavioural of the
organisation that how these ethical factors determine the success or failure of the organisation. The
third part of this report also discussed the ethical behavioural issues of Uber and how these issues
are created and short out by the company by formulating a code of ethics. It also includes
recommendations and conclusion about the corporate culture of Uber. In the last part of the report
it has been discussed about the various key ethical theories and models that apply on the current
scenario of Uber case and that helps in deep analysis of ethical practices in Uber. This report is also
helpful in understanding the corporate culture of Uber and how a poor organisation culture can
create problems for a leading start-up organisation.
3

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Every organisation has its different ways of working where individuals are working and follow the
values, ethics, rules, regulation, beliefs, and ideology which are part of its organisational culture that
decide the way people interact with each other. The culture of any organisation helps to attain the
objective of the organisation. A well-cultured organisation helps its employees to stay loyal and
motivated towards the management of the organisation. The organisational culture sometimes also
refers to a corporate culture. It can be easily identified by the ways the organisation operates its
business, treats its employees and customers, and the people outside of the organisation. But a
poor organisational culture destroys the image of a well-reputed organisation when the
management has no control over its organisational culture and ethics.
Uber is an example of such organisations where the organisational people misbehave and did
unethical practices within and outside of the organisation. These unethical practices of Uber
employees destroyed its image among its clients. Uber was founded in March 2009 by two business
partners Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick. Uber is also known as a technology company that
provides innovative ideas about the riding and taxi hailing services. Its provide facilities to its users in
automating the taxi service function with the help of an application. Uber is also focusing on to
initiate about to automate the car driving as well. They are already the most highest-valued start-up
company in history. But from last few years Uber is suffering from a worst organisational culture and
facing numbers of issues regarding its taxi services from its customer and people. In 2017, facing
extremely unfavourable and bad organisational culture, Uber's board members forced its CEO to
resign- to protect the Uber's business he co-founded. A large number of complaints reported against
the Uber that the working culture in the organisation is so toxic and inappropriate. A poor cultured
organisation destroys all the plans and strategy of an organisation. Uber lots of opportunities
outside if we analyse the SWOT and PESTLE analysis of the company. But they are still fighting with
the poor organisation culture. To remove this tag of "toxic corporate culture" Uber introduced new
rules and regulations and code of ethics for the employee which is formulated by Eric Holder. The
PESTEL and SWOT analysis of Uber clearly shows that Uber is fighting with the internal weaknesses.
Uber’s inner weaknesses have a solid connection with its external factors that affect the organisation
business operation and its image in public. If Uber wants to successful, it has to work to improve its
organisational culture and remove internal weaknesses which are more affect its image in public.
Uber is also facing the issues related to the ethical behaviour in the organisation. There are many
complaints about the poor working environment, harassment with females and dunking during the
work. These all allegations on Uber destroyed its image among its customers. If Uber wants to regain
4

its image the whole organisation should follow the code of ethics that is equal for all the employees
of the organisation.
2.0 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE IN UBER
Organisational culture is an important aspect of any organisation that includes an organisation’s
expectations, value, beliefs, rules, regulations, experience, and philosophy that have been developed
over time and shows the self-image of organisational people, internal working, and relations with
the rest of world, and future expectations (Alvesson, 2012). The culture also includes organisational
vision and mission, its values and norms.
A well-cultured organisation positively influences its employees towards the organisation goal and
objective by influencing their behaviour in the organisation. The organisational culture sometimes
also refers to a corporate culture. It can be easily identified by the ways the organisation operates its
business, treats its employees and customers, and the people outside of the organisation. It can also
be shown in the freedom of decision-making, generating innovative ideas and personal expression of
the people in the organisation (Cork, 2011). A well-cultured organisational people are also
committed towards the organisational objective and goals.
The main intention behind creating this company is to provide an on-demand and affordable car
service to the people at a very low cost in comparison to expensive black car services that they had
used in past. Uber is also a technology company that provide facilities for automating the taxi service
function with the help of an application. Uber is also focusing on to initiate about to automate the
car driving as well. They are already the most highest-valued start-up company in history.
2.1 Culture, Values and Ethos of Uber
The founders of Uber beliefs that Uber's organisational culture is transactional, competitive and
individualistic, that will motivate and reward the most effective people in the organisation
(Matherne and O’Toole, 2017). These tactics of Uber worked extremely well when they transformed
a creative and good idea into a global online app-based taxi-service. Uber after that, continuously
growing as a big start-up player in the global market and removing all the barriers raised by the
competitors, local regulators and taxi commissions- regardless of a character for being “evil”
(Bobker, 2017).
But from last few years Uber is suffering from a worst organisational culture and facing numbers of
issues regarding its taxi services from its customer and people. In 2017, facing extremely
unfavourable and bad organisational culture, Uber’s board members forced its CEO to resign- to
5

save the company he co-founded (Burns, 2017). A large number of complaints reported against the
Uber that the working culture in the organisation is so toxic and inappropriate. A poor cultured
organisation destroys all the plans and strategy of an organisation. However, the real powers of
culture lie in the hand of leaders who held the value and ethics of the company and controlled all
the activities of the organisation (Simha and Cullen, 2012). The main worry about the company is
that people perception about Uber been that the drivers were potential sexual predators who might
pose a danger to innocent users of the services (Browaeys, Price, and Roger, 2011). After
investigating all the issues Uber seems to be having, it looks their main problem is that they do not
have a positive organisational culture.
2.2 Cultural Sustainability in Uber
Over the last three years, Uber displays a culture that promotes crime, sexual harassment and
overly-aggressive problems during the taxi service. The drivers of Uber were found drunk during the
driving time and they often misbehaved with their clients. A woman employee of Uber Susan Flower,
a former engineer of Uber posted a blog that was filled with stories that describe such types of
criminal and sexual harassment issues associated with Uber (Cramer and Krueger, 2016). In addition
to this negative interaction, she also blamed the worst organisation environment for women
employee in Uber. After a month-long investigation and research Uber created new cultural
guidelines that remove the toxic workplace culture and solve these numbers of issues and problems
related to their organisational working culture. The new guidelines formed with the help of Eric
Holder (U.S Attorney General) and his organisation, Covington & Burling, after a sexual harassment
charge surfaced. These new guidelines of Uber support by the board of members and it replace the
14 old cultural values, such as "let builders build," "meritocracy and toe-stepping," and always be
"hustling". Some of the basic cultural principles, like being “obsessed” with the customer and being
“bold” carried over to Uber’s new guidelines and others like “meritocracy” were renewed. The Eric
and his team suggest 47 recommendations to improve the image of Uber in the mind of people.
These 47 guidelines include a change in senior leadership, enhance the board oversight, improve the
internal controls with record-keeping of human resource, reformulate Uber’s 14 cultural values and
training of senior leader, managers, employees and workers of the organisation. The Eric team also
focused on changing policies and policies related to the employee.
To grow and realize its ambition Uber must short out these problems regarding their bad image in
people’s mind. They must remove the bad culture from the organisation and protect the rights of
women employees within the workplace. The organisation has to take strict action against those
drivers who involves in any crime or sexual harassment (Prince, and Prince, 2011). Uber must
6

collaborate and compete with other players in this field. The aggressive individualism should be
removed which is not suitable for the task of building the strong relationship among employees with
its clients. The allegations of sexual harassment at the workplace by Fowler shows how managers
use their power and position for their personal benefits and create a bad environment. A serious and
strict action should be taken by the organisation to remove these bad allegations and create a good
image in the mind of women employees, thus they can feel safe and secure during their job in Uber.
The 47 guidelines of Eric can help the organisation to improve the workplace culture of Uber
because it consists of a list of changes in the whole organisation from top to bottom.
2.3 UBER AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
Uber operates its market through a mobile app. Now in these days, the excessive use of mobile
phones provides the opportunity to Uber to expand its market worldwide. The customer of the
company request for a ride through the Uber app and the Uber drivers who run their own vehicles
get the information with the help of Uber and routed for the trip. The worth of the company in 2018
estimated at $72 billion (Bhasin, 2017). But there are some factors that affect the business of the
company can be categorized under external and internal factors. The external and internal
environmental factors of Uber have a great impact on its business operations, strategic planning and
marketing (Calo and Rosenblat, 2017).
Analysing these factors is crucial to understand the competitive advantage of it in global taxi hailing
market. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the current status of Uber with the help of various
tools and techniques. These tools and techniques analyse the external as well as internal factors that
affect the organisation as a whole at the global level by SWOT and PESTLE analysis. SWOT analysis
also provides an overview of the company’s strength and weakness with the threats and
opportunities available in the market.
2.4 CSR activities of Uber
Uber wants to improve its image in the people, thus they more centric on their CSR activity by
focusing on women employment generation and safety aspects of their clients. They provide more
employment opportunities for women in the organisation and train their drivers for safety purpose
(Deen, 2017). Uber is focusing on its employees through LOS UBER plan crating Hispanic and Latino
experience for all Uber employees. Uber also provide a network that promotes the attachment of
veterans for all employees at Uber.
2.5 Cultural and Ethical Behaviour in Uber
Uber is facing large numbers of allegations on their organisational working culture. In 2017, Uber
fired 20 people from the organisation after an internal investigation. Uber that is known for its
7

culture, now people described the company as an aggressive and unrestricted workplace culture. A
company that established itself as the best start-up company in the USA is now struggling with
repairing its "toxic culture" image (Duh, Belak, and Milfelner, 2017). The cultural and ethical
behaviour of a company determined the ways of success. In the words of Peter F. Drucker, "Culture
eats strategy for breakfast" which means culture determines the success or failure of an organisation
(Fox, 2017).
2.6 Relationships between departments and people in Uber
A woman Susan Flower, a former engineer of Uber was posted a blog that was filled with stories that
describe such types of criminal and sexual harassment issues associated with Uber. In addition to
this negative interaction, she also blamed the worst organisation environment for women employee
in Uber. Fowler also blamed that the “high performing” males harassed women employees in the
organisation and also under-valuating the contribution of women employees (Lawler, 2014). The
managers and organisation do not give importance to the female workers. These issues leave a bad
impact in the mind of customers of Uber and the service rating is tremendously decrease of the
company overnight. A poor cultured organisation destroys all the plans and strategy of an
organisation. However, the real powers of culture lie in the hand of leaders who held the value and
ethics of the company and controlled all the activities of the organisation (Bornstein, 2016).
2.7 Personal Ethics, Values and Beliefs in Uber
The ethics and beliefs are the defining qualities of an organisational culture through which a leader
can direct and control the activities of the employees and also navigate the product and profit. Uber
is somewhere lack in its ethical and cultural organisational behaviour. The ethical failure in Uber is a
big issue in the organisation. Although the company implement the suggestions of the Eric Holder
report and implement a wide change in the organisation from top to bottom (Bensinger, 2017).
There are many complaints about the poor working environment, harassment with females and
dunking during the work. The company has commenced a surprising experiment in behavioural
science to slightly induce an independent workforce to maximise its growth (Elango, Paul, and
Kundu, 2010). The company rarely discuss its internal issues or matters in public, but after these
serious cultural and ethical issues they openly announced that company would change its corporate
culture and would no longer tolerate any fraud, misbehave or any unethical issues (Duh, Belak, and
Milfelner, 2017). Uber has also announced regarding to the pay issues with its drivers and fix these
troubles by improving the relationship with them. The complaints were also reported about the
drugs taken by employees during work hours (Leigh, 2017). The serious allegations on the senior
leaders of Uber force them to strictly follow the ethical behaviour in the organisation (Jordon, 2017).
The allegations of Fowler badly impact the image of Uber and a large number of people deletes the
8

‘Uber app' from their mobile phones. It causes a huge loss for Uber including destroying its public
image. This is a serious problem in Uber related to cultural and ethical behaviour. If the media
accounts truly about their behaviour, it means they are behaving unethically. Therefore, it is their
primary responsibility and accountability to transform the company ethically (Sawyer and
Thoroughgood, 2017). If the managers and leaders of Uber follow and set standards of their moral
and ethical behaviour, the rest of the organisational people will unquestionably follow them with
replication their values, attitudes and their ethical behaviour. As such, leaders who desire to have an
organisation with an ethical climate must demonstration and set live examples of the desired set of
ethics and behaviour that can be found legitimate and credible by other organisational people.
To create an ethical work environment, the organisational people need to take priority, the
responsibility of their work, time, and dedication on behalf of the senior leaders of Uber (Hawkins,
2017).
2.8 Ways to overcome barriers for effective functioning of Uber
Uber should take the following steps to ensure that the ethical behaviour and culture is practised by
its employees and senior leaders in the organisation for effective functioning:
a. Zero tolerance approach against serious offences: Offence-related to sexual harassment
should be considered as a zero-tolerance approach. This is worst for the organisation when a
female employee blames a senior leader of the organisation about the sexual harassment.
Uber should take strict action against such type of cases with zero tolerance policy (O’Brien,
2017). This type of unethical behavioural employee should be fired from the organisation
with a strict punishment.
b. Formulate a strict code of ethics: A strict code of ethics can be formulated and deployed at
all levels of the organisation and sets expectations by which each member of the
organisation is accountable for their job and maintain an ethical environment. No matter it is
CEO of the organisation or the driver of Uber, it must ensure that everyone follows the code
of ethics.
c. Execution of the code of ethics: Uber can execute the code of ethics by enforcement to
create awareness about its culture and leave a clear message that any misbehave or faulty
behaviour of employees cannot be tolerated and will be punished considered as a serious
offence (Vierling, 2017). Again, this must be enforced that every member of Uber can be
treated as a common people in the organisation. Equality will be prioritized in case of any
offence and this can be defined as the Uber’s tradition.
9

d. Periodic training and ethics refresher course: Provide a regular training and a course to
remind everyone about the ethics that how it is crucial for the feasibility and success of the
organisation (Scheiber, 2017). Each employee of the Uber must complete this course as a
condition of the continued program.
e. Create a Self-regulating review board: This step helps those employees who the victim of
any offence by colleagues and management and fear to convey it to top management
(Salazar, 2017). Such a step provide a security to such types of employees about their
privacy and ensure that complaints will be handled effectively and professionally by a self-
governing organisation that provide justice to the victim without any partiality.
f. Tip for informer: This helps employees to come forward with information without any about
any offences from any employees or managers of the organisation.
2.9 Theories and Models Apply on Uber
According to social learning theory, it is the responsibility and accountability of leaders and
management in Uber to behave ethically and make ethics a way of life. If the managers and leaders
of the organisation follow and set a standard of their ethical behaviour, the rest of organisational
people will definitely follow the values, attitudes and their ethical behaviour (Lefkowitz, 2017). As
such, leaders who desire to have an organisation with ethical and behavioural climate must display
and set a live example of the desired set of ethics and behaviour that can be found legitimate and
credible by other organisational people (Cherry, 2016). To create an ethical work environment, the
organisational people need to take priority, the responsibility of their work, time, and dedication on
behalf of the senior leaders of Uber. Apart from this, numbers of ethical models apply to the cultural
and ethical issues of Uber. These models are identified in the current scenario are as follows:
1. Utilitarianism Theory: According to the Utilitarianism theory, business should spread happiness
among themselves and in others as well. If we apply this theory in Uber case, the actions of the
Uber did not make happy to everyone who was involved in the business operation of the
company. The employee of Uber told that she was sexually harassed and the customers of the
company were told that the company did not hire criminals (Friske, 2017). Drivers of Uber are
sexual predators. It means that large numbers of peoples are not happy with the operation of
the company. Although the main issue with this theory is that, the company is failed to maximise
happiness neither in its customers nor in their own employees.
2. Virtue Theory: The Virtue theory mainly focuses on the individual's character and his/her
thinking. Thinking of an individual is a key factor of ethical behaviour rather than rules and
regulations. The four key elements of Virtue theory are honesty, justice, courage, and
temperance. Uber breach norms related to this theory. They are completely not fair and honest
10

with their clients. Their good ideas for employer's benefits and they are doing partiality with the
drivers' remuneration.
3. Individualism Theory: The Individualism theory said that, "the only goal of business is to earn
the profit.” Therefore, the only duty of a businessperson has is to maximize profit for the owner
or the stakeholders. According to this Uber is not ethically wrong because it hiring more and
more drivers and earning profit from last 9-10 years. Even Uber charges high fare from its client
and pays the unfair amount to its drivers is not ethically wrong as an individualistic person
because they are focusing on earning more profits for the company, which is the overall goal of
the company (The Ethics Incubator, 2018).
4. Justification Ethics Evaluation: Uber informed that they do not hire criminals and in fact, they
do. They hire drivers having criminal records and they again committed a crime during their job.
Therefore, these actions of the company are far away from the justified ethics. The pricing
strategy of the company is also a breach of this theory.
5. The principle of ethical universalism: Uber used an algorithm that supports surge price strategy.
When the demand is high prices will be charged at the high rate and when demand is low, prices
will be charged at the low rate. This has raised the issues of antitrust concern because there is a
possibility that drivers of Uber raised the price artificially. This unethical practice of sage price
goes against the principle of ethical universalism.
3. SWOT Analysis of Uber
Swot analysis of Uber consists of the analysis of four criteria i.e. strength, weakness, opportunities
and threats. The SWOT analysis helps the organisation to understand the different factors that affect
the business operation.
Strengths: Strength of Uber consist a very low price charges from the customer with the minimum
profit margin. It attracts customer towards the company and creates a competitive advantage over
its competitors by increasing consumer awareness. Uber is also focusing on innovative and creative
thinking such as Uber bikes and air services as well (Rosenblat and Stark, 2016). Uber has also known
as a good brand image in the field of transportation and growing fast in the developing countries. It
uses the advanced technology for communication with drivers and its clients that give an advantage
over its competitors.
Weaknesses: The weaknesses of Uber indicate that it has a poor organisational culture that leaves a
bad impact on the mind of the customer. It must improve its organisational cultural environment.
The major problem with Uber is that it not charges flat fees where its main competitor Gett charges
other fees and keep predictable prices. Another main problem with Uber is that it spread its
11

business in developing countries but its focus on only urban areas. Uber does not provide its services
in rural areas because it depends on the internet through mobile phones. Thus, it can only target
those people having smartphones.
Opportunities: Uber has big opportunities in developing countries; in fact, it is more popular in Asian
countries where most of the countries are in developing stage. These countries provide a huge
market for Uber and it is also so effective in those countries because of its affordable price and low-
profit margins. Uber can also start other alternative special transport facilities like ambulance and
fire-brigade for emergency services.
Threats: Uber does not know when the government change the rules and regulations regarding
transportation. Changes in government rules and regulations affect the whole business operation of
Uber. The flat prices of its competitors like Gett, give strong competition to Uber in the market. The
drivers of Uber are also creating a problem when they do not have a driving licence (Mangalindan,
2014). The lower profit margins of Uber also affect its profitability in this area of operation where
other competitors charge additional charges with the fare.
12