Ethical Considerations Facing Uber in the United States: A Stakeholder Analysis

Ethical Considerations facing Uber in the United States 

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date

Referencing Style: APA / Word Count: 552

Ethical Considerations facing Uber in the United States 

Overview

Business Ethics is a branch of Management that deals with how businesses should act in situations of business dilemmas and controversies (White, 2019). This paper takes a closer look at the ethical considerations surrounding the ride-hailing giant Uber in the United States. With the allegations like the organisation promoted a sexual harassment culture and scandals such as collecting fares even during the taxi strike led to the promotion of a movement, ‘#DeleteUber’ in the United States. To rebuild its tarnished reputation, Uber took charge to make changes in the market through its key stakeholders, such as hiring its first marketing officer, rapid addition of Uber staff and launching a national campaign including its promotion through television commercials. It also changed its key stakeholder, the-then CEO Travis Kalanick, with the former Expedia chief officer, Dara Khosrowshahi. The CEO of the company, Dara Khosrowshahi, was brought into the picture to clean up the tainted image of the company and to make it go public. However, the concerted efforts did not pay off (Siddiqui, 2019).  

According to the internal tracking tools as well as the external polling firms, the brand sentiments measured the same lows as during the times of crisis, as per the reports by anonymous speakers who did not have the authority to speak about the company. The company in fact has given up its market to the close competitor Lyft (Siddiqui, 2019).

Reflection and Analysis

In the field of Business Ethics, Stakeholder Theory has a wide role to play. Edward Freeman (1984) propounded ‘Stakeholder Theory’ as ‘any group or individual who either can affect or are affected by the achievement of organization’s objectives’. With the attributes like ‘Power’, ‘Legitimacy’ and ‘Urgency’, a typology of stakeholders is created that make them salient to the managers of the firm or institutions (Mitchell et al., 1997). In the above case of ethical consideration facing Uber, the stakeholders that are directly affected by the ethical dilemma are the primary stakeholders, the owners and the secondary stakeholders like top management, middle management who saw layoffs that either make or break the reputation of the company. In Uber’s case, as also stated by Freeman, the Management tried to bring a paradigm shift in the reputation by taking into account the rights and interests of all legitimate stakeholders. This could be brought out by changing the CEO of the company and making efforts to bring Uber back to a better position in the market. 

Reflection on the Ethical Dilemma

Looking at the above case, I can make out that ethical dilemma can create a situation that could be deterrent for a company to make its position or keep up with its reputation in the Market. The stakeholders are the ones who are the determining agents whom people look up to and are the most affected people in the ethical dilemma. This case has broadened my perspective and made me learn about how key stake holders have to make concerted efforts to survive the crisis and retain the image even in the most difficult situations. In my personal life also, the ethical consideration has stirred my thought process to think beyond the difficult situation and make all the efforts to win over it.

Conclusion

To conclude, the Business Ethics and Stakeholder theory go hand in hand to make the most out of any difficult situation.

References

Siddiqui, F. (2019) Internal data shows Uber’s reputation hasn’t changed much since 

#DeleteUber. Washingtonpost.com. Available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/29/even-after-ubers-ipo-long-shadow-deleteuber-still-looms/ 

White, J. (2019) What Is Business Ethics? Definition, Overview, and Example. The Street. 

Available at https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/what-is-business-ethics-15026364 

Mitchell, R. K, Agle B.R. & Wood, D. J. (1997) Toward A Theory Of Stakeholder Identification  And Salience: Defining The Principle Of Who And What Really Counts. Academy of  Management Review. , Vol. 22, No. 4, 853-886