Organizational behavioral theories study aims to figure out how and why individuals act in a certain way in the real world and how workers interact with each other and the organisation itself. These theories also help organisations apply the knowledge and inform them how they should operate to boost employee motivation and efficiency, facilitate team cohesion and entirely maximise profit. Besides, the organisation behaviour theory has evolved and plays an essential role in structuring the organisation and helping leaders make significant decisions. As demonstrated at Assignmenthelpsite.com For anyone to understand the complex nature of the organisation and its related management problems, several organisational theories are fundamental since they further recommend specific actions, for example, how to organise teams, change how individual performance is assessed and modify award structures. In particular, this work explores organizational behavior theories to interpret the problems, scandals and behaviours faced by Uber technologies Inc. (Uber).
Organizational behavior is crucial in determining an organisation’s accomplishments and shortcomings. In addition, how the managers treat the subordinate staff and how the entire organisation relates to its target clients are significant performance determinants. Uber was established more than one decade ago by Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick and named Uber Cap, but late changed the name to Uber. In 2012, the firm rolled out individuals to work for it while driving their cars (Kumari & Sharma, 2019). According to Goggin & Taylor (2017), Uber is a global and openly listed ride-haul firm that offers transportation and deliveries, among other transportation services such as Uber eats. The company operates across six continents, and in 2016 it grossed about a 2000billion dollars, employing more than 22000 workers (Kumari & Sharma, 2019). However, the company has faced numerous issues such as reduced employee morale, sexual assaults, discrimination and harassment, among other problems within and outside the organisation that have led to losses
Analysis
Issues Faced by Uber
Uber is the globe’s leading cab service application, with a record of more than 40million users worldwide per month. The firm has successfully emerged as the largest market share-holder for implementing an affordable cost and high-value organisation model (Kumari & Sharma, 2019). While assessing the company’s strategic position, it is evident that many individuals transmit from place to place daily. Thus, for efficiency reasons, Uber ensures a cab is available to pick up passengers whenever they need to travel. To ensure this is possible, the company has to attract thousands of drivers to ensure that every employee(driver) is contented while interacting with the application and loyal to the firm. Sequentially, Uber encounters the issue of motivating employees to be productive even through difficult shifts with minimal supervision. According to Kumari & Sharma (2019), the company prices are lower than normal taxis; thus, drivers are forced to give services at an affordable price. Evidently, the arrangement is not beneficial to drivers but the company. Therefore, one of the main challenges the firm faces is the financial motivations of its employees. After the trip, Uber and the driver share the driver’s earnings; thus, drivers are forced to overwork to earn significantly. Therefore, the company needs to come up with ways of motivating employees. The company have used several incentives to motivate the drivers that can be compared with dangling carrot since they permit the employees to work flexible hours, other than the eight to five rules that companies encourage.
Most drivers say flexibility allows them to uptake other jobs; hence, it can be viewed as a benefit. However, this perception makes drivers struggle with fatigue and well-being issues (Chen et al., 2019). In essence, fatigue can be elaborated in two ways. First, fatigue is due to drivers taking up other jobs and can also be caused by many drivers overworking to earn more. In addition, Uber has been subjected to community scrutiny because of some bullying, sexual harassment/assault and discrimination claims outside and within the company. There are many cases of employees being treated unfairly and unequally due to performance errors and minor mistakes. Besides, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission labelled Uber as one that enhances a culture that enhances bully and sexual assault and revenge against people who raises concern about being sexually harassed (Conger, 2019). In another case, a worker reported that the company management threatened to beat her since she was underperforming (Issac, 2017). Also, several customers have been victims of sexual assault and harassment, making it clear that uber is facing a cultural crisis.
It has recently been evident that the firm has experienced constant losses since, in 2017, the losses grew to 4.5 billion dollars, approximately 60% higher than the previous year, which was 2.8billion dollars (Kumari & Sharma, 2019). Though there are some reasons for the company to downgrade in profit, for example, higher cost bases and competition, and management issues are among the leading issue. Several management issues have impacted Uber’s competition and financial position negatively, fueling the escalating distrust of drivers, customers and regulatory agencies.
Currently, the company is experiencing high employee turnover, suggesting that the motivation strategies are inefficient. Also, according to (King & Lawley (2016), job satisfaction is the most cause of workers turnover in an organisation. Therefore, when employees have job satisfaction, they automatically desire to keep their position; in contrast, when they are unsatisfied with their work, they will be compelled to leave because they feel unmotivated (Badubi, 2017). With the aid of organizational behavior theories, this discussion explores the identified issues to enhance significant contribution to the firm.
Concept of Challenge Identification in Organizational Behavior Assignment Help
The challenge the company currently faces is solvable by comprehending a person-to-organisation relationship that Weiner defines as a psychological contract (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). The contract has different expectations; the drivers should have the information about the management expectations concerning their contributions to the company regarding loyalty and skills. Besides, the company should provide incentives, mainly in the form of psychological rewards and motivations.
While assessing employees, they contribute to the company either through knowledge or skills perceived to be valuable. However, in the case of Uber, the employee’s contribution come in the form of time, loyalty and customer service. Considering the company’s unique composition, it is evident that Uber is yet to match the driver values with their available rewards and motivation. For many years, the company have tried to lower turnover, and according to its research on driver psychology findings the company established incentives like sending text messages and emails to the driver to inform them of the areas with high and the possible money goal they can get (Goggin & Taylor, 2017). The job fit issue must be regarded when considering the rewards and motivation system of the company. Also, while attempting to make significant money, the drivers work for too long, increasing the hazards due to the sensitive nature of their work. A tired driver can easily cause road accidents and injure themselves, customers, and others. Also, arguably, since the company enjoys more market shares, most employees have no other better option but to constantly work with Uber. Thus, it is crucial to identify that the firm is facing numerous operational issues that must be resolved.
Applying the Organization Behaviour Theories
Organisation behaviour theories can be applied to individual or group behaviour. The aim is to discover why and how people behave as they do. For instance, in the case of uber, the theories help point out the issue and offer a solution; Uber has been experiencing a high turnover rate due to its unmotivated drivers, and then the theories help the organisation take action to correct the situation in coming days. Also, they help in predicting specific behavioural responses to change. Prediction assists the company in determining the outcome of a result in a given situation. In addition, organisation behaviour theories help in controlling behaviours.
Attribution Theory
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The attribution theory can be applied while assessing the company’s role in the employees’ life. The theory consists of two major components: mood and job-related attributes (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). Among the issues the company faces is the negativity connected with their work. Many workers complain that Uber takes a hefty amount of the driver’s earnings. The argument has painted a bad image in the employees’ minds since they believe they can earn more similar to a normal taxi. On the contrary, most clients perceive the company negatively for employing untrained drivers. Using the attribute theory to elaborate on how mood affects the entire company, it can be claimed that pessimistic employee attributes their negative viewpoint to little pay and long working hours. Though they have flexible working hours, their job satisfaction is low; thus, job fit is highly affected (Chen et al., 2019). As a result, the pessimistic employee can opt to leave their position, ultimately leading to high turnover. In addition, work-related attributes include job commitment and job satisfaction (King & Lawley, 2016). It is evident that one of the issues that the drivers faces are being unmotivated. Motivation goes in line with job commitment and satisfaction. Among the factors that have contributed to the lack of job satisfaction is the lack of intercultural training drivers need while associating with different customers who use the application.
Motivation
Human relation management theory and theory X and Y emphasise that seniors should reward their staffs’ hard work, specifically if they aim to achieve constant company growth (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). Rewards take different forms, such as giving the best drivers special trophies or offering financial incentives for achieving specific targets. Therefore, the managers should apply these theories to determine rewards they can afford to dole out and offer the most meaningful rewards to the driver who deserves them.
Motivation is the strategies and measures an organisation undertakes to ensure that workers have desired performance behaviours. Besides, rewards for executing a function or task are motivation (Badubi, 2017). Motivation plays a major role in general output and performance. Uber motivates its drivers via goal-directed behaviours. The company drivers are continually made and given tips on achieving financial goals, and the company informs them about the higher-performing areas. The allure of attaining these goals makes them work for long hours and excessively. Therefore, its motivation ways end up causing other problems; hence the approach can be considered a traditional motivation approach. This tactic assumes that drivers are chiefly motivated by money-making drivers defiant to the point of harassing customers and doing anything possible such us for long hours to earn more. However, the firm should embrace a human resource approach to ensure that the firm comprehends the driver’s contributions and creates a conducive working environment.
Their many theories were coined to explain motivation. However, most arguments focus on the need for motivation-based theory. The company employees have specific needs that are not addressed. Therefore, regardless of the incentives that Uber has given, employees still work overtime and bend the rules; that is why to a point, they even sexually assault customers. Consecutively, endangering lives. The hierarchy of needs by Maslow can be applied since it is a motivation theory with five stages: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs and self-actualisation. These human needs allow individuals to feel fulfilled. Maslow’s theory of motivation is mostly applied to organisations to help managers determine the best way to motivate employees and ensure their needs are met (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). Similarly, when workers understand this, they easily determine whether their needs are met at the organisation and the best ways to meet them. For the company, drivers lack a basic salary, creating fear of failure to provide, affecting physiology and safety needs. Fulling these needs would directly impact drivers’ job satisfaction. In addition, the achievement needs can also be considered psychological since many drivers previously worked as normal taxi drivers who either worked individually or for other firms. Therefore, they had set their target. However, the company structure is flexible and allows them to do other things; thus, most drivers fail to seek achievement in their jobs. According to Kristian et al. (2021), result analysis indicates that achievement motivation directly impacts job satisfaction and employee performance positively.
Also, the situation at hand can be elaborated using equity motivation theory. The theory explains that the employees are motivated only when they feel they are treated equally to other drivers in the industry. However, the drivers have reported several cases related to discrimination and bullying. When equal treatment is lacking, there is an inequity assumption that lowers the driver’s self-esteem. As a result, the company employees compare themselves with normal taxi drivers and their counterparts in other companies and believe they earn less. Consecutively, they feel demoralised and opt to leave their work. To compare equity statistically, the results of the Uber employees are divided by their contribution, and the outcome is compared with their counterparts. Research conducted regarding how Uber drivers feel discovered that the majority feel less motivated than other drivers due to less pay (Petticca et al., 2020). Therefore, the company continues to experience high driver turnover. Similarly, the long working hours demotivate drivers as they try to make a significant amount like their counterparts. This has been proven by professional writers.
The company’s approach to motivating drivers is according to their client service, loyalty and time. Also, the company has faced a challenging time developing an equilibrium between performance and workplace behaviour to make employees find their work significant. In addition, one must understand human relation management theory to understand how drivers can be motivated. Therefore, the company should focus on creating a better motivational approach for employees to make them realise their job significance. Drivers’ motivation and productivity can be enhanced through positive social bonds between drivers and acknowledging each worker while treating them as human beings who need to rest, not as productivity machines (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). Enhancing social bonds among Uber drivers can enable the company to progress in the right direction. According to research among the leading organisations, sustainability depends on the strength of social bonds between Uber drivers and managers (King & Lawley, 2016). However, this feature is often undervalued since it tolls on employee commitment. The power of social bonds is important and extensive since it can shape mentality and key behaviours that result in success where all drivers can thrive.
The drivers should be trained in financial stability and customer services while ensuring they are motivated. Financing advice will help the drivers to solve issues correlated to fatigue that results from working for long hours. The company’s motivation skills should ensure drivers significantly comprehend their tasks. Additionally, the scientific management theory urges maintaining a healthy relationship with workers while retaining suitable boundaries (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). As set by the theory, an efficient work environment is where seniors respect employees and treat them with humanity, not as profit machines. To do this, the company should have regular catchup drivers to better understand their progress and the challenges. Fostering open and honest discussion is key to maintaining a positive organisational environment. However, the managers should avoid being over-friendly and overfamiliar with drivers as they lose respect and lower productivity.
Personality Theories
Amongst the main organizational behavior theories, the personality concept has been discussed. To understand the personality notion, the concept of nurture vs nature is significant as many scholars have highlighted nature’s role in affecting people’s behaviours regarding genetic compulsion and primary instincts (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2019). Personality has a significant role in organizational behavior because how individuals feel, think and behave effects numerous workplace aspects. Similarly, an individual’s personality influences their behaviours in a team, their attitudes, and the way make a decision. Besides, personality influences a company’s leadership; this can be mirrored in Travis Kalanick, former Uber CEO, and his poor leadership and management style. According to Kumari & Sharma (2019), the bullying and sexual harassment claims and the intellectual property lawsuit are all attributed to Kalanick’s brash and failure to admit his poor leadership style. The former CEO failed to invest time to grow and empower his drivers, lacked leadership skills and had a quick temper that all influenced why he relegated his CEO position and the bad company reputation. This can be pointed out via aggressive threats from him due to the driver’s performance, and his video presents yelling at one of the drivers (Kumari & Sharma, 2019). Also, his leadership nature is significantly reflected through his motto of “always be hustling”, which makes drivers believe that anything can be done to get on top (Forgione, 2020), thus, creating a toxic and negative organisational culture that results in drivers and public dissatisfaction.
In addition, behaviours and management style set out by the former CEO can be reflected through drivers’ behaviours and their shameful sexual assault and harassment of passengers and covering up of scandals to save the organisation’s reputation. Kumari & Sharma (2019) cite a CNN report that shows nearly 103 drivers have been accused of sexual abuse by customers in the U.S from 2015 to 2019. Also, there have been struct and fatally accidents by the company drivers, and drivers have attacked passengers after disagreements over routes. In addition, Uber drivers have sexually or racially harassed their passengers and have been groped by the drivers. Also, the disgusting personality is evident through the company’s human resource management and their silencing behaviours after victims of bullying and harassment within the company since “they felt comfortable to punish them” (Tait, 2020). Also, the personality theory helps show the vile and toxic organisational culture instilled by management to improve the company’s financial performance while ignoring the significance of positive organisational culture.
Discussion and Recommendation
For drivers to find the meaning of their work without supervision is critical. Drivers need to know the company’s mission and vision. In addition, the work implication problem is extensively brought on by the reason drivers fail to feel the sense of company success and ownership. However, to resolve the issue, I recommend that the organisation engage the drivers comprehensively so they feel they are part of the organisation. In addition, to ensure drivers feel part of the organisation, the company must ensure loyalty, thus resolving the challenge of high worker turnover. On the same note, uber must eliminate the inequity feeling experienced by drivers. Feelings can encourage drivers to work extra hard to earn more like their counterparts. To resolve the feeling of inequality, Uber should increase the fair client pays or decrease the fare percentage. Therefore, the measure taken will guarantee uber drivers have identical chances of generating a significant salary and the same time, reduce their need to work overtime. In that regard, Uber will require vital financial advice to change the percentage and still generate returns.
Further, Uber must implement the porter-Lawler model, whereby extra attention is positioned between performance and job satisfaction (Badubi, 2017). From the discussion above, Uber drivers lack satisfaction in their job since most leave the company for other companies or become sovereign taxi drivers. Besides, high worker turnover has resulted in the tight financial position of the company; therefore, the company is unable to meet the needs of its clients. The company frequently employ new drivers, which is expensive and time-consuming. To avoid employee turnover, the company must create better enticements and strategies for motivation. In essence, creating a reward system must encourage competition and increase performance. For instance, full-time drivers must have better rewards and goals than part-time drivers. Therefore, if drivers meet their daily target, they must have a good reward as it will improve the company’s operation in several ways. For instance, it will encourage part-time workers to become full-time workers to obtain a reward. As a result, the company will be capable of increasing drivers on its platforms.
Besides, Uber must create a system that allows drivers to select a weekly timetable used by company management. The timetable will assist the firm in monitoring drivers easily and closely. In addition, it will restrain employees not to overworking themselves, thus becoming easier for them to implement the significant feature the firm considers in a driver. It is easy to demotivate a hardworking worker because of continuous interaction with people of different cultures or backgrounds. Additionally, the significance of rest must converse with every employee working for the organisation as drivers may still feel the need to work for a long time regardless of the company’s right policies. To resolve this, Uber should sensitise the importance of rest to their drivers because lack of rest is linked to the dysfunctionality of drivers’ behaviour (Chen et al., 2019). In addition, Uber must set a limit on working hours to balance performance and working behaviour. Therefore, more policies are required to sensitise the importance of resting and working hours.
Further, it is recommended that Uber have a call centre whereby clients can call and report misbehaving or exhausted drivers. The organisation will then be able to trace drivers’ records and see the hours the drivers have been working. However, we cannot undervalue that nowadays that customers can give feedback on their ride after reaching their destination. However, the current feedback system issues take long hours for the company to analyse and address complaints. The customer care or emergency number provided by the uber application must be effective to guarantee both clients and drivers are safe. Therefore, the implemented action will ensure the organisation have a positive light, and the negative perception of customers and drivers will be diminished.
Additionally, it is recommended that uber must come up with a punishment for disobedience. When a driver receives a low rating from a client, the organisation ensures the client and the driver are disconnected (uber). Also, working past the organisation’s timetable must be punished with abrupt suspension pending review. Lastly, the company’s defiance is punished via less pay until the driver transforms.
I would also suggest that the firm survey its workers via the application. The recognised accidents involving uber taxis are due to tiredness due to overworking drivers to make more money. The company should research how to motivate drivers and ensure drivers drive safely. Besides, basic training is vital since it will assist drivers in dealing with different encounters and motivate them. Also, drivers require training that will lead to task importance identification. Evidently, drivers fail to feel their task’s significance and even take it for granted to some. To resolve such issues, Uber must ensure all employees are trained and have acquired skills that concur with the market acknowledged standards. Besides, training can be done virtually via online platforms for existing employees or face-to-face with new employees. In essence, training is best if trainers fully understand the impacts of dysfunctional behaviour. Trained drivers understand their tasks and engage in better ways with their customers.
Lastly, it is recommendable for Uber to empower its workers. The company can employ various ways to empower drivers. First is training drivers on various factors that affect their work productivity. Second, through company development goals and personal goals. Drivers must be allowed to set their own goals, be it weekly or monthly. Besides, empowerment should help drivers to feel responsible for their actions. The challenge of ownership needs to be entailed in the empowerment process. Therefore, the organisation must ensure their drivers feel company ownership success and organisation product, thus creating loyalty to the company.
Conclusion
The organisation behaviour theories discuss the individual and group behaviours, predicting specific behavioural responses to change, and controlling behaviours. In turn, these theories help identify Uber’s challenges and offer solutions. Uber has successfully managed to be efficient by creating value for low cost and convenience, and as a result, the firm enjoys a larger market share than its competitors. However, the company have outlooked its employees, which has led to high driver turnover and other management challenges. Also, the company driver faces low motivation since they suffer from overworking and fatigue, affecting their entire well-being and behaviours. The former manager has negatively impacted company behaviours, which is why the number of complaints has increased in recent years. The challenges call for solutions, and the work offers recommendations. The lack of equilibrium between performance and workplace behaviours has led many employees to quit as either normal taxi drivers or work in similar firms. Uber must develop better motivation approaches according to driver loyalty, time, and client service if it wants to survive in the market.
References
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