In recent years, startups have increased in popularity.

This is evident from the sharp increase in the

United States Kauffman Index of Startup Activity (KISA) from -0.87 to 0.43 from 2013 to 2016
(Kauffman,2017). A study by Kauffman confirm that even though the impact that startups have on GDPs
seems unverifiable, net job growth occurs in the U.S. economy only through startup firms
(Kauffman,2017). Uber is one of such startups that is in the technology industry.

Founded in 2009, Uber started as a startup in Silicon Valley. Uber is now responsible for creating at least
20,000 jobs per month (Eadicicco, 2017). In recent years, Uber seems to have become more infamous
than famous, with a never ending series of scandals plaguing it since 2014 (Levin, 2017). Some of these
scandals include: sexual harassment of female employees and using unethical measures to achieve their
goals. All these issues point to a major problem in Uber- bro-culture. The culture creates a disruptive
workplace environment, where excessive partying and harassment of colleagues is condoned, which
gives rise to lower employee retention rates and loyalty (Lomas N, 2017).

Our team has identified that the problem of bro-culture can be attributed to firstly, Ubers lack of
female representation in the company. This seems to be a consistent problem in the tech industry as
only 29.1% of employees are females, 22.5% are given leadership roles and 15.6% are given tech related
jobs. Secondly, the ineffectiveness of Ubers leadership in solving this situation, as observed from how
the co-founder- Travis Kalanick was removed from his position due to ignorance.

Uber encourages a bro-culture which primarily prioritises young male workers, accepting their vices
and selfish behaviours. Such a culture gives rise to: sexual harassment, sexism and many other
mistreatments of employees in the workplace. This creates a toxic workplace environment, where
excessive partying and harassment of colleagues is condoned, which gives rise to lower employee
retention rates and loyalty (Lomas N, 2017).

Ubers failure to set behavioural standards (Isaac M, 2017) is one of the contributing factors to the
inappropriate actions and unchecked arrogance of male employees. It does not help that Uber hires
predominantly male employees. Thus, perpetuating the issue. In fact, only a dismal 15.1% of staff hired
at Uber are females (Zillman C, 2017). With non-enforced moral codes and pervasive leniency towards
vices, it is not surprising that such a culture is perpetuated since the behaviours of employees are often
overlooked. Furthermore, with a lack of definite boundaries or moral expectations for workers, many
employees take advantage of this freedom and are more prone to cross the line, acting as they deem fit.
Discrimination against women, as well as harassment, is rampant and unprohibited at Uber, especially
since significantly more authority is given to their male counterparts. This makes the work environment
extremely hostile and uncomfortable for female employees at the workplace.

Ineffectiveness in Leadership

The problem of bro-culture is further aggravated because it runs deep in the upper management. This
is evident from how the Human Resource department of Uber disregards complaints of sexual
harassment from female employees. This resulted in a viral blog post from former Uber engineer, Susan
J Fowler which triggered public censure after writing her experiences of the sexism and sexual
harassment she faced. Even more shockingly, former CEO Travis Kalanick himself, is often described as
treating the workplace as a profitable frat party. It was revealed that Kalanick advised employees to
not have sex at a company party unless the two (or more) of them are not under the same chain of
command (Peck E, 2017). The bro-culture at Uber is being trickled down from the top management
itself. Thus with its leaders perpetuating and reinforcing such a culture, Uber faces difficulty to reshape
their culture when the people of power are the ones advocating it.

If sexual harassment continues to go unpunished, there will be detrimental psychological effects on

females in the workplace. The common effects include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), and in the worst case scenarios, can lead to suicide. The experience might be so
traumatic for some that their damaged mental health translates into physical symptoms such as muscle
aches, headaches and high blood pressure (Spector N, 2017). Sexually harassed individuals are also
susceptible to feeling a sense of shame, which will demolish their self-esteem and sense of self-worth as
a professional. These psychological and physical symptoms will take a toll on female employees work
performance, and adversely impact the productivity of Ubers workforce.

Uber should thus consider remodelling its companys structure by taking preventive measures against
sexual harassment. A strict sexual harassment policy should be implemented to assert a zero-tolerance
stance against sexual harassment. The mentality of male employees in thinking that they can get away
with harassment must be addressed by Uber setting a clear procedure for dealing with sexual
harassment complaints. Uber should also regularly conduct training sessions for employees and leaders,
to define what sexual harassment is for them and explain that everyone should have a right to a working
environment free of sexual harassment.

Ineffectiveness of Ubers Leaders at Eliminating Bro-culture

4. Consequence of big issue to the progress/performance of the company (GERMZ)

The consequences due to various issues brought by Ubers toxic culture are dire as it leads to the pitfalls
of an organisations in all aspects.

Expectancy theory, is an organizational behaviour concept which believes that employees will perceive
the likelihood that their efforts will enable them to attain their performance goals. Using this theory as a
lens to analyze Ubers case, female employees especially, will be less motivated at work. When female
employees see that their male counterparts are rewarded over themselves even though they had equal
inputs, they will no longer have a confident expectation that they will be rewarded for their hard work.
Hence, they are less motivated at work since they deem their input as futile. This will be most evident
among female employees who are motivated by their ambitions and/or monetary rewards.
Furthermore,the Harvard Business Review found that People with a bachelors (or higher) degree stay
because of motivation, a lack of motivation means a higher turnover rate (Flowers V S, 1973). This
consequential loss in talent of high calibre female employees will be detrimental to Uber who is
constantly going against strong competitors in Silicon Valley.

Just like how culture acts as sense-making and control mechanism as it shapes and guides employees
attitudes and behaviour. This toxic culture in Uber has caused their employees to be drilled with the
mindset of men over women and developed a patriarchal community. With this, Uber has been in
light recently for its toxic culture as many public eyes are on them. Due to the widespread news of
Ubers toxic culture, they reported a fall by US$20 billion (Knight E, 2017) in company value due to the
drastic drop in total revenue. Investors have lost confidence (Lomas N, 2017) as they are concerned with
how the value of Uber company will affect their profits and long term investment. This exemplifies the
consequences when an organisation did not promote the right and proper culture and it will eventually
affect the entire organisation. With a toxic culture in Uber, the culture has already been embedded into
the organisation, leading a wrong direction of the company. With this being in light among the public, it
shames the companys image, leading to a decline in customer patronage and investors confidence.
With the continuation of this, it will eventually lead to the demise of Uber company due to the drop in
revenue and image. Hence, Ubers toxic bro-culture has become just like a disease and if we let it
continue spreading, it threatens the survival of Uber in todays world.

WIth the prevalence of bro-culture in uber, it has lead to the lack of biological diversity in the
organisation. With the common misconception that women do not perform as well on jobs as men, the
discrimination of women stemming from Ubers bro-culture cause women to be deterred from working
in such a disadvantageous environment. A male-biased environment results in detrimental effects on
women as seen from real life cases in the Uber company as evident from the various sexual harassment
of women and mistreatment of other employees. With this, we see a dismay of merely 15.1% female
representation in Uber company. For an effective organisation, we have to bring in a variety of
perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. One way is to bring in these diverse perspectives through
gender diversity for a greater sense of demographic representation. With a diverse gender
representation, leaders will better mirror a wider consumer base and bring in voices that represent this
broad swath of potential and actual customers. With lower representation of female demographics
among consumer base, it will eventually lead to lower revenue generated as Uber did not consider
widely for a greater foresight, losing additional potential consumers.

Ubers toxic culture has been rigorously criticised due to the direction of the companys goal set by its
former-CEO, Travis Kalanick. Kalanick prioritised growth (relentlessly) throughout Uber. All other aspects
of the business has become secondary (including Ubers humanity). Strong leadership and management
is required for an organization to be effective. Leaders have to instil the right ethics and responsibilities
to their employees. With the lack of such actions from Kalanick, he was pressurised by various investors
to resign as the CEO of Uber company. Many have seen the need for a change in leader for Uber
company to hopefully turn the tables of the company which dominated the worlds ride-hailing service
and make a change to our modern transportation options. WIth an unsuitable leader, it can totally
change the direction on a company because everyone follows the lead of the leader, which is why
leaders are the one who should knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. In the case of Uber,
the wrong leader leads the wrong direction of the company since day 1, resulting in all the different
pitfalls of the company as mentioned before.
The ineffectiveness of the leadership of Uber must be addressed by keeping its leaders in check as well
as building up on essential competencies and values so they are able to lead their teams well in the
change towards a more inclusive workplace culture.

Firstly, performance reviews could be held to keep the leaders accountable for their actions.

The key metrics must be reviewed to include standards that helps to build Ubers new workplace
culture. This would include areas such as efforts in improving diversity, responsiveness to employees
feedback as well as compliance to rules. This key metric can then be used as a benchmark to determine
the amount of compensation they will receive. This could be also used as a deterrence of undesirable
behaviours as failure to attain a minimum standard of performance under this new review system could
lead to discontinuation of employment with Uber.

By having this frequent review of leaders, can true transformation take place to make the leaders
embody the values of diversity, inclusion and collaboration, which will then be translated into actions
and behaviours demonstrated by their teams.

To ensure the effectiveness of this solution, an independent oversight committee should be appointed
to oversee the companys efforts to reinforce its stand on inclusivity. The role of this committee could
include ensuring that the new performance review process is carried out efficiently.

Ubers rival in South East Asia, Grab provides almost similar services, yet their companys culture is
vastly different. Grab, whose headquarters are in Singapore, exhibit values of diversity, meritocracy and
hard work. In fact, 50% of the board of management at Grab are female. Their team of 600 employees
are also ethnically and geographically diverse, hailing from over 30 countries (Yin, O.C, 2017). Vice
president of Peoples Operation at Grab also highlights that a multicultural and multinational team
brings a richer set of perspectives to the table, indicative that Grab values workplace diversity (Yin, O.C,
2017). While engineering may still be a male dominated department, gender does not obstruct career
progression for females at Grab, with female engineering employees becoming team leaders of GrabPay
and quality assurance. The firm has a core value of respect and prioritises recruiting candidates that
share the same values the company has, believing that such a culture of ensures every person and their
viewpoints are valued, regardless of gender or race (Women In Engineering: No Longer A Mans World,
2017).

Uber can adopt Grabs culture of respect to help them inculcate an inclusive culture. Gaining insights
from Grab, Uber can offer female and males equal opportunities for leadership roles and also ensure a
cultural fit for new employees into the new culture of acceptance and inclusiveness starting from the
selection process. However, to achieve such inclusivity, employees at Uber must first be receptive to
change in Ubers bro-culture. This may not be an easy task as employees may face a resistance to
change, especially the male employees who might be used to getting preferential treatment. However,
by adopting Lewins 3 step model to manage organisational change, such resistance can be overcomed.

Firstly, to unfreeze the status quo of the bro culture, effective communication is needed. Leaders must
convey the logic for change to employees, persuading them with the compelling need for change. By
reducing misinformation and packaging the advantages of an inclusive environment in a way that is
beneficial to the current employees, there may be higher receptivity and greater acceptance towards
the unfamiliar values. However, some people may still be unwilling to adopt the new change. This is
where the company can take a stricter stance by giving them the chance to change their mindsets or be
prepared to be laid off. This brings us to the concept of transformational change, where we bring to
death the bro culture and birth to a new set of beliefs and values from an inclusive culture.

The next step would be a movement towards the desired end of creating an inclusive culture. As
changing mindsets would be something that might take awhile, Uber can first target the change in
behavior. To do so, the top management should first develop inclusive leadership strategies that help
staff feel welcome and appreciated.

Such strategies can be formulated more effectively with the advise and consult of a third party
organisation, such as Catalyst, that can help propel such changes with relevant expertise and research.
Catalyst is a global non-profit organisation comprised of some of the worlds most influential CEOs and
companies. They help organizations remove barriers of diversity and spurs change for women in the
workforce, devoting their mission to accelerating and advancing women into leadership (Who We Are,
n.d). Research by Catalyst has identified four leadership attributes linked to inclusion (Catalyst, 2015)
Empowerment, Accountability, Courage, and Humility (EACH). With the EACH behaviors, a more
inclusive top management can be trained to create a more innovative and dynamic workplaces where
employees feel connected and supportive of one another. Uber can first have an inclusive leadership by
allowing their employees to be empowered to develop and excel. In addition, courage and humility are
important to stand up against what is wrong - like sexual harassment, by being humble enough to admit
mistakes of male superiority and the neglection of female employees. The involvement of a third- party
can also keep the organisation in check, making sure they do not deviate from their goal to become a
more inclusive firm.

Lastly, refreezing the new change to make it permanent is when the change is reinforced. This can be
done through

Conclusion
To conclude, Ubers predatory bro-culture is destroying the company, evident from the
numerous scandals that have plagued the companys reputation and caused a drastic fall of
US$20 billion in company value. However, not all is lost for Uber. Removing Kalanick, who is often
linked to the toxicity in Uber is just the first step. Ubers culture is a by-product, a trickle- down
effect of the values of the top management. Changing CEO to Dara Khosrowshahi might just steer
Uber in the right direction. Khosrowshahi admits Ubers previous culture went wrong, the
governance went wrong, the board went in a very bad direction. (Isaac. M, Nov 2017) This
leadership change might be transformational for Ubers culture with Khosrowshahi even
embarking on an apology tour, in efforts to repair reputational harm from the scandals and
portraying a more refined demeanour, one unlike Kalanicks combative attitude towards regulators
in new markets. (Isaac. M, Nov 2017) Leadership support is paramount to create a healthy work
environment. When leaders walk the talk and implement zero-tolerance policies for harassment
and discrimination at the workplace, behavioural expectations of employees are set and uncouth
behaviours will not persist.
Other imperative measures we have proposed to avoid walking in Ubers footsteps is to make
conscientious efforts to change. This can be brought about by preventing a toxic culture from
budding and secondly, to eliminate root causes of toxic culture if they are already present.
Organisational change is vital in this case where diversity has to be enforced. To inhibit the growth
and perpetuation of the bro-culture, the firm must encourage gender and racial diversity,
allowing more women to breakthrough the glass ceiling so there can be a leap to a more inclusive
workplace. Through non-discriminatory recruitment policy practices, selection can be done
according to the new norms and standard of the firm. The socialisation of new employees can
then become one that is more integrative with the new inclusive environment, instead of the
previous unaccommodating culture. Lastly, training employees to better regulate their emotions
at work and become more aware of the sensitivities of others can improve the way in which
employees interact with one another. Only when the company identifies and calls out bro-culture
will the companys culture transform and becomes more inclusive.

With new leadership at Uber and past problems of mismanagement brought to light, Ubers
situation is salvageable and the culture can be transformed. Though the process of unfreezing
the bro-culture is one that is time-consuming and requires much coordination from employees,
with the relevant approaches, a new culture can solidify.

The consequences due to various issues brought by Ubers toxic culture are dire as it leads to
the pitfalls of an organisations in all aspects.

Expectancy theory, is an organizational behaviour concept which believes that employees will
perceive the likelihood that their efforts will enable them to attain their performance goals. Using
this theory as a lens to analyze Ubers case, female employees especially, will be less motivated
at work. When female employees see that their male counterparts are rewarded over themselves
even though they had equal inputs, they will no longer have a confident expectation that they will
be rewarded for their hard work. Hence, they are less motivated at work since they deem their
input as futile. This will be most evident among female employees who are motivated by their
ambitions and/or monetary rewards. Furthermore,the Harvard Business Review found that
People with a bachelors (or higher) degree stay because of motivation, a lack of motivation
means a higher turnover rate (Flowers V S, 1973). This consequential loss in talent of high calibre
female employees will be detrimental to Uber who is constantly going against strong competitors
in Silicon Valley.

Just like how culture acts as sense-making and control mechanism as it shapes and guides
employees attitudes and behaviour. This toxic culture in Uber has caused their employees to be
drilled with the mindset of men over women and developed a patriarchal community. With this,
Uber has been in light recently for its toxic culture as many public eyes are on them. Due to the
widespread news of Ubers toxic culture, they reported a fall by US$20 billion (Knight E, 2017) in
company value due to the drastic drop in total revenue. Investors have lost confidence (Lomas N,
2017) as they are concerned with how the value of Uber company will affect their profits and long
term investment. This exemplifies the consequences when an organisation did not promote the
right and proper culture and it will eventually affect the entire organisation. With a toxic culture in
Uber, the culture has already been embedded into the organisation, leading a wrong direction of
the company. With this being in light among the public, it shames the companys image, leading
to a decline in customer patronage and investors confidence. With the continuation of this, it will
eventually lead to the demise of Uber company due to the drop in revenue and image. Hence,
Ubers toxic bro-culture has become just like a disease and if we let it continue spreading, it
threatens the survival of Uber in todays world.

WIth the prevalence of bro-culture in uber, it has lead to the lack of biological diversity in the
organisation. With the common misconception that women do not perform as well on jobs as men,
the discrimination of women stemming from Ubers bro-culture cause women to be deterred from
working in such a disadvantageous environment. A male-biased environment results in
detrimental effects on women as seen from real life cases in the Uber company as evident from
the various sexual harassment of women and mistreatment of other employees. With this, we see
a dismay of merely 15.1% female representation in Uber company. For an effective organisation,
we have to bring in a variety of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. One way is to bring
in these diverse perspectives through gender diversity for a greater sense of demographic
representation. With a diverse gender representation, leaders will better mirror a wider consumer
base and bring in voices that represent this broad swath of potential and actual customers. With
lower representation of female demographics among consumer base, it will eventually lead to
lower revenue generated as Uber did not consider widely for a greater foresight, losing additional
potential consumers.

Ubers toxic culture has been rigorously criticised due to the direction of the companys goal set
by its former-CEO, Travis Kalanick. Kalanick prioritised growth (relentlessly) throughout Uber. All
other aspects of the business has become secondary (including Ubers humanity). Strong
leadership and management is required for an organization to be effective. Leaders have to instil
the right ethics and responsibilities to their employees. With the lack of such actions from Kalanick,
he was pressurised by various investors to resign as the CEO of Uber company. Many have seen
the need for a change in leader for Uber company to hopefully turn the tables of the company
which dominated the worlds ride-hailing service and make a change to our modern transportation
options. WIth an unsuitable leader, it can totally change the direction on a company because
everyone follows the lead of the leader, which is why leaders are the one who should knows the
way, goes the way and shows the way. In the case of Uber, the wrong leader leads the wrong
direction of the company since day 1, resulting in all the different pitfalls of the company as
mentioned before.
______________________________________________________________________________
_______ In addition, training should also be conducted for employees and leaders alike.
This training should be specifically tailored to impart the value of inclusive leadership.
There are a few traits that should be imbedded in materials used during the training.

The first would be collaboration. Uber should empower individuals to leverage on the
thinking of diverse group. By encouraging individuals to build on each others ideas and
not having the fear to voice out differing views can the individuals develop mutual
respect for one another and help the company to improve and grow.

Secondly, it would be courage. In Ubers case, it is to eradicate moral muteness. Any

wrongdoings or inappropriate behaviours and practices should not be ignored.
Employees and leaders must be willing to speak up and stand up against behaviours
such as sexual harassment and discrimination in order to build a safer working
environment for everyone.