Evaluation of Leadership and Change Management Development Plan

Uber, the new age taxi service company has its social image put to question because of some actions and behaviour of the leaders of the company. Studies show that there has been a change and improvement in the behaviour of Travis, the CEO of Uber. His video leak out of his heated argument with his driver and being the sexist place to work, mentioned by one of the female engineers have brought down the image of Uber publically (Karp, & Helg?, 2008). This incident made 2 lakh users remove Uber from their systems, which means it had an impact on both its public image and business. His admitting and writing an apology to his employees reflect his being ashamed of what he did with the way he presented his apology. And asking for leadership help shows that he would love to change for better working environments for all.

The area that needs improvement is rebuilding the public image of the company. Especially on ethical aspects through the sources, many instances have revealed the unethical behaviour of Travis and the management holds the ethics, would be reflected in the employees too. In 2013, few drivers that the company doesn’t reimburse fuel and maintenance expenses and that it take away a portion of the drivers ‘gratuity, lodged the complaint. Many people pay a deaf ear to what’s been happening, due to which, Uber is indulged in unethical behaviour, right from the top management (Harkness, 2000).

Uber seems being getting away from its unethical business etiquettes, which would prove and not serve well. So, attention needs to be paid for improving on ethical grounds more vigorously, for the management part has been taken care of.

The term CEO, has much meaning attached to it for its one person wearing many hats to run the show efficiently? It might refer to Chief Environmental Officer, Chief Ethics Officer or Chief Emotional Officer (Karp, & Helg?, 2008). It’s a role which is very sensitive and is expected to be approachable, very caring and involved with its employees at all levels. Recent incidents, for technologically efficient companies like Uber, have questions of the impact these companies have on people’s life and the general upliftment of the society in general.

Stephen Hawking, a scientist, questions the impact of AI on the public to the high tech companies (Lindberg, 2013). He says what the companies or the AI are doing right from the business prospect, might be ethically and morally incorrect and eventually prove disastrous to humanity (Harkness, 2000).

In the case of Uber, we can say the unethical report given out in the media about his senior management/investors/partners is somewhere the reflection of Travis. It is the behaviour of the senior most management that leaves an impact on all the levels.

Change is a very common thing for organizations. The faster the change, the more adaptability is required by the employees (Schmid, 2006). The leaders of the organization plays a prominent role in setting grounds for values, ethical and moral and their follow up by the In the world of competition at every step, for improving its public image, Uber needs to adopt Ethical and Moral leadership values and adapt to its strategy, Maslow’s hierarchy needs to run its everyday business successfully and as a backbone for being the successful business company in the market for general understanding, satisfaction and better job performance (Harkness, 2000).

SMART Recommendations for Development/Implementation Plan

Moral leadership aims to serve rather than being followed. Instead of showing own skills, it develops the skills and capabilities of others. Any person in the organization or daily life can be a moral leader. Such people have deep ethical sense (Gill, 2002). They can well manage themselves as well others emotionally, their egos and temper acting noble and filled with rectitude. They leave a personal impact as they have emotional intelligence and social skills working to overcome personal obstacles/ behavioural drawbacks.

With the changing times, people look forward to work with management that has good leadership skills, in other words returning back home from work with a smile. As the word moral tells, it’s the idea of being right and wrong (Schmid, 2006).

In the competitive business world, leaders must ensure, ethics prevail in the system of operating (Gill, 2002). Ethical decision making, which is beneficial for both organization and employee, is not an easy task because every ethical conflict does not have the right solution. The below discussion will give a framework of ethical and impactful moral leadership.

Ethics are left behind while competing and achieving success. Due to the failure faced by the big organization due to lack of ethics, it has made a comeback with a bang. Every big organization has a Code of Conduct in place, which is to be followed for being employee oriented right from the training (Gill, 2002). Ethics have even been introduced in curriculums at University.

Every business wants to reflect itself as a positive workplace, which is helping them add moral dimension at the leadership level. Ethical decision-making makes a moral leadership. With the globalization in place, ethics vary from cultures and communities. It has lead to the addition of the new dimension for ethics. Management is focused on having a minimal conflict due to cultural and ethical differences (Furnham, 2002).

Ethics can be violated under different circumstances:

• The conflict of personal values with business ethics.
• The data is misinterpreted for personal benefit.
• Disrespecting your co-worker because of being from a different culture belief.
• Unprofessional behaviour(Wooding, 2013).

Though workplace ethics are organization specific, practicing good ethics ensures good employee morale leading to high productivity.

The skills to understand the ethical issues and analysing them is very much required in this age of globalization. There is a collision between the beliefs, cultures, and values, which makes it essential to have ethical decision making in place (Furnham, 2002). The framework should be made such that it can analyse the insights and perspectives of the problem and accordingly make ethical choices (Furnham, 2002). The below mentioned steps should be followed for making a framework for ethically correct decision making:

• Recognizing an ethical issue
• Getting the facts clear
• Evaluating alternate options
• Decision making and testing
• Reflecting outcome

While creating an ethical and moral leadership, one should also take help from the ‘Needs Hierarchy of Maslow’ to better understand the issues related to the employee personally and professionally (Wooding, 2013). Understanding these would help the management in better decision making and becoming an employee centric organization.

There are five fundamental human needs that are arranged in the hierarchy. The idea behind introducing this hierarchy was to arrange the needs of an individual in the order it is required to be achieved. The fundamental needs are arranged low in the hierarchy. (Wooding, 2013) To achieve them, a person does not pay much attention to the needs higher in the hierarchy. From the bottom, the first four needs are the D-needs or deficiency needs (Wooding, 2013). The highest in the pyramid is Self-actualization, which has a positive reason. These five needs are as below:

Study Conclusion

Physiological needs, which are to maintain a human body, in other words being physically fit.

Safety needs, which means having a home that keeps us safe from external factors.

Belonging needs, which reflect our tribal nature. It refers us being helpful to others and kind enough for making others feel to want us as their friends (Wooding, 2013).

Esteem needs refer to a high position in the group, in other words, having respect and power.

Self actualization refers to becoming what we are capable of and desire to become. It further has 2 derivatives:

• Self actualization, realizing your own potential
• Transcendence, helping others in order to achieve their potential(Bush, 2008).

For making the change or adding to the success value of the organization we are talking about, UBER, from the CEO, Travis, to others sitting at the management level needs to adapt this strategy. The needs hierarchy would help them understand the needs of the employees and eventually help them achieve what they are looking for from their jobs. Implementing the moral and ethical leadership model, the management would be able to gauge at every step if they are crossing the line of the code of conduct while making a decision or taking some kind of action, which might influence his personal life. The impact of implementing these values would not be at one site, but global, giving the employees better lifestyle and the feeling of belongingness (Bush, 2008). In turn, they would be working not just towards their benefits, but the benefits of the organization.

Conclusion

Management needs to understand that every individual has his personal space. If an employee is working for the organization, it does not authorize the company to take or do whatever it wishes to just make the profits for the organization or tampering with the personal values. Whatever the management approach, the employee sees, he would reflect the same to the customers, for example, referring the company as “Boob”-er as it helps them have more female travellers. Then asking the employees to do fake bookings for the rival and then cancelling them, which reflect the unethical approach of the management. Implementing the above model would help them understand the ethical and moral values of business and of dealing with the individuals be it employees or others. In a conference held in Munich, Uber CEO sounded ethical where he talked about co-operation and not confrontation.”  

References

Bush, T. (2008). From Management to Leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 36(2), 271-288.

Furnham, A. (2002). Managers as change agents. Journal Of Change Management, 3(1), 21-29.

Gill, R. (2002). Change management–or change leadership?. Journal Of Change Management, 3(4), 307-318.

Harkness, J. (2000). Measuring the effectiveness of change – The role of internal communication in change management. Journal Of Change Management, 1(1), 66-73.

Karp, T., & Helg?, T. (2008). From Change Management to Change Leadership: Embracing Chaotic Change in Public Service Organizations. Journal Of Change Management, 8(1), 85-96.

Lindberg, D. (2013). Change Management Tools for Systemic Results. Change Management: An International Journal, 12(3), 1-6.

Schmid, H. (2006). Leadership styles and leadership change in human and community service organizations. Nonprofit Management And Leadership, 17(2), 179-194.

Wooding, S. (2013). A Psychodynamic Approach to Change Resistance. Change Management: An International Journal, 12(1), 17-22.