Ethical Theories
Ethics can be defined as the moral principles and social values which basically distinguishing between good and evil. It involves moral principles and values which enable us to judge if an action is wrong and right. The main idea of ethics is to avoid bad things and do more of good things (Melden, 2013). Business ethics of the company involves professional ethics that analyse the ethical problems, principles, values and morals in the business organization (Weiss, 2014).
The global taxi technology Company called Uber is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United states. It is working in 633 cities in all over the world. It extended its market from car transportation to food delivery mobile apps. Under this the drivers can also use their cars and even they can have the cars on rent to drive with Uber (Pullen, 2014). In recent years its behaviour has been criticized and it is in the position of having its license revoked. The main aim of this report is to present the ethical practices by the CEOs, using Travis Kalanick, Uber ex CEO, as a case study. This report includes the study of ethical theories on the basis of which the ethical behaviour of the CEO of Uber is going to be critically evaluated. It also includes the ethical stand point on the basis of which Uber’s operations is to be evaluated.
‘Travis Kalanick is not ethical enough to steer Uber’ as he did not realise his responsibility as a CEO of the Uber. He behaved very disgraceful for too long as noticed by some of the executives working under Uber (Mulliken and Tuchman, 2017). He didn’t even bother for the security of the employees. No initiative has been taken by Mr Travis Kalanick when some of the drivers were robbed and killed in Brazil. Only the identity of the riders were checked when the first murder occurred. One of the employees Susan Flower, a former Uber engineer, experienced sexual harassment several times in the organization by the executives of Human Resource Department that is why she defined the organization as in complete and unkind. After that a very disappointing situation aroused, one of the customer of Uber was raped by the driver in India, 2014 and nothing happened that driver was dismissed off. Mr Kalanick neither bothered about the safety and health of the employees of the organization nor about the customer’s satisfaction. He placed growth and beating rivals above basic humanity. He failed to recruit enough safeguards for the employees (Gapper, 2017).
Uber’s Operations from an Ethical Standpoint
Ethical theories can be explained as the theories which guide people to judge what is actually wrong and right. It serves the right solutions for difficult situations in people’s life. It involves following theories:
Utilitarianism: It can be explained as the theory which considered the best action is the action which maximizes utility. The approach of the theory utilitarianism is to select the course of action and then evaluate the outcome of that action. It basically tells about the sufferings and happiness created by the person’s action (Hamilton, 2017). The main focus of utilitarianism is to maximise the share of happiness and minimize the share of sufferings. There are two forms of utilitarianism which are as follows:
- Rule utilitarianism: It deals with the rules which ultimately help to increase the utility. Most of the rules are the great guide which will lead us to have the great amount of good for many people.
- Act utilitarianism: It does not include the rules but it rather judges the situations when it occurs. The actions are judged on the basis of amount of happiness and pain.
Virtue: Virtue refers to the kind of behaviour which shows high moral standards. This theory is very different from other ethical theories as it focuses on the character of an individual not on actions necessarily (Cowton, 2017). Basically this theory first considers the reputation of the person in case of any unethical practice performed by him/her. Secondly it considers the motive behind performing that unethical practice. For example if an employee is absent during an important meeting in the organization and not even informed about that. Then the virtue theory will first check the past records of the employee and then find out whether the employee is guilty or not. So it decides the results in terms of right and wrong on the basis of past records
Deontology: This theory focuses on the results of one’s actions considering duties and responsibilities (Panza and Potthast, 2010). It places the focus on the link between duty and morality of human actions. The main idea of the theory deontology is one should act according to his or her morals and it should be the responsibility of an individual to perform his/her duty morally. For instance if an employee steal some food from the organization with the motive to feed his/her family then it would be right according to the deontology theory.
Relativism: This theory believes that the values and principles should be based on the individual environment. As every culture is different so as the values and principles of each culture is also different. This theory argues that every culture must be classified according to their beliefs (Hamilton, 2017).
Each organization has different characteristics and behavioural mechanisms. The culture and the ethics followed by the organization define the personality of the organization. Culture involves the principles, values, norms and assumptions of the organization. In this section the analysis of Uber’s operations from an ethical standpoint is to be discussed. Uber is the organization which offers services to the people by employing drivers and by providing transport mechanisms. A new board is also introduced by Uber which focuses on safety practices and supports the workers on the roadmap to reach on the platform (Tcholakian, 2017).
Semiotic Square Model
For every organization ethical issues are the matter of great concern. Recently uber has faced many ethical challenges such as allegation of harassment by a former software engineer of the organization. According to the act utilitarianism this is totally wrong as the act of utilitarianism judges the situations when it occurs. Here the actions are judged on the basis of amount of happiness and pain. (Tcholakian, 2017). Therefore high amount of pain and very less amount of pleasure is wrong as per the act of utilitarianism. The safety of the employees is the main responsibility of the organization and if such things occur the organization should take the action against the culprit. Uber has not taken any action against the culprit instead it sided with the culprit (harasser) therefore such actions are not fair as per ethical standpoint (Mulliken and Tuchman, 2017).
Travis Kalanick, the ex CEO of Uber was on record states that they appointed some unsophisticated people to terrify the competitors in the market (Mulliken and Tuchman, 2017). Uber was claimed for following the strategies to persuade the competitor’s drivers to defect to Uber. The company Lyft got strongly affected by these strategies. Most of their drivers cancelled the rides. According to deontology theory this is totally wrong as it was not as per the morals of the culture of the organization. Such actions are unhealthy and unfair as far as business ethics are concerned.
The security of the consumers is also the matter of great concern for every organization as per ethical standpoint. In the case of Uber this is totally non-prioritized as unprofessional drivers has been hired by the organization which can harm the lives of the customers. Some of the drivers of Uber also assault the passengers sexually consequently cancellation of the services of Uber in some countries. Therefore according to ethical standpoint the practices followed by Uber are not at all ethical (Mulliken and Tuchman, 2017).
Semiotic Square is commonly known as Greimas Square. It is a tool which is used to analyse the several structures of the relationships between semiotic signs. Much opposition of concepts are used in this Square for instance, good-bad, right wrong, fair- unfair, and many more (Schleifer, 2016).
The following diagram can explain the semiotic square more clearly:
This diagram contains four major categories which can be explained as follows:-
- Good: Here good refers to the actions or situations which are morally right and which act as a benefit or advantage to someone or something.
- Bad: Here bad refers to the actions or situationswhich are morally wrong and which act as disadvantage or loss for someone.
- Benignness: It can be explained as gentle and kind which does not threaten the business environment in anyway. It implies being gentle and kind towards everything.
- Indifference: It refers to lack of interest in everything. It can be further explained as which does not get affected by the bad or good happenings in its surroundings.
According to semiotic square model ex CEO of Uber Mr Travis Kalanick was on both the point called ‘bad and indifference’. He was on the point ‘indifference’ because he literally does not bother about the unethical practices at Uber. He was totally disengaged from ethical problems at Uber. Mr Kalanick always put first the growth and beating competitors over humanity. He only wanted the good work from the employees; the matter of their security was not his concern (Hook, 2017). According to semiotic square, this shows that he was also on point called ‘Bad’.
Travis Kalanick’s Unethical Behaviors
Travis Kalanick, the ex CEO of Uber has no professionalism left. According to the business ethics CEO of the company should have some professionalism he cannot say anything about anyone in the company (Edmunds, 2017). The CEO of the company should maintain a healthy culture in the company. On the contrary Mr Kalanick was on record states that they appointed some unsophisticated people to terrify the competitors in the market and this gave an image of unprofessional person which is wrong as per deontology theory of ethics
Employee safety and security is one of the ethics which must be followed by the CEO of the company but Mr Kalanick was least concerned about the security of people working in the company. Uber also did not bother when the drivers were cheated and killed by the public. The drivers themselves had protested for their safety. According to (Gapper, 2017) sometimes the managers used Uber cars for their personal night outs which are unethical. No action has been taken in the case of former Uber engineer Ms Fowler’s who has been sexually harassed by the HR executives of Uber. Mr Kalanick was least bothered about the case
Uber was claimed for following the strategies to persuade the competitor’s drivers to defect to Uber. The company Lyft got strongly affected by these strategies. Most of their drivers cancelled the rides. Such actions are unhealthy and unfair as far as business ethics are concerned.
In a clip Mr Kalanick was captured scolding an employee of Uber for avoiding responsibility and saying people usually blame everything in their life on someone else. If he literally knows about the term responsibility he should know his responsibilities as a CEO of the company and he should use his power to dismiss himself (Gapper, 2017).
A CEO should realise his responsibility for understanding legal issues related with harassment, health, safety, false advertising, taxes and discrimination. Mr Kalanick does not realise his responsibility regarding such issues. He always looked for profits more than humanity. He even failed to recruit the right safe guards for the employees (Trevino, 2016). This is the responsibility of the CEO to provide quality services to the customers. He hired unskilled employees as they were offering cheap services, did not bother about the safety of the customers. CEO has the responsibility to build an ethical culture in the company as all the employees get influenced by the CEO. Therefore he must take care of his actions but according to (Gapper, 2017) Mr Travis Kalanick is at ‘indifference’ because he is always disengaged from ethical problems at Uber. He has no link with the problems of the employees working under him. He only expects timely delivery of work nothing else. He does not bother about their safety.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Business ethics of the company involves professional ethics that analyse the ethical problems, principles, values and morals in the business organization (Bowie and Schnieder, 2011). The ex CEO of the company did not realise his responsibility as a CEO of the Uber. He behaved very disgraceful for too long as noticed by some of the employees at Uber. He always puts first the growth of the company then humanity. He was not committed towards his responsibilities as a CEO of the company. As per ethical point of view, the security of the consumers is also the matter of great concern for every organization. In the case of Uber this is totally non-prioritized as unprofessional drivers has been hired by the organization which can harm the lives of the customers. The CEO of the company should behave professionally but as per the case study he always behaved unprofessionally in front of his workers and public (Vaughn, 2015). He did not provide the security to his employees instead he always makes them feel unsafe. He did not take any action against the culprits. According to the report it can be concluded that the ex CEO of the company Mr Travis Kalanick was not ethical enough to steer Uber because as per ethical practices he was not at all ethical.
References
Bowie, N.E. and Schnieder, M., 2011. Business ethics for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Cowton, C.J., 2017. Virtue theory and accounting. Springer.
Edmunds, A. 2017, What Ethical Obligation Does a CEO Have in Business Practices? viewed at 13th February, 2018. Available at: https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/ethical-obligation-ceo-business-practices-25562.html
Gapper, J. 2017, Travis Kalanick is not ethical enough to steer Uber, viewed at 13th February, 2018. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/7a1b6f24-502f-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
Goulden, M. 2017, Uber can’t be ethical – its business model won’t allow it, viewed at 13th February, 2018. Available at: https://theconversation.com/uber-cant-be-ethical-its-business-model-wont-allow-it-85015
Hamilton, V. 2017, Types of Ethical Theories, viewed at 12th February, 2018. Available at: https://classroom.synonym.com/types-of-ethical-theories-12083413.html
Hook, L. 2017, Investors split on whether Kalanick exit can fix Uber, viewed at 13th February, 2018. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/59407736-5697-11e7-80b6-9bfa4c1f83d2
Melden, A., 2013. Ethical theories. Read Books Ltd.
Mulliken, A. and Tuchman, A. 2017, Driving away dollars: A case study on Uber and Travis Kalanick, viewed at 12th February, 2018. Available at: https://www.quantifind.com/blog/uber-data
Panza C, Potthast A. Ethics for dummies. John Wiley & Sons; 2010 Apr 29.
Pullen, J. 2014, Everything You Need to Know About Uber, viewed at 13th February, 2018. Available at: https://time.com/3556741/uber/
Schleifer, R., 2016. AJ Greimas and the nature of meaning: linguistics, semiotics and discourse theory. Routledge.
Tcholakian, D. 2017, We Need to Talk About Uber: A Timeline of the Company’s Growing List of Problems, viewed at 12th February, 2018. Available at: https://longreads.com/2017/06/10/we-need-to-talk-about-uber-a-timeline-of-the-companys-growing-list-of-problems/
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Vaughn, L., 2015. Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton & Company.
Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. (Weiss, 2014)
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