Organizational Conflict Management in Uber: Case Study

Introduction

The case study on the organizational conflict management will involve Uber. Uber is a multi-billion company with its headquarters in San Francisco, California. The company is prominent in offering services such as taxi cab hailing, offers peer-to-peer ridesharing, bicycle-sharing, food delivery, among other services. The company's operation is predominant in 785 metropolitan locations around the world, and its platform is accessible through its mobile app and website.

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In the recent past, Uber has been on the lime light of what is referred to as cultural conflict. Both the customers and the employees have lamented on the different misconducts that they have fallen victims.

First, Uber drivers have in the past accused of sexual harassment and getting involved in the criminal activities is not new in many online anecdotes. Many of the unsuspected users of the apps have found themselves pray of violation and misconduct committed by the drivers, and little action is taken against these incidences (Fowler, 2017). The second incidence of cultural conflict is presented by Susan Fowler, who is a former employee of Uber serving on the technical end of the operation. Through her blog, Fowler lamented that she has experienced several incidences of sexually assaulted by her seniors while working at the company, tough she had to report to the human resource department. However, the case was blatantly handles considering that the culprit is a best performing of the company and also, it argued that this was the first allegation to be made against the employee so it cannot be dismissed as true. The culprit further threatened that he will have her sucked if she continues to report the incidences (Fowler, 2017). Fowler completed her blog by stating that she realized that the number of the female employee was reducing drastically from 25% when she had reported, down to 3% when she left. In the third, incident, Fowl states that there was antagonism between the upper management and the infrastructural engineering organization. It appeared that every manager was fighting their peers and trying to undermine the direct supervision to gain direct supervisor's job ((Fowler, 2017). Fourthly, the CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick, has also found himself in trouble in the reach of organizational conduct. During an interview with a report from GQ, Kalanick when he was questioned on the lucrative performance of the company, he referred to Uber as a most successful company that he has ever worked with, and said, "Yeah, we call that Boob-er". One might view this as an innocuous comment. But this is an inappropriate comment to make, considering that Kalanick as a visible person in the company; his action influences the rest of the employees in the organization (Carr, 2014). In another separate incident where Kalanick has also sparker ire, is an incident when he confronted a driver who was asking why there is shrinking of amount of money in his account in the recent months. The CEO triggered a heated argument with the driver dementing unethical conduct; the video of the incident was posted by Bloomerg.com. Lastly, the company has found itself in the wrong side of unfair competition. In its initiative to expand its area of completion, Uber has secretly applied the "grey bailing tactic" that allows it to app to function in the restricted area without the permission from the local authorities (Issac, 2017).

Management and Leadership

The relationship between Management and Culture

Respecting culture in the coordination and organization of the activities is essential for the business in the achievement of its milestones. As portrayed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969) management is always incorporated as the factor of production alongside money and material. Management embodies directing and leading of the various parts of the organization through the manipulation and allocation of the resources, which includes, the financial, human intangible and intellectual (Chatman and Jehn, 1994). Management and organizational culture are intertwined in a unique way. Organizational culture is perceived to be the prominent aspect in the management of the organization. Organizational culture as defined by Woodside (2010) refers to the common values, perception and believes that are shared by the employees under and organization or organizational unit. Management has an impact towards the organization culture, they deliberate on the beliefs, values and behavioral norms that are applied by employees in an organization to define the situations that they encounter, it also influences the behavior and attitude of the staffs (Ke and Wei, 2008). Baird and Reeve, (2011) stress that understanding the core values of the organization can avert possible internal conflict.

The relationship between Leadership and Culture

The correlation that exists between organizational culture and leadership influences the job satisfaction. Normally, administrators adjust their leadership character traits to fulfill the mission of the organization, consequently it could lead have an impact toward the employees' satisfaction and job rate (Woodside, 2010). With this reason, it is always imperative to appreciate the relationship between organizational culture and leadership behavior. The culture within an organization is considered to be much essential, playing a significant towards the happy environment together with happy employees; their acceptance and acknowledgement have impact towards their work attitude and behavior (Tsai, 2011). When having a good interaction between leadership and employee, the later on the contribution towards the team collaboration and communication will be significant, and this will also be promoted to fulfill the objective and the mission assigned by the organization hence promoting the job satisfaction.

Business leaders are important players in the creation as well as coordination of their workplace culture (Woodside, 2010). Although, as mentioned by Ke and Wei, (2008) the correlation that exist between culture and leadership is does not apply in one aspect. Considering that the leaders are the principal architects of culture, a recognized culture impacts the kind of the leadership possible. It is expected for the leaders to appreciate the role that they play in transforming or upholding the organization's culture (Baird and Reeve, 2011). An intensely established and embedded culture demonstrates how individuals should behave, in manner that can assist the employees to attain their goals in the organization. In turn, such behavioral context, promotes higher job satisfaction at time when the employee feels a leader is assisting him or her accomplish a goal (Baumgartner, 2009). When viewed in this perspective, leadership and organizational culture are intimately interconnected to promote job satisfaction in the workplace.

Conflict and Negotiation

The Relationship between Conflict and Culture

In the contemporary, working pace, culture clashes within the organization hence leading to increased concerns that stressed on the preparedness on the possible conflicts within the cross-cultural collaboration (Baird and Reeve, 2011). Cultural differences in an organization mostly vary depending on the extent of the conflict, and therefore it requires careful consideration. In any organization, employees are seen as the main asset with the considerable competing rewards and their empathetic, peaceful as well as competitive relationship and creative solution of the conflict are much imperative aspect towards the success of this organization (Woodside, 2010). Baird and Reeve, (2011) tell that, during a conflict, one part view that the activities that are done by the other part impends has or her success. Ke and Wei, (2008) shows that, conflict management style alignment varies with the unique organizational culture that the manager operates. In addition, Baumgartner (2009) views organizational culture as a properly established collection of common understanding, theories, and norms among the members within a given organization. Organizational culture entails the group of given patterns and values that assist the members within an organization to tolerate both the acceptable and unacceptable actions. The research by Woodside (2010), conclude that conflict management implementation is a cultural phenomenon and it varies among the cultures, he also adds that culture types influences conflict management. An organization with limited conflicts depicts the organizational empowerment, stability and activation. Without debatable ideologies in the present extensive and complicated organizations, there would be no challenge to the motivation together with opinions to change in the organization as well as inevitability no creativity and innovation. As noted above, organizational culture constraint is an operative element and can represent interpersonal relationship as well as interaction among the members in an organization. Therefore, it is essential to understand organizational culture as it plays a significant role towards predicting the people's reaction especially towards issues regarding conflict.

The Relationship between Negotiation and Culture

In reference to the organizational behavior, negotiation as presented in the research by xxx, xxx refers to the tactics where individuals settle differences. The process involves reaching to the agreement or compromise while at the same time refraining from dispute and argument. In a dispute under an organization, individuals understandably pursue to attain the best possible outcome to gain their position or the organization that they are representing. Baird and Reeve, (2011) mention in their research that negotiation is an imperative aspect of an organization in the management of the organizational behavior. The authors adds that the level of negotiation also influence the how people interact especially between parties. In addition, negotiation is a significant goal-directed behavior used as the strategic asset aimed to reach the goal of agreement. The effects of culture towards negotiation can be classified to cross-cultural (negotiation within specific culture), and inter-cultural (the negotiation between parties of different culture). Towards the end of the research Woodside (2010), stated that culture does have influence towards the negotiation outcome, though it might not be direct, and there is likeness that it has effect through difference in the negotiation process in the different culture.

Organizational Culture

In an organizational perspective, the values and behaviors determine the unique social and psychological environment of a business. As aforementioned, the organizational culture comprises of the organizational experiences, expectations values and philosophies that guide members' behavior, and it is articulated in the members' inner workings, self-images, future expectation together with the interactions with the outside world (Baumgartner (2009). Xxx argues that culture is based on the shared beliefs, customs, attitudes and both written and unwritten rules are considerable valid and developed over time.

Furthermore, Lin, 2008 maintains that culture comprises of values, vision, systems, norms, language, belief, assumption and habits. Still under the definition, organization culture is depicted as the common assumptions hat guide what occurs in an organization by defining suitable behavior for different situations. The policies, principles and ideologies, all together with the organization, form its culture. It is the culture of the workplace that decide the manner in which the individuals interact with one another and conduct themselves...