Case Study Uber 4z5t5n
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RUNNING HEAD: UBER CASE ANALYSIS
Uber Case Analysis Christopher Lynch William Paterson University 2 April 2017
Introduction:
1
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
2
In March 2009, Ubercab was founded by business partners Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick. They created the company with the intention of providing an on-demand car service that was affordable to a wider client base than the expensive black car services that they had used in the past. Camp and Kalanick sought to do this through giving riders the option to split their costs by sharing the driver that they use with other people, thus making it more affordable for themselves while not affecting the bottom line of the driver. Both Camp and Kalanick had found success in previous endeavors, with Camp having been one of the founders of the popular website and application StumbleUpon, and Kalanick having been a cofounder of a file sharing website called Red Swoosh that was sold for $19 million in 2007. (McAlone, 2016) The company was able to launch their product in San Francisco in July 2010 with a small fleet of drivers and a smartphone application that gave s the ability to call the drivers to their location with a simple click of a button. Within a year of this launch date, the company changed its name to Uber and was able to expand their services to other major American cities including New York City. By 2015, leaked financial documents showed that Uber was increasing their ridership rapidly and had generated $1.5 billion in revenue. (McAlone, 2016) Uber’s rapid growth from tiny startup to trailblazing industry creator and leader is often attributed to the competitive style of management that is prevalent throughout the management structure of the company. Rather
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
3
than resting on the laurels of pioneering the most popular ride-sharing application in the world, Kalanick, now the Chief Executive Officer of the company, has pushed to keep the company expanding at this same exponential rate. In the past three years, Uber has expanded beyond basic ride sharing to attempt to build itself into a logistics conglomerate that offers services that include prepared meal delivery, cargo transportation and GPS services. In addition to branching out into new services, they have also expanded their customer base by offering some combination of their services in 81 countries as of 2017. (Ting, 2017) I chose this case because Uber appears to be more than just a successful car service. They are already the highest-valued start-up company in history, and are pushing to maintain their rapid growth. With this ambitious outlook, there has to be a great deal of pressure on those who are tasked with reaching these goals. I wanted to analyze the culture that this kind of pressure would cultivate. The Issue When looking at the quick growth of Uber, it would be misleading to only focus on the positives that this rapid pace has brought for the company. In a pace that can only be matched by its growth, Uber has been attached to a bevy of scandals in the past few years. Early in the development of the company, the main concern that people that I spoke to had about Uber was that the drivers were potential sexual predators who could pose a threat to
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
4
unsuspecting s of the app. While there have been reported cases of drivers committing crimes while working for Uber, it has not been one of the focal points of arguments against allowing them to operate where they do. Their issue seems to have manifested in a form that wasn’t initially considered due to the fact that many did not think that Uber would grow into the $70 billion valued company that a December 2016 Reuters article described them as. This isn’t to say that there haven’t been cases where engers have accused drivers of misconduct, but up to this point, there have been other reasons why Uber has had negative headlines written about it. After researching all of the communication issues that Uber seems to be having, it looks like their main issue is that they do not have a positive organizational culture. There have been many incidents over the past three years that seem to point towards Uber as a whole breeding a culture that promotes actions that many classify as predatory and overly-aggressive. When Susan Fowler, a former site reliability engineer with Uber, wrote a blog post about her experience working for the company on the technical end of their operation, it was filled with anecdotes describing this kind of atmosphere. In short, Fowler lamented about how her complaints of sexual harassment from a superior were brushed off by the human resources department because the employee in question had a strong history of performing well. She was also told that this was the first complaint about the manager, which she later found out was not true. (Fowler, 2017)
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
5
In addition to these negative interactions, Fowler also described how her department went from being about 25% female at her time of employment to only 3% female when she left after a year. Towards the end of her blog post, she described another experience in which a manager informed her that she could be fired if she attempted to report another superior to human resources in the future. Although Fowler attempted to reason that this was not a legal business practice, she claims to have been spoken over and told that it was the law of the land. All of these experiences point to more than just a couple of rogue of the management team who were not following protocol. Something else that Susan Fowler described in her blog post was the excessively competitive relationship between the managers in her department. At one point, she claims, “In the background, there was a gameof-thrones political war raging within the ranks of upper management in the infrastructure engineering organization. It seemed like every manager was fighting their peers and attempting to undermine their direct supervisor so that they could have their direct supervisor's job.” (Fowler, 2017) Although she doesn’t claim to speak for any section of the organization past the section that she worked in, her description of this segment shows the furthest thing from the familial atmosphere that many large companies attempt to portray. One could argue that competition is positive and spurs innovation, but when it escalates to the point of human resources
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
6
departments blatantly disregarding sexual harassment claims, I don’t think that anyone would argue against it being an issue. Another example of the “win at all costs” mentality that permeates the company was brought to light in March 2017. According to a report by the New York Times, Uber has employed a tactic called “gray balling” in which they would use data compiled to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies in areas where Uber was not allowed to operate. The tactics used by the company include making those who have been identified as attempting to stop the service from operating trackable and displaying false images of available drivers in their vicinity. The article also described how the collected information was used to develop strategies for drivers to operate illegally in a more successful way. It was suspected by many that Uber had made attempts to operate in some areas without permission from local authorities, but this detailed shows that there was an organizational intent on expanding the company’s market share regardless of the legality of their tactics. (Issac, 2017) Other evidence of this type of culture can be seen in the actions of the CEO, Travis Kalanick. In an interview with a reporter from GQ, Kalanick regarded that he has found more success in his personal life since the company took off by saying, “Yeah, we call that Boob-er.” Some may take this as an innocuous comment made in jest, but Kalanick is the most visible employee for the massive company. While he may not have made this comment with the intention of influencing others within the organization, as
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
7
the leader, he is the one that sets the tone for the way that business is to be done for the company as a whole. (Carr, 2014) Outside of this incident, Kalanick has also drawn the ire of the public when a video leaked that showed him in a heated argument with an Uber driver. In a video posted by Bloomberg.com, the CEO can be seen belittling a driver after he was questioned about why the amount of money that the drivers make has been shrinking in recent months. If this had been a first incident for Kalanick, I do not think that it would have been as impactful of a story as it has grown into. When looking at this negative encounter in front of the backdrop of recent events that have befallen the suddenly successful company, it is difficult to not recognize it as an issue with the culture that is present throughout Uber. It seems as though there are issues with an overaggressive and reckless culture that permeate all of the sections of the company. (Newcomer, 2017) Case Analysis When studying the distinct aspects of organizational culture, I found that there are a few generally accepted pieces that make up the culture of an organization. In his 1992 published work on organizational culture, management scholar Edgar Schein outlines three main layers to a culture: artifacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. When looking at Uber through the lens of Schein’s model, it becomes clear that the issues that were described in the previous section were directly influenced and likely
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
8
caused by the culture that has been created within this workplace. (Miller, 2015) The first level of Schein’s model looks at the artifacts that exist within an organization. This layer of the culture is characterized by being the most visible part of an organization that the can look to in order to develop an understanding of how the organization works. In the case of Uber, the oft-mentioned CEO, Travis Kalanick, best fits these criteria. Before his recent string of negative publicity, the image of Kalanick has been portrayed as a hero within the organization. His hard-working attitude and visible image as the company pushed to new heights helped the company by giving employees a positive role-model. As of late, this highly visible image has begun to work against both Uber and Kalanick, as the once faultless leader has not been able to escape the spotlight as his image has tarnished. In the same way that this artifact can have a positive impact on the rest of the organization, it can also have a negative one. Although it was most likely not the CEO’s intention, Schein’s model would indicate that Kalanick and his publicized negative actions have had an impact on the thoughts and actions of other of his organization. In earlier interactions with employees, Kalanick tried to come across as being in favor of workers’ rights while also providing a low-cost service to s of Uber. His recent tirade against a driver is a clear public example of his actions not working in conjunction with his proclaimed beliefs. In shifting the blame away from himself and other of upper-management, and on to the
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
9
drivers for not doing well enough to maintain their pay levels, he is reinforcing the idea that those who are the most competitive are the ones who will succeed in the company. (Newcomer, 2017) When looking past the most visible portion of an organizational culture, Schein’s model describes a level known as “espoused values”. These values are the ideals that give form to what those within the organization ought to be doing. When attempting to understand what the most important values are at Uber, it seems as though competing and winning top the list. When referring back to Susan Fowler’s of her time at Uber, it is clear that there is no expected amount of selflessness for the good of the company when it comes to the values of management. Her detailed explanation of how managers were constantly trying to undermine their superiors is not something that I would think is unique to Uber. I understand that many people who succeed to the highest levels of management within a company are often able to do so by putting their needs above others, but this seems to go further. Fowler mentions that when she was in meetings, there was often a manager who was openly bragging about how they were trying to take someone’s job at any cost. Through examples like this, it is clear that being competitive without regard for anyone else is the most commonly shared value that is present within Uber. The combination of these artifacts and espoused values affect the culture of the organization by cultivating a common feeling of hostility between the employees. Schein’s model refers to these feelings as “basic
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
10
assumptions”. While the employees of Uber may not be consciously thinking about trying to undermine other employees on a constant basis, their actions show that they understand that the best way to progress within the organization is to act accordingly. This is not to say that this idea of fostering a competitive environment does not have its benefits. When attempting to understand why it is that Uber has been able to grow from launching in 2010 to being valued at $70 billion less than seven years later, it is undeniable that this competitive atmosphere has helped the company succeed. It is not illogical to speculate that without the competitive drive that pushed the company to use the controversial “gray balling” techniques to avoid law enforcement, Uber would not have as wide reaching of an impact as it does today. By refusing to comply with law enforcement in cities that had not approved the service yet, Uber was able to lay the groundwork that would help it take hold once the approval process turned in their favor. At the risk of coming across as too allegorical, it seems as though Uber has fallen into the trap of its greatest strength also being its biggest weakness. While the competitive nature that is fostered within Uber was vital to helping the company grow and succeed, it is now contributing to scandal after scandal. Outside of the controversial remarks and s that have come out of Uber, there have also been issues with some of their recent expansion endeavors. Uber is currently being sued by Google for intellectual property theft over work that they are doing to develop a self-driving car.
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
11
This is not the only issue that the push for automated services has experienced, as a recently leaked report showed that Uber is not nearly as close to being able to implement this service as they previously implied. While these examples could be explained by reasons other than the downside of being overly-competitive, it is difficult to hear about them and not attribute it to an organization-wide problem with their culture. It seems likely that the leaked documents showing poor progress could have been exposed by a manager who was attempting to overtake their boss by showing that they cannot lead properly. (McGauley, 2017) When it comes to a solution for the issues that Uber is fighting, it is not a simple fix. It is difficult for an organization to make a fundamental shift in their culture in general, as the culture is something that is held by every member of the organization. Trying to make a large-scale change in the way that an entire organization thinks and acts seems to be as difficult as trying to get a river to change the direction that it flows in. Something that makes shifting this even more difficult is that by reducing the intensity of the competitiveness within the organization, they would be changing the mentality that helped Uber expand in the first place. In order to change the culture at Uber, and in turn, have a chance at salvaging the positive image the company once held, there would have to be widespread changes to the three levels of the organizational culture. First and foremost, there would have to be a new person installed as the most visible figure for the company. Due to his leadership being credited with a
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
12
large amount of the success of the company, I would not recommend Travis Kalanick be removed from Uber entirely. This being said, I would suggest bringing in someone from the outside who doesn’t have the stain of the recent negative events on them to serve as the new CEO. In order to commit to reshaping the image, Uber would do well to change how the everyone views them in order to begin this shift. On a value level, I would change the way that employees are incentivized. It is clear that the organization is fostering this competitive environment by many of the employees working in their own best interest. If the organization were to change their reward structure so that the success of the parts contributes to the success of the whole, it would likely change the values that the employees hold as important. By changing the look and feel of the company, Uber could begin to change the culture that exists within its walls. At the end of the day, I don’t think that anyone would try to make the argument that the competitive culture at Uber did not contribute to its early success. On the other hand, it does not appear that maintaining these values as essential would be conducive to building a long term and stable company. Although stability is not something that may be of the utmost importance to those in charge of the company, it appears that this current culture is causing more negative than positive in recent years, and this current model does not appear to be sustainable.
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
13
References Carr, P. B. (2014, February 27). "We call that Boob-er:" The four most awful things Travis Kalanick said in his GQ profile. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://pando.com/2014/02/27/we-call-that-boob-er-the-four-mostawful-things-travis-kalanick-said-in-his-gq-profile/ Fowler, S. J. (2017, February 19). Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-verystrange-year-at-uber Issac, M. (2017, March 3). How Uber Deceives the Authorities Worldwide. The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyballprogram-evade-authorities.html McAlone, A. H. (2016, August 01). The story of how Travis Kalanick built Uber into the most feared and valuable startup in the world. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-history/#july2016-uber-ran-into-trouble-in-hungary-the-company-was-forced-to-pullout-of-the-country-after-government-legislation-made-it-impossible-forit-to-operate-the-move-followed-months-of-protests-by-taxi-drivers-36
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
14
McGauley, J. (2017, March 07). Here's All the Shady Stuff Uber's Been Accused of So Far. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/uber-controversies-scandalsaffecting-companys-future Miller, K. (2015). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Newcomer, E. (2017, February 28). In Video, Uber CEO Argues With Driver Over Falling Fares. Bloomberg . Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/in-video-uberceo-argues-with-driver-over-falling-fares Ting, E. (2017, April 01). Recent incidents continue to plague Uber's public image. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Recent-public-incidents-plaugeUber-11042169.php#item-39786
Uber Case Analysis Christopher Lynch William Paterson University 2 April 2017
Introduction:
1
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
2
In March 2009, Ubercab was founded by business partners Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick. They created the company with the intention of providing an on-demand car service that was affordable to a wider client base than the expensive black car services that they had used in the past. Camp and Kalanick sought to do this through giving riders the option to split their costs by sharing the driver that they use with other people, thus making it more affordable for themselves while not affecting the bottom line of the driver. Both Camp and Kalanick had found success in previous endeavors, with Camp having been one of the founders of the popular website and application StumbleUpon, and Kalanick having been a cofounder of a file sharing website called Red Swoosh that was sold for $19 million in 2007. (McAlone, 2016) The company was able to launch their product in San Francisco in July 2010 with a small fleet of drivers and a smartphone application that gave s the ability to call the drivers to their location with a simple click of a button. Within a year of this launch date, the company changed its name to Uber and was able to expand their services to other major American cities including New York City. By 2015, leaked financial documents showed that Uber was increasing their ridership rapidly and had generated $1.5 billion in revenue. (McAlone, 2016) Uber’s rapid growth from tiny startup to trailblazing industry creator and leader is often attributed to the competitive style of management that is prevalent throughout the management structure of the company. Rather
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
3
than resting on the laurels of pioneering the most popular ride-sharing application in the world, Kalanick, now the Chief Executive Officer of the company, has pushed to keep the company expanding at this same exponential rate. In the past three years, Uber has expanded beyond basic ride sharing to attempt to build itself into a logistics conglomerate that offers services that include prepared meal delivery, cargo transportation and GPS services. In addition to branching out into new services, they have also expanded their customer base by offering some combination of their services in 81 countries as of 2017. (Ting, 2017) I chose this case because Uber appears to be more than just a successful car service. They are already the highest-valued start-up company in history, and are pushing to maintain their rapid growth. With this ambitious outlook, there has to be a great deal of pressure on those who are tasked with reaching these goals. I wanted to analyze the culture that this kind of pressure would cultivate. The Issue When looking at the quick growth of Uber, it would be misleading to only focus on the positives that this rapid pace has brought for the company. In a pace that can only be matched by its growth, Uber has been attached to a bevy of scandals in the past few years. Early in the development of the company, the main concern that people that I spoke to had about Uber was that the drivers were potential sexual predators who could pose a threat to
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
4
unsuspecting s of the app. While there have been reported cases of drivers committing crimes while working for Uber, it has not been one of the focal points of arguments against allowing them to operate where they do. Their issue seems to have manifested in a form that wasn’t initially considered due to the fact that many did not think that Uber would grow into the $70 billion valued company that a December 2016 Reuters article described them as. This isn’t to say that there haven’t been cases where engers have accused drivers of misconduct, but up to this point, there have been other reasons why Uber has had negative headlines written about it. After researching all of the communication issues that Uber seems to be having, it looks like their main issue is that they do not have a positive organizational culture. There have been many incidents over the past three years that seem to point towards Uber as a whole breeding a culture that promotes actions that many classify as predatory and overly-aggressive. When Susan Fowler, a former site reliability engineer with Uber, wrote a blog post about her experience working for the company on the technical end of their operation, it was filled with anecdotes describing this kind of atmosphere. In short, Fowler lamented about how her complaints of sexual harassment from a superior were brushed off by the human resources department because the employee in question had a strong history of performing well. She was also told that this was the first complaint about the manager, which she later found out was not true. (Fowler, 2017)
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
5
In addition to these negative interactions, Fowler also described how her department went from being about 25% female at her time of employment to only 3% female when she left after a year. Towards the end of her blog post, she described another experience in which a manager informed her that she could be fired if she attempted to report another superior to human resources in the future. Although Fowler attempted to reason that this was not a legal business practice, she claims to have been spoken over and told that it was the law of the land. All of these experiences point to more than just a couple of rogue of the management team who were not following protocol. Something else that Susan Fowler described in her blog post was the excessively competitive relationship between the managers in her department. At one point, she claims, “In the background, there was a gameof-thrones political war raging within the ranks of upper management in the infrastructure engineering organization. It seemed like every manager was fighting their peers and attempting to undermine their direct supervisor so that they could have their direct supervisor's job.” (Fowler, 2017) Although she doesn’t claim to speak for any section of the organization past the section that she worked in, her description of this segment shows the furthest thing from the familial atmosphere that many large companies attempt to portray. One could argue that competition is positive and spurs innovation, but when it escalates to the point of human resources
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
6
departments blatantly disregarding sexual harassment claims, I don’t think that anyone would argue against it being an issue. Another example of the “win at all costs” mentality that permeates the company was brought to light in March 2017. According to a report by the New York Times, Uber has employed a tactic called “gray balling” in which they would use data compiled to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies in areas where Uber was not allowed to operate. The tactics used by the company include making those who have been identified as attempting to stop the service from operating trackable and displaying false images of available drivers in their vicinity. The article also described how the collected information was used to develop strategies for drivers to operate illegally in a more successful way. It was suspected by many that Uber had made attempts to operate in some areas without permission from local authorities, but this detailed shows that there was an organizational intent on expanding the company’s market share regardless of the legality of their tactics. (Issac, 2017) Other evidence of this type of culture can be seen in the actions of the CEO, Travis Kalanick. In an interview with a reporter from GQ, Kalanick regarded that he has found more success in his personal life since the company took off by saying, “Yeah, we call that Boob-er.” Some may take this as an innocuous comment made in jest, but Kalanick is the most visible employee for the massive company. While he may not have made this comment with the intention of influencing others within the organization, as
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
7
the leader, he is the one that sets the tone for the way that business is to be done for the company as a whole. (Carr, 2014) Outside of this incident, Kalanick has also drawn the ire of the public when a video leaked that showed him in a heated argument with an Uber driver. In a video posted by Bloomberg.com, the CEO can be seen belittling a driver after he was questioned about why the amount of money that the drivers make has been shrinking in recent months. If this had been a first incident for Kalanick, I do not think that it would have been as impactful of a story as it has grown into. When looking at this negative encounter in front of the backdrop of recent events that have befallen the suddenly successful company, it is difficult to not recognize it as an issue with the culture that is present throughout Uber. It seems as though there are issues with an overaggressive and reckless culture that permeate all of the sections of the company. (Newcomer, 2017) Case Analysis When studying the distinct aspects of organizational culture, I found that there are a few generally accepted pieces that make up the culture of an organization. In his 1992 published work on organizational culture, management scholar Edgar Schein outlines three main layers to a culture: artifacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. When looking at Uber through the lens of Schein’s model, it becomes clear that the issues that were described in the previous section were directly influenced and likely
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
8
caused by the culture that has been created within this workplace. (Miller, 2015) The first level of Schein’s model looks at the artifacts that exist within an organization. This layer of the culture is characterized by being the most visible part of an organization that the can look to in order to develop an understanding of how the organization works. In the case of Uber, the oft-mentioned CEO, Travis Kalanick, best fits these criteria. Before his recent string of negative publicity, the image of Kalanick has been portrayed as a hero within the organization. His hard-working attitude and visible image as the company pushed to new heights helped the company by giving employees a positive role-model. As of late, this highly visible image has begun to work against both Uber and Kalanick, as the once faultless leader has not been able to escape the spotlight as his image has tarnished. In the same way that this artifact can have a positive impact on the rest of the organization, it can also have a negative one. Although it was most likely not the CEO’s intention, Schein’s model would indicate that Kalanick and his publicized negative actions have had an impact on the thoughts and actions of other of his organization. In earlier interactions with employees, Kalanick tried to come across as being in favor of workers’ rights while also providing a low-cost service to s of Uber. His recent tirade against a driver is a clear public example of his actions not working in conjunction with his proclaimed beliefs. In shifting the blame away from himself and other of upper-management, and on to the
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
9
drivers for not doing well enough to maintain their pay levels, he is reinforcing the idea that those who are the most competitive are the ones who will succeed in the company. (Newcomer, 2017) When looking past the most visible portion of an organizational culture, Schein’s model describes a level known as “espoused values”. These values are the ideals that give form to what those within the organization ought to be doing. When attempting to understand what the most important values are at Uber, it seems as though competing and winning top the list. When referring back to Susan Fowler’s of her time at Uber, it is clear that there is no expected amount of selflessness for the good of the company when it comes to the values of management. Her detailed explanation of how managers were constantly trying to undermine their superiors is not something that I would think is unique to Uber. I understand that many people who succeed to the highest levels of management within a company are often able to do so by putting their needs above others, but this seems to go further. Fowler mentions that when she was in meetings, there was often a manager who was openly bragging about how they were trying to take someone’s job at any cost. Through examples like this, it is clear that being competitive without regard for anyone else is the most commonly shared value that is present within Uber. The combination of these artifacts and espoused values affect the culture of the organization by cultivating a common feeling of hostility between the employees. Schein’s model refers to these feelings as “basic
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
10
assumptions”. While the employees of Uber may not be consciously thinking about trying to undermine other employees on a constant basis, their actions show that they understand that the best way to progress within the organization is to act accordingly. This is not to say that this idea of fostering a competitive environment does not have its benefits. When attempting to understand why it is that Uber has been able to grow from launching in 2010 to being valued at $70 billion less than seven years later, it is undeniable that this competitive atmosphere has helped the company succeed. It is not illogical to speculate that without the competitive drive that pushed the company to use the controversial “gray balling” techniques to avoid law enforcement, Uber would not have as wide reaching of an impact as it does today. By refusing to comply with law enforcement in cities that had not approved the service yet, Uber was able to lay the groundwork that would help it take hold once the approval process turned in their favor. At the risk of coming across as too allegorical, it seems as though Uber has fallen into the trap of its greatest strength also being its biggest weakness. While the competitive nature that is fostered within Uber was vital to helping the company grow and succeed, it is now contributing to scandal after scandal. Outside of the controversial remarks and s that have come out of Uber, there have also been issues with some of their recent expansion endeavors. Uber is currently being sued by Google for intellectual property theft over work that they are doing to develop a self-driving car.
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
11
This is not the only issue that the push for automated services has experienced, as a recently leaked report showed that Uber is not nearly as close to being able to implement this service as they previously implied. While these examples could be explained by reasons other than the downside of being overly-competitive, it is difficult to hear about them and not attribute it to an organization-wide problem with their culture. It seems likely that the leaked documents showing poor progress could have been exposed by a manager who was attempting to overtake their boss by showing that they cannot lead properly. (McGauley, 2017) When it comes to a solution for the issues that Uber is fighting, it is not a simple fix. It is difficult for an organization to make a fundamental shift in their culture in general, as the culture is something that is held by every member of the organization. Trying to make a large-scale change in the way that an entire organization thinks and acts seems to be as difficult as trying to get a river to change the direction that it flows in. Something that makes shifting this even more difficult is that by reducing the intensity of the competitiveness within the organization, they would be changing the mentality that helped Uber expand in the first place. In order to change the culture at Uber, and in turn, have a chance at salvaging the positive image the company once held, there would have to be widespread changes to the three levels of the organizational culture. First and foremost, there would have to be a new person installed as the most visible figure for the company. Due to his leadership being credited with a
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
12
large amount of the success of the company, I would not recommend Travis Kalanick be removed from Uber entirely. This being said, I would suggest bringing in someone from the outside who doesn’t have the stain of the recent negative events on them to serve as the new CEO. In order to commit to reshaping the image, Uber would do well to change how the everyone views them in order to begin this shift. On a value level, I would change the way that employees are incentivized. It is clear that the organization is fostering this competitive environment by many of the employees working in their own best interest. If the organization were to change their reward structure so that the success of the parts contributes to the success of the whole, it would likely change the values that the employees hold as important. By changing the look and feel of the company, Uber could begin to change the culture that exists within its walls. At the end of the day, I don’t think that anyone would try to make the argument that the competitive culture at Uber did not contribute to its early success. On the other hand, it does not appear that maintaining these values as essential would be conducive to building a long term and stable company. Although stability is not something that may be of the utmost importance to those in charge of the company, it appears that this current culture is causing more negative than positive in recent years, and this current model does not appear to be sustainable.
UBER CASE ANALYSIS
13
References Carr, P. B. (2014, February 27). "We call that Boob-er:" The four most awful things Travis Kalanick said in his GQ profile. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://pando.com/2014/02/27/we-call-that-boob-er-the-four-mostawful-things-travis-kalanick-said-in-his-gq-profile/ Fowler, S. J. (2017, February 19). Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-verystrange-year-at-uber Issac, M. (2017, March 3). How Uber Deceives the Authorities Worldwide. The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyballprogram-evade-authorities.html McAlone, A. H. (2016, August 01). The story of how Travis Kalanick built Uber into the most feared and valuable startup in the world. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-history/#july2016-uber-ran-into-trouble-in-hungary-the-company-was-forced-to-pullout-of-the-country-after-government-legislation-made-it-impossible-forit-to-operate-the-move-followed-months-of-protests-by-taxi-drivers-36
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McGauley, J. (2017, March 07). Here's All the Shady Stuff Uber's Been Accused of So Far. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/uber-controversies-scandalsaffecting-companys-future Miller, K. (2015). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Newcomer, E. (2017, February 28). In Video, Uber CEO Argues With Driver Over Falling Fares. Bloomberg . Retrieved April 2, 2017, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/in-video-uberceo-argues-with-driver-over-falling-fares Ting, E. (2017, April 01). Recent incidents continue to plague Uber's public image. Retrieved April 2, 2017, from http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Recent-public-incidents-plaugeUber-11042169.php#item-39786
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