Uber’s Culture Change and Changing Values

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Case History
Specifics
Summary
Flexitime Policy
One-Size-Fits-All Policy Realities
Conclusion and Recommendations
References

Introduction

“Culture Change: Changing Values (and Personnel) is the case under analysis according to which the existing Uber’s values proved ineffective even after several staff changes. The main idea is that the company chose several principles for its work, underlying responsibilities (“Let Builders Build”), approaches (“Always Be Hustlin” and “Meritocracy and Toe Stepping”), and competitiveness (“Principled Confrontation) (Noe et al., 2021). However, the incidents of sexual harassment and abusive behaviors could no longer be ignored, and Uber had to implement changes to improve its image.

Case History

Uber was one of the most successful organizations in the sphere of transportation service. It operates in more than 400 cities and employs more than 11,000 people (Noe et al., 2021). Still, some workers reported problems despite the intention to create a safe and efficient working environment. After the woman was officially concerned about repetitive sexual harassment incidents, a line of complaints was impossible to stop. The U.S. attorney, Eric Holder, initiated his investigation to eliminate unfair or inappropriate practices in the company and proved the necessity of cultural change.

Specifics

In a short period, several critical decisions were made to stabilize the situation in the company. The firing of 20 employees was supported, and a newly appointed human resource manager, Lisa Hornsy, introduced a “Do the Right Thing Period” strategy (Noe et al., 2021). Unfortunately, some racially charged comments were noticed, leading to additional staff changes (Noe et al., 2021). It was important for Uber to ensure that ethically correct values were implemented.

Summary

The case proved that even the most successful companies could not cope with identifying and following cultural values. It was not enough to fire some individuals to protect others but to re-evaluate the working environment and organizational culture. Uber’s core principle is a cooperation between drivers, clients, and managers. Instead of finding who did something wrong, the company should strengthen its image. Changing values is not a final solution because it has already proved insufficient.

Flexitime Policy

There are expectations that the nature of the company’s workers and the work itself might change if flexitime is promoted as another strategy to follow. The idea is to promote a culture of work-life balance to help workers identify their needs and follow their schedules (Shanker & Kaushal, 2022). On the one hand, work-life balance is a unique opportunity to improve work productivity and quality and recognize employees’ rights and freedoms. On the other hand, Uber’s nature is not about work-life flexibility but the development of safe internal relationships. Thus, flexitime would be a poor strategy for Uber’s workers that did not solve abusive and racially charged behaviors.

One-Size-Fits-All Policy Realities

Even if the decision to implement flexitime is made, it is necessary to understand what additional steps could support its possible success. For example, the one-size-fits-all policy aims to introduce something universal for many people under every circumstance, but it does not cover the needs of all clients and workers (Noe et al., 2021). Thus, this approach might be unrealistic for Uber at the moment because there is no need to generalize the nature of the work but to focus on particular concerns and problematic issues.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Regarding the current needs and expectations from Uber, additional recommendations and hints can be offered to protect the staff and focus on clients. For example, telecommuting contributes to work-life balance and positively affects productivity because distance is no longer a problem (Shanker & Kaushal, 2022). To support this intervention, a performance appraisal should be implemented as an obligatory administrative duty for managers to view the company’s shortages and achievements (Noe et al., 2021). People need to have options for their self-development, but they cannot forget that their behaviors and decisions are regularly assessed for improvement and progress.

References

Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. (2021). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage (12^th ed.). McGraw Hill.

Shanker, A., & Kaushal, S. K. (2022). Workers work–life balance should be a human resource priority. Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(1), 1-4.

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