Change Management at Uber

Change Management at Uber

  Abstract

The success of a significant number of organizations in the contemporary society depends heavily on the strategies implemented by their leaders. Organizations require leaders who are able to introduce unique modes of operations in order to enhance their competitive advantage. Uber being one of the most successful companies in the taxi business attributes its success to the unique modes of leadership introduced by its Chief Executive Officer, Travis Kalanick. Through a top-down approach applied by its management; this approach enables its employees to implement organizational objectives as perceived or visualized by the top managerial team. Despite the fact that this approach has received tremendous positive and negative criticism among stakeholders, Uber expects massive success in the future. This paper will explore to major issues ascribed to change management; the first issue will involve a discussion based on a personal opinion on why leaders such as Travis Kalanick are successful. Additionally, the discussion will focus on various ways through, which organizations can promote a culture of excellence. 

    Reasons why Leaders like Travis Kalanick are Successful

To begin with, Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick applies a Top-down approach dimension of leadership. This approach has been associated with various benefits that facilitate the success of companies operating within highly competitive environments. The first benefit associated with application of this management approach leading to the success of organizations is that it creates a culture where employees are aware of their roles and responsibilities. In such scenarios, there no doubt or questions emerging as to who should perform what? When this approach is applied, employees are not expected to come up with their own strategies of operations or certain aspects of redirection. Leaders who apply a top-down approach instill a standard methodology of operation among their employees, hence ensuring uniformity in organizational activities. Moreover, top-down approach as a management strategy ensures that organizations realize a focused application of resources on specific resources that are under consideration. This creates a platform for maximum use of resources according to organizational objectives ensuring that it achieves the highest amount of benefits. Top-down approach management strategy as applied by Travis Kalanick has also facilitated success among leaders especially when they are working with employees who enjoy being directed. For such employees, implementation of certain organizational activities following the guidelines of their managers is a strategy to please their managers in order to receive appraisals or promotion.

Research indicates that most successful change management initiatives begin at the top managerial level. It is apparent that the high level of success that is currently experienced at Uber began with the change management initiatives that have been implemented by its CEO, Travis Kalanick. However, in order to ensure that this strategy succeeds, CEO must engage other to company executives for purposes of formulating organizational strategies. This facilitates the success of such leaders considering the fact that involvement of top company executives creates a platform that allows them to gather various perspectives and ideas. Under the leadership of Travis Kalanick, Uber makes the rules guiding its company’s operations clear to its employee upfront. Through clear and upfront communication of organizational rules, Uber has ensured that its over one hundred thousand employees implement operational strategies as visualized by leaders. According to Michael Jarret 2003, communication is a key element in the process of change management; this has ensured that leaders applying a top-down approach as indicated by Uber’s CEO succeed considering the fact that their visions are implemented by employees following specific guidelines. 

Michael Jarret in his discussion also asserts that leaders who aspire to succeed in change management must cultivate and embed their changes within the operational system. This is one of the approaches that have been applied by Travis Kalanick by ensuring that he communicates organizational strategies to its employees before they begin participating in various activities within the organization. Communication is a strategy that can be used to embed new changes within an organizational operational structure. Leaders such as Travis Kalanick have also been successful owing to the fact that they act as change ambassadors. Such leaders have knowledge and skills on how they live the change; they also act as exemplars and have the responsibility to communicate as well as instill these skills among their employees. The essence of acting as change ambassadors with a capacity to communicate requirements associated the changes among their employees. This enables their employees to perceive them as role models, hence creating an urge to act as requested and directed by the CEO’s. In most cases, organizational Chief Executive Officers are highly experienced and skilled persons; that is, they possess a high level of skill and knowledge that may not be possessed by other sub-ordinate staff. Application of a top-down approach by such leaders creates an opportunity for an organization to implement appropriate skills that will facilitate its success: This is one of the reasons why leaders such as Travis who apply a top-down approach experience a high level of success. 

The success of organizational change also depends of the capacity of leaders to implement minor or small changes within a short period of time. In most cases, efforts of leaders to implement minor changes within a short period of time may be thwarted by conflicts especially when decisions within organizations have to be made by various stakeholders. Considering the fact that top-down approaches as applied in Uber involves making final decisions by the top most executives, there is limited incidences of conflicts that may hinder implementation of their ideas. This means that such leaders are able to implement small changes within a short period of time, hence facilitating success. In the perspective of John Potter 2005, most organizations that have succeeded in the contemporary society attributes their successes to their efforts to establish a sense of urgency among its sub-ordinate staff and other key stakeholders. Additionally, organizational changes are usually successfully implemented by leaders who are able to assess market situations and other issues trending within their operational environments. Travis Kalanick has been in a position to establish a sense of urgency among Uber’s drivers to implement appropriate changes that has seen its current success and predicted future success. This has been successfully achieved by ensuring that operational guidelines are clearly communicated to the drivers in advance in order to ensure that they avoid mistakes. Clear communication of organizational modes of operation is one of the strategies applied by CEO’s to create a sense of urgency to changes or specific modes of operation among employees and other key stakeholders. In his discussion, John Kotter indicates that organizations tend to fail when leaders do not take the initiatives to remove obstacles that may hinder implementation of their vision. Travis Kalanick is described by his employees as a loose cannon leader, willing to take initiatives focused towards the removal of obstacles that may hinder satisfying his clients’ needs. Organizational structure especially those that entail cross-sectional modes of management may hinder a successful implementation of visions. However, for organizations such as Uber where a top-down approach is applied in decision making and implementation of strategies, such challenges are rarely experienced. This is one of the reasons why leaders such as Travis Kalanick who apply a top-down approach experience a high rate of success compared to those applying cross-sectional modes of leadership. 

Leaders such as Travis Kalanick have visions; they have projections on what their companies should achieve within a specific period of time. They also ensure that sub-ordinate staff and other employees implement objectives to ensure that such visions are achieved. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Uber has exhibited a high rate of success over the last few years. The company expects massive success in the coming years. According to John Kotter 2005, managers who do not have visions for their companies and organizations usually experience failure; however, having a vision for a company is not adequate for success. A manager or an organizational leader must possess the capacity to instill a desire for success among his/her employees in order to enhance their success. The case of Travis Kalanick is an example of a leader with vision who is also able to create culture of excellence among his employees, ensuring that his visions are achieved, hence confirming why leaders such as Travis exhibit a high rate of excellence.  

Travis Kalanick is also described as a leader with ceaseless ambition; he is driven by various ambitions mainly to ensure that Uber experiences a high level of success. Ambition is the foundation for success; one must have ambitions in order to implement appropriate actions. Without ambitions, one basically lacks direction and may also not possess the desire to succeed. Ambitions enable a leader to formulate appropriate actions that will enhance their success: It is also crucial to indicate or show to other key stakeholders and sub-ordinate staff your ambitions. Travis’ ambition can be seen by his sub-ordinate staff: The essence of making sub-ordinate staff aware of their leaders’ ambition is in itself a motivational strategy. It ensures that they maximize their performance in accordance with the organizational objectives to achieve the desires of their leaders, hence facilitating organizational success. From a personal perspective, it appears that Travis Kalanick is applying a leader-centered mode of leadership; leaders in such positions have experienced a high level of success through self-projection as well as self-realization of the leader. The case of Uber exhibits a scenario whereby employees and other organizational stakeholders depend of specific instructions and commands associated with deadlines issued to them by their leaders. This means that employees at Uber have to implement objectives as envisioned by their leaders, hence facilitating success. Travis Kalanick can also be described as a transactional leader: Leaders with such characteristics have a belief that sub-ordinate staff and employees are hired to perform their duties and should follow instructions offered by their managers since they are also paid for such efforts. Leaders who practice this type of managerial style usually experience a high level of success when performing short-term projects. 

Ways by which a company can Promote a Culture of Excellence

Organizational excellence is one of the major desires of all organizational managers; every organization implements its activities in a specific manner to ensure that it succeeds in its activities. It is a fact that all leaders do not head to work on a daily basis to achieve mediocre outcomes. Research has indicated that organizational leaders usually expect immediate positive outcomes for accelerated performance leading to a lasting change. However, a significant number of leadership structures, training and development as well as corporate culture tend to lead to short-term results. The key to transforming organizations from their current conditions or status-quo to a state of excellence is referred as corporate culture. When managers and other key stakeholders create a culture of excellence they tend to develop an organizational structure and capacity that strengthens its workforce. There are various strategies that have been proposed by different scholars that can be applied to enhance the efforts of organizational managers in the creation of a culture of excellence. These strategies are applicable to organizations regardless of their sizes, purposes or structures, meaning that both SME’s and Multi-National organizations can employ the strategies to facilitate their success.

     Preventing Change Obstacles

This is one of the strategies that organizational leaders can employ to create a culture of excellence among their stakeholders. Organizational change basically involves transforming an organizational activities towards a direction considered positive or desirable in accordance with the objectives of the organization. However, there various challenges that managers and organizational leaders may experience that prevent successful changes. Showing resilience to such challenges or preventing the challenges from occurring is one of the strategies managers and other key stakeholders may apply to create a culture of excellence within their organizations. According to Kotter 2005, creating organizational changes requires one to have a vision; that is, a projection of what they would like to achieve in future in regard to organizational performance. However, there are various obstacles that may hinder achievement of such vision for instance; conflicting ideas among organizational stakeholders. Failure to prevent the occurrence of such conflicts creates an unfavorable environment for creating a culture of excellence.

Creating a shared Vision

Creating a culture of excellence in any organization requires a vision; however, the vision is supposed to be shared among key organizational stakeholders i.e. managers, shareholders, sub-ordinate staff et cetera. Research indicates that a condition of culture of excellence of also appropriate achieved when the vision is shared among stakeholders and understood. That is, organizational culture of excellence is not achieved by simply stating the vision; the vision has to be communicated through appropriate channels and managers should ensure that sub-ordinate staff and other employees have a proper understanding of the vision. Employees are also required to understand their roles and responsibilities within the organization for purposes of achieving the desired vision. Creating a culture of excellence is considered a crucial stage that leads organizational transformation. However, managers must have an organizational vision that is properly communicated to other concerned stakeholders in order to ensure that it provides clarity regarding the direction an organization’s activities should take. 

Encouraging Collaboration and Teamwork

Many organizations have various teams and individuals tasked with various duties. Collaboration and team work between individuals and various teams is considered one of the key features of organizational culture of excellence. Creating a culture of excellence requires internal and external organizational collaboration. Collaboration enables individuals and teams to work towards the same goal considering the fact that individuals and teams are not subjected to a scenario where they have to protect their own roles, but the overall roles of the organization. Research has also shown that failure to create coalitions or collaborations among teams and individuals within organizations is a major obstacle to organizational change. Creating a culture of excellence leading to major transformations within organizations usually begin with one or two people. However, to ensure that managers create a strong culture of excellence among other key stakeholders, it is imperative that they focus on development of strong coalitions as well as collaboration between teams and individuals. Additionally, collaborations and teamwork among employees also create an important platform for sharing ideas and knowledge regarding certain critical organizational issues. Sharing ideas and knowledge does not only facilitate personal intellectual development but also enhance organizational development.

        

Creating a sense of Urgency Regarding Organizational Activities

Kotter 2005 asserts that creating a sense of urgency basically involves ‘looking hard’ at an organizational competitive situation for example: Financial performance, technological trends, market position, competition, customer preference et cetera. In his research, he postulates that creating a sense of urgency is also a strategy that managers can apply to create a culture of excellence leading to a positive transformation. Establishing a sense of urgency regarding a company’s activities enables employees and other key stakeholders to focus on pertinent issues that have direct impact on the success of the organization. In order to ensure that information gathered when a sense of urgency has been established among stakeholders, managers should focus on communicating the information in a broad manner. Broad communication of this information involves ensuring that the information is disseminated to concerned stakeholders for appropriate decision-making. Establishing a sense of urgency may be achieved through systematic planning of short-term goals and objectives. Creating a culture of excellence and organizational changes may take extended periods of time; this means that the workforce or personnel involved in creating a culture of excellence may lose momentum. A significant number of people are not in a position to focus for a longer period of time if they do not see compelling issues or reasons. Lack of short-term goals, managers and other concerned stakeholders may give-up of lose focus, hence resisting the efforts to create a culture of excellence. In this regard, it is pertinent for managers to formulate short-term goals and objectives; these objectives and goals act as a source of motivation for concerned stakeholders. Additionally, establishing short-term wins ensure that managers are also able to evaluate issues that hinder successful development of a culture of excellence, hence enabling them to formulate appropriate solutions. 

     Creating a sense of Ownership among Employees

Creating a sense of ownership among employees regarding certain projects and programs within an organization is another strategy that managers and other organizational leaders may apply to encourage or establish a culture of excellence. This may involve empowering employees to make certain fundamental decisions regarding their roles or tasks allocated to them. Research has indicated that creating a sense of ownership among employees ensures that they act like the owners of tasks and projects; it also creates a sense of accountability regarding certain actions and decisions made by the employees. Additionally, scholars have asserted that creating a sense of ownership is an appropriate approach that enables managers and stakeholders to identify top performers within their organizations. It also creates a platform for leaders to evaluate performance of other employees, hence determining their strengths and weaknesses; this information is crucial for purposes of employee skill development. 

However, managers should ensure that creating a sense of ownership is accompanied by mastery of responsibilities and roles among employees. That is, employees should have a proper idea and knowledge regarding their duties, roles and responsibilities as they are encouraged to assume a sense of ownership of various organizational programs and projects. The main objective of ensuring that this is achieved is based on the fact that it is a key strategy towards reduction of incidences of errors that may impact organizational performance. 

  Training and Knowledge Development

In order to create a culture of excellence in any organization employees require certain skills and knowledge. The knowledge and skills can be gained through training and development: Training and knowledge development has also been considered a crucial strategy that enhances efforts of an organization to meet organizational goals. In order to ensure that employees exhibit excellence in relation to their performance, they need specific skills and knowledge that in order to manage certain projects. This knowledge is acquired through training and development i.e. on-job training et cetera. However, in order to ensure that training is implemented in a successful manner, leaders are required to engage in needs assessment and proper planning. The objective of needs assessment prior to the training period is to identify knowledge gaps that have to be fulfilled during the training period. Apart from provision of organizational training, leaders may also promote a culture of excellence by recruiting employees or sub-ordinate staffs that have been trained on issues relevant to their organizational activities. This procedure basically involves hiring personnel on the basis of their qualifications i.e. skills and experiences appropriate to manage organizational projects. 

               Conclusion

As aforementioned, many successful organizations in the contemporary business environment depend on the strategies employed by their leader or managers. The success of organizations and companies depend greatly on the capacity of their leaders to implement unique modes of operation. One of the strategies that can be used by leaders to facilitate success of an organization is to apply a top-down approach to decision-making. This strategy is currently applied in Uber which has seen tremendous success in the recent time under the leadership of CEO, Travis Kalanick. Leaders like Kalanick have also experienced success due to the fact that they enhance their employees’ awareness regarding their roles, responsibilities and what is expected of them. Other reasons that have facilitate the success of leaders like Kalanick is that they have visions, which are communicated to their employees with specifics on how they should be implemented. Promoting organizational culture of excellence is also another strategy that can be applied by leaders to enhance organizational success. This process requires that leaders formulate organizational visions, train employees, prevent change obstacles, create a sense of ownership of projects among employees and encourage collaboration as well as teamwork among others.