Uber belongs to the industry of transportation and it is also a benchmark company of presenting “sharing economy”. The concept of a sharing economy is positive for the current market and society because people believe that it can help to reduce pollution and the use of limited resources.
Nowadays people are experiencing different car-sharing plans with a driver who might just a part-time (Skjelvik, Erlandsen & Haavardsholm, 2017). Through the financial analysis of Uber, it showed that the net revenue climbed up as fast as grossing booking from Q1 2015 to Q3 2016, although the quarterly losses were increased at the same time, the final result was still satisfactory (Qumer & Purkayastha, 2019). As the matter of fact, Uber is bringing more working opportunities to this market Frue, 2019).
The four key trading factors of Uber are (Qumer & Purkayastha, 2019):
Demographic – Uber has already become a worldwide company with an existence in 84 countries and 724 cities.
Social – Most of the Uber customers make a positive comment on its user-friendly mobile application and platform.
Economic – Uber provides more working opportunities and stimulate the market economy.
Environmental – Uber has not aggravated automobile exhaust pollution as expected.
SWOT Analysis (Frue, 2019):
Strengths:
- Recognized brand.
- The number of cars is unlimited.
- Convenient cashless payment.
- Price is lower than the normal taxi. Weakness:
- The moral issue between Uber and driver.
- The motivation and wage of the driver are low.
- Privacy concerns of customers such as protection of personal information.
Opportunities:
- Expand the new market in countries where the taxi is expensive and difficult to take.
- Develop the market in suburb area.
- Reduce the estimated waiting time of customers by increasing the number of drivers.
- Use alternative cars like electric vehicles to reduce the cost and pollution. Threats:
- Wages for drivers are lower than taxi drivers.
- Some countries like German have forbidden the use of Uber due to their laws and regulations.
- Scandals may damage the reputation and brand image.
- Some alternatives are gradually appearing in the market, such as Google self-driving cars.
The key issue of this case study is aiming to:
- Create an equality-working environment for men and women.
- Improve the corporate structure to avoid the “bro culture” among top management.
The most critical issue is sexual harassment discrimination. There was a huge impact on Uber’s U.S. market share due to the senior leadership scandals. To address this concern, there are 3 alternatives have been listed (Barreiro, 2019) :
- Establish transparent company performance appraisal.
- Set up an oversight committee to supervise and deal with any moral issues.
- Standardize working environment.
The overarching strategy that I would like to propose is to establish a clear sexual harassment prevention discrimination policy and conduct mandatory training for everyone.
Details included in the plans are:
- Make an employee handbook introducing sexual harassment discrimination prevention.
- Organize mandatory staff training.
- Build up a transparent process of accusing sexual harassment discrimination.
- Conduct a comprehensive investigation of every received complaint.
There are three key critical organizational functions that have been involved:
- Human resource – make the handbook and responsible for the training.
- Oversight committee – make sure the investigation is conscientious and treat everyone equally, the procedure is comprehensive and transparent.
- Strict policy – no one should be excused for their mistake.
To measure the success of this implementation, the balanced scorecard metrics should be used:
- Financial: Set the goal of winning back 5% of the market share.
- Customer: The result of the employee satisfaction survey should have at least 70% of positive comments.
- Internal business process: push the policy to be acknowledged by every single staff, take the exam and people cannot pass the exam with only get 100 scores.
- Learning: Conduct and recap the training at least once per 6 months.
However, there are also some concerns that may happen during the implementation. For example, it is very essential to protect the victim’s personal information. All the people involve in the investigation should be anonymous. Also, everyone must start to watch their behavior and the company ethos needs to become integrity. Finally, it will be a good chance for Uber to re-establishing its brand image, gaining more trust and reliance from customers,s and earning more investment from stakeholders.
To conclude, I strongly recommend applying this strict and clear policy of preventing sexual harassment decimation in the workplace. Only by creating a fair working environment can employees work hard to create more revenue for the company.
Reference
Barreiro, S. (2019). Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Retrieved 11 December 2019, from https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/preventing-sexual-harassment-workplace-29851.html
Frue, K. (2019). PESTLE Analysis of Uber. Retrieved 11 December 2019, from https://pestleanalysis.com/pestle-analysis-uber/
Qumer, S., & Purkayastha, D. (2019). Chaos at Uber: The New CEO’s Challenge. Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest For Compe, 763-775.
Skjelvik, J., Erlandsen, A., & Haavardsholm, O. (2017). Environmental impacts and potential of the sharing economy (2nd ed., pp. 13-19). Kbh.: Nordisk Ministerråd.
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