Uber: An Ethical Dilemma - An Essay." (46 Characters)

Task

Write an essay on the following:

• Use an organisation that is or has been in the news during the past two years (work-related learning) and identify an ethical dilemma faced by that organisation as an example.
  
  
• Apply at least two theoretical concepts from managerial ethics to examine this dilemma critically.
  
  
• Go on to examine and critically evaluate how these theoretical concepts influence managerial practices in the chosen organisation.
  
  
• In conclusion, reflect critically on how leaders may ensure organisational decisions are made ethically.
  
  
• Academic and professional communication skills: You must follow an essay structure that is at a minimum an introduction; a main body that outlines the argument, analyses the material you have researched and assesses this according to the guidelines above; and a conclusion.

In short, you will need to demonstrate an understanding and critical analysis of the theories surrounding the topic, as well as evaluating the practical reality in the workplace.

Uber's Unethical Practices

In today's era, it has become mandatory for business to process to work ethically and safeguard the interest of their stakeholders so that they do not get liable for any problems in global business. It is important for the business to maintain an image in the target market so that the customer initiate repeated sales of the product and service, also the prospective customers always analyze the brand image of the company before purchasing the product and the brad image created through positive response of employees, customers, stakeholders etc. in the market (Christianson, 2014).

Apart from that many times the company face situations in which they have to be ethically correct on the part of stakeholders due to which they incur losses in their firms financially. Thus, it shall be noticed that if a firm has to work in the global business without attracting penalties then shall comply with their social responsibilities and should not enact ethically wrong activities. “The below mentioned essay provides a brief overview of the company Uber enacting ethically wrong activities with the employees of the organization. It also discusses the ethical management concept and leadership decision-making which the company shall apply in their process to initiate workflow management”. The details of the essay are explained below (Wachs, 2017).

Uber Technologies Inc. is an Australian private hire company which is operating into 633 countries worldwide. The main business of Uber is to provide transportation and food delivery services to its customers. And the unique feature of this company is that they provide services to the customer through online mobile application booking. The word Uber is used by the company, it means topmost or super.  Further talking about the ethical dilemma which the company Uber faces, it shall be noted that there are many scandals in which the company has involved itself. Mainly one of them is the scandal under which the board management team of the company fired more than twenty employees because of the sexual harassment case in the company. In recent years it has seen that the employees of the company are involving in harassment practices with the co-members of the team (Baase, & Sen, 2013). Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer mentioned the claim in the media that she was sexually assaulted by the co-worker of her team; she was also threating to not speak up. She said that they told her that she would have to lose her job if she shared this to anyone. Another unethical practice which the company initiated in the business process is that they implemented a contractor relationship which the drivers of the company. Due to this most of rights which employees of the gets; the divers were enjoyed and access those rights. Also, an unfair dismissal case was lodged against Uber Australia by deactivated driver who felt that the activities of the company were unjustified.

Uber innovatively didn't call their drivers employees as they called them driver-partners of the company so that the drivers feel a family-like bond with the company (Sims, 2017). The Fair Work Commission states that contractor relationship shall always be avoided by the management of the company, this process somehow provides benefits to the company but it disregards the interest of the employees of the company. So, these are the two situations in which the Uber Company faced ethical dilemma in their management process. The ethical theories of management help an organization to deal with such ethical dilemma with an adequate response. All organizations shall comply with such theories in their management process to resolve the issues faced by them. Talking about the issues faced by Uber, in the case of sexual harassment, the company shall apply the virtue theory of ethics in their process to resolve such issues. And in case of the management not fairly treating the drivers of the company, they shall apply the rights theory of ethical principles in their management (Yoo, 2017).

The Application of Ethical Theories

Virtue ethical theory refers to the process of judging a person by their behavior rather than the actions which they perform in their normal behavior. Basically, it is a normative approach to ethics, which mainly focuses and analyzes the characters and thinking of an individual working in an organization. the theory works opposite to the deontology as it does not consider the rules or action performed by an individual in an organization with respect to the objectives of the organization, rather the theory of virtue gives importance to the mind and moral values of a human being which they persist in their mind while performing any action in the organization. applying the virtue ethical concept in the working of an organization, it shall be noticed that virtue notices on the behavior, attitude and moral value of a person, so apart from the qualification which a person has, the company shall always look for the thinking of an individual and then hire only the person (Neuman, & Robson, 2014). This will help them to recruit qualified human resources who are interested to work for the betterment of the organization. Looking forward to the issue of Uber, it has been noticed that the company is not working on the basis of virtue ethical concept of the organization. The firm Uber did not follow this concept as they just hired people who did not concern above human moral values and respect of another person. Some of the employees of the organization sexual assaulted other employee of the organization and this activity was repeated many times in the organization y different employees of the company. So, this activity of the company stated that the management of Uber was inefficient to hire good employees and understand the moral values of the employees who are good for the organization culture. Instead of this, the management of the company shall consider the virtue value of ethics and management in their organization (Shapiro, & Stefkovich, 2016).

Qualification is an important aspect in hiring a person but apart from that, the management shall also pay emphasis moral values and belief of a person regarding team management and their co-workers. Apart from that, after hiring of the employees as well, the management shall scrutinize the activities of the employees of the organization. Irrespective of the post or designation which they hold in an organization; an act did ethically wrong shall not be neglected by the management. So, in order to correct the activities of the management of the company, Uber fired more than twenty employees of the organization because of their unethical behavior towards organization co-workers of the company (Ford, & Richardson, 2013). So it shall be noticed that it is the case where the company faced an ethical dilemma in their organization, as they need to prove themselves to the society that they are concerned towards initiating ethical activities in their organization. Due to which they fired the employees who were the asset of the organization and provided financial benefits to the organization. So, in this way, all organizations shall monitor the virtues which their employees possess through their behavior in an organization (Brown, Behrman, & Zimmerman, 2017).

Virtue Ethics

Considering an aspect of ethics and management theory which is rights; it refers to the privileges which an employee receives in their organization by becoming a part of the organization and the society. For instance, people receive the power to access their human rights because of living in the society. Human rights are nothing but the basic rights which a person shall always attain and has a demand to seek in the society in which they live (Mitroff, 2016). These rights help the people to save there in an organization. Rights are further considered to be ethically correct since it helps to save themselves from fraud and corrupt activities. It is also the legal right of an employee to access certain rights in the organization. It helps to company to keep the interest all stakeholders lied in the activities of the business, apart from it also helps to create laws and code of procedures in an organization. It is the fundamental ethical code of procedure which every company shall possess (Bednarz, 2013). The theory states that the employees of an organization have certain rights which no person can cease from them like, right to speech, right to participate in the decision making the process of an organization, right to information etc. Further, it is the duty of the organization to provide such rights to the stakeholder of the organization and it is the right of the stakeholder to exercise those rights and no person can stop them in enacting so (Shmueli, 2017).

Talking about the case give in the essay about Uber Australia, the news article stated that the company is initiating to hold contractor relationship with drivers of the organization instead of calling them the employees of the organization. The fair work commission also stated that it is against the legal rights of the employees of the organization, that they shall treat the drivers of the company equally s they treat other back office and frontline employees of the company. The management of the company played tactics of calling them the partners of the company instead of calling them employees (Leenes, et. al., 2017). This act of the organization took all the rights of the drivers away which they shall receive being an employee of the company. They can be deactivated by the management of the company any time on their will which states that their job was not secure, neither were they allowed access any of the rights in the organization which an employee receives. This act of the organization is against the ethical code of procedure of the organization. Considering the ethical rights of the employee, it is right of the employees to become a part of the organization as they help the organization in earning revenue for the organization. So, it is the duty of the management of Uber to provide all the rights to the employees of the company which they deserve for (Kiprin, 2017).

Furthermore, the behavior is an important factor which helps the management to lead a positive change in the environment of the organization. Apart from that it also helps the stakeholders to regain and enjoy their rights which they shall receive being a part of the management. Decision-making process of the management and leadership activities in an organization and strongly interconnected with each other; both of them support each other in initiating adequate workflow management in the organization. The behavior of management is guided by the decision making of the management, and decision of the management is implemented on the basis of leadership qualities which the management of the company inherits in them (Bachmann, 2017). The decision-making process also depends upon the leadership trait which the managers possess the organization. A leader is a person who is more concerned about the team more than himself, the leader shall away aim to satisfy the team by the reaching adequate goals for the company. With the aim of achieving the objective, the leader shall not harm the interest of any of the employee of the organization for keeping organizational objective achieved. So, it shall be taken into account that the leader shall always treat fairly all the team members working with him and they shall also look if the esteem of an employee in an organization is not harmed by any other activity possessed by another member of the company. A leader is a person who taken decision with full authority and responsibility and holds himself liable for the actions which they perform so they shall perform which not only helps the organization to grow but also helps the employees of the organization gain their rights and virtue (Vann, Coleman, & Simpson, 2014).

Rights Theory

Considering the above statement it shall be noted that such decision making has a major share in achieving the objectives defined by the company. a positive decision implemented by the leader initiates a positive effect on the working of the organization or vice versa. With respect to the interest of stakeholder, it is the duty of the leader to acknowledge them with their rights and duties in the organization. They shall never breach any right of the members of the organization; also the decision which the leader implements in the organization should not harm the interest of stakeholders on the basis of ethics. The decision shall always be taken considering the code of ethics defined by the organization, in that case, neither the organization will attract penalty nor will they dissatisfy the stakeholders of the organization (Romager, et. al., 2017).

Applying the above mentioned positive environment of the organization in the given case of Uber, it shall be noticed that the company did not adequately apply such aspects in the organization that is why they faced such issue in their management process.it is the quality of a leader than how they create positivity in the environment of the organization, so it shall be noticed in the given case Uber, the managers of the company were inefficient to adequately deal with the employees of the company redress the issue due to which a feeling of dissatisfaction was created in the mind of employees (Clarke, 2013). This impacted adversely on the image of the organization in the global environment. Suppose if the management of Uber had initially addressed the issue discussed by the female employee of the company and resolved the issue then the company won't face the liability to terminate 20 employees from the organization together. Uber would have saved them from attracting such defaming activities if they had paid attention to the virtues ethical concept on the initial level, also if the management team of the company concerned with the dignity and esteem need of the organization then they would appropriately take actions in response to the situation. The company neglected the issue due to which the positive environment of the company was converted into negative one (Dascalu, et. al., 2015).

Afterwards Uber adequately took the leadership decision which gave a sense of satisfaction to the employees of the organization. Along with another major problem which was faced by Uber Australia is that the company purposefully hired the drivers of the organization on contractor relationship so that the drivers do not perceive the actual rights which an employee should get being a part of the organization (Ward, et. al., 2015). But they were barred from accessing their rights as the drivers were not regarded as the employees of the company. This act of the company against the code of ethics defined by an organization, as they breached the basic rights of an employee who is a part of the organization. Further, fulfilling the financial objectives of the organization is a part of the goal of the business but the company shall never negotiate with the rights of the stakeholders of the organization to gain such benefits. Thus, the driver being a part of the organization shall receive the rights which all other employees of the organization enjoy (Cohen, 2014).

Conclusion

Talking about the leadership style which the company Uber played and enacted wrong in the working of the organization is that Authoritarian. A leadership style states that the leader in this form creates a professional relationship with its employees and creates certain code of procedure which is mandatory for the subordinates to follow which negatively resulted in disrespecting the esteem of employees of the organization. The leader of the organization took the advantage of their position and became an autocratic leader who ruled their decision on all. Thus, it shall be taken into accounts that the leader who managed the workings of Uber became an autocratic leader who didn't listen to the issues of their team members and threatened them to not to share their views with any other person connected with the company (Groves, et. al., 2015). Also, the drivers of the company lodged an unfair dismissal case against the company because of their inadequate treatment towards the employees of the company. Being a leader is was the duty of the managerial team of Uber to listen to the issues of the drivers' and resolve them internally only so that their image is not harmed in the market. But the managers refused to address the problem, the drivers of the company filed a claim against the company which defamed their name in the market. Thus, it majorly depends on the leader that how they follow the ethical principles of the company and how they solve the problems connected with the management and initiate satisfactory returns (Vergara, 2014).

Thus, in the limelight of above-mentioned events, the fact that shall be noticed is that the company Uber initiated activities which were against the ethical code of principles of the company. Firstly the employees of the company were involved in treating badly with other co-workers of the company due to which the management of the company fired more than twenty employees from the organization; another issue faced by the company was that they implemented a contractor relationship with the employees which were illegal according to the fair work commission (Crane, & Matten, 2016). Apart from that the essay also tells about the ethical principle which the company has not followed by conducting the above-mentioned two activities. Virtues and rights are two of the principles which the leader of the organization shall initiate to follow so that better workflow management activities are implemented in the management, but if the leader himself does not address the issues of the employees then it becomes difficult for them to access their rights in the organization. Thus, it is very important for the leader to address the problem of the employees and solve them by taking authoritative actions within them. So, it is the duty of the manager to ethically implement decision making process in the management which shall satisfy the needs and requirements of the stakeholders of the company.

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