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Element One: Portfolio

Student Name

Institution

Course Name & Number

Instructor Name

Date
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Element One: Portfolio

1.0. LEARNING OUTCOME 1

1.1 TRAVIS KALANICK (UBER)

Uber was founded by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. It is a technological-based

transportation platform that is currently headquartered in California, San Francisco. The

company was valued at US$ 82.4 billion and while being branded as the first mover in

International markets (de la Merced & Conger, 2019). The transportation giant had to face a

series of problems and a leadership crisis due to the incompetency of Kalanick. Mr. Kalanick’s

leadership style was authoritative and was criticized by the board of directors (CNN, 2019).

Travis Kalanick was aggressive with his goals and was ready to achieve them unethically

if that is what it took. Regardless of Uber’s legal affairs, it achieved global domination with its

presence in 900 cities and 71 countries (Uber Estimator, 2020). In terms of organizational

structure, Uber operates on a functional hierarchical basis (Chen, 2007)

Leaders exhibit various versions of their leadership styles and capabilities. Mr.

Kalanick’s leadership style was flickering and never constant. He proved that he is a

transformational leader by continuously innovating his services, leading his company into high-

grade technology, and continually trying to infiltrate into new potential markets. As a

charismatic leader, he inspired and motivated his employees to undertake any strategy that would

help Uber dominate the market, even if it was unethical.

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1.2 LEADERSHIP ISSUES OF UBER

The prime issues in Uber under CEO Travis Kalanick were low organizational culture,

lack of critical positions within the company, and unethical competition in the market. Other

issues identified within Uber include corrupt practices such as sexual harassment and lack of

diversity.

Leadership Style of the CEO Travis Kalanick

According to Kleinman (2017), Mr. Kalanick indulged in a series of avoidable issues that

pulled him down from his reign (Kleinman, 2017). The authors highlight that some of the Uber

operations have to exercise destructive behaviors under Travis Kalanick. For example, the New

York Times that the company’s employees have been using a “secret program” called Greyball

to hide from regulators (The New York Times, 2017). Based on this analysis, Travis Kalanick’s

leadership falls under transformational leadership, which focuses on organization, performance,

and supervision. Hook (2017) supports that poor leadership is the reason why Uber has put into

practice low organizational culture (Hook (2017). For example, sexual harassment issues that

have been raised over the company and CEO Kalanick being caught on camera arguing with

employee overpayments and other issues depict poor leadership skills. In this case, there is a gap

between present culture and future goals, and leadership is the main issue that has contributed to

low corporate or organizational culture. For example, some values of the corporation support

workers to report and betray each other to succeed.

Poor Organizational Culture

Uber follows a strict value system that emphasizes growth at all costs disregarding

possible outcomes of incorporating values on cult personality and sexism (Todd (2019). The
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culture does not follow the hierarchy system. According to Todd (2019), Uber has a toxic

organizational culture characterized by mismanagement, harassment of employees, and

discrimination based on gender alongside the support of other harmful behaviors. The general

rule is that leaders are expected to guide employees towards achieving the goals of the company.

Still, as it is, CEO Travis Kalanick played a more significant role in allowing toxic cultures to

fester at Uber.

Sexual harassments and rape cases at Uber

Winsor (2021) highlights more than 6000 incidents of reported sexual assault in 2017 and

2018 related to Uber in its new safety report. These are unethical issues that would affect the

company's reputation in one way or another (Winsor, 2021). This explains why the company has

high employee turnover due to reports of rape. Based on the information, 92% of the victims are

the riders which 7% are the drivers, where women and females are of higher numbers with a

percentage of 89%, while men were 8%.  

1.2 Effect of Kalanick’s leadership on its followers

Transactional leaders enhance compliance using punishments and rewards, and Uber’s

situation explains the contribution of Kalanick to be what it is currently. He is described as an

aggressive leader who fought to ensure that those working in the corporation did not deviate

from predetermined goals and objectives. Hook (2017) reiterates that CEO Travis Kalanick

would do anything to ensure that its goals and objectives are achieved (Hook, 2017). However,

the employees' effect includes pressure, demotivation, and lack of morale to undertake tasks. For

example, more than 20 executives resigned during his leadership because of leadership issues

within the company.

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1.3 Effect on Travis’s Leadership

Travis Kalanick achieved a lot at Uber due to transformational leadership skills. He

suffered a great deal because of failing to solve issues within the corporation (Newcomer (2017).

His leadership cost the company a great deal from reputation, losing customers to legal

settlements leading to loss of finances to lawsuits and poor performances. As highlighted, several

issues were raised concerning his leadership for engaging in unethical competition in the

industry and allegations supporting sexual harassment and discrimination within the company.

For example, Newcomer (2017) explains that Uber paid hackers to delete stolen data, one of the

poor leadership results.  

Learning Outcome 3: Hofstede’s cultural dimension, Leadership theory, skills and traits,

and future skills that employers beyond 2020

Hofstede’s cultural dimension

Hofstede’s cultural dimension highlights the critical framework used to describe

differences in cultures across different countries. Its main cultural dimensions are power

distance, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and universalism versus

particularism. Global leadership needs all leaders to maintain the highest degree of a worldwide

mindset (Winsor, 2021). Leaders should be able to work effectively and comfortably in different

cultural environments. In the case of Uber, which operates in the United States, which is well-

known for its multiculturalism due to diverse cultures, Kalanick was expected to value all

cultures. However, his leadership was different because it did not respect other cultures.

Kalanick went wrong in his leadership because he did not accept status and power differences

among other executives alongside Uber leaders. This is depicted by the high power distance
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between him and other company leaders, which created inequalities and steep hierarchies.

Kalanick supported an organizational culture that did not follow the hierarchy system.

Leadership theory, skills, and traits

The trait theory identifies diverse personality traits and features associated with

successful leadership across various situations (Kleinman, 2017).  According to this theory, a

leader is successful because they possess specific characteristics such as self-confidence,

adaptability to conditions, problem solver, and willingness to take responsibility and

accountability, energy, and alertness to the social environment. The leaders need to be visionary

that is being able to manage through inspiration and confidence.

MIT entrepreneurs (2015) highlights that Travis Kalanick was energetic, visionary, self-

confident, decisive, assertive, and dominant. Kalanick is described as an active leader because he

understood the company's purpose and knew the purpose of the corporation was broader than

making profits (MIT entrepreneurs, 2015). He knew creating value by being visionary and

confident was the only way to influence employees' goals. However, Kalanick failed in his

leadership because he could not take responsibility and accountability for his administration

outcomes and adjusting to every situation in the company.

Future skills that employers need beyond 2020

Future skills that employers would want to include emotional intelligence, tech-

savviness, conflict resolution, problem-solving capabilities, leadership skills, and written and

verbal communication (Winsor, 2021). Gender influence communication in one way or the

other. Women consider communication as a way to create friendships and building relationships.
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At the same time, men view it as a way to negotiate for power, avoid failure, offer advice, and

seek wins and others.

Areas for Kalanick to improve

Kalanick should improve its leadership skills and organizational skills to promote unity

among management and employees, promoting reasonable power distance, collectivism,

universalism, and diffuse culture within the corporation (Kleinman, 2017). Also, a safer

environment should be provided where employees are free to air their views and problems. On

the same note, organizational culture needs to be improved to eliminate negative behaviors of

sexism, harassment, and discrimination. Lastly, there is a need to eradicate autocratic-like

features in his leadership and adopt full transformational leadership.

My leadership in comparison to Kalanick’s leadership

Kalanick applies a transformational leadership style, but I would love to practice

democratic leadership, where democracy is observed across the corporation. Democracy has a

strong correlation with development and growth, especially in the facet of business (Winsor,

2021). Transformational leadership style tends to overlook details and focus on the bigger

picture creating gaps within the organization. Applying a democratic leadership style will allow

me to incorporate everyone in the decision-making process, promoting collectivism rather than

individualism. Unlike Kalanick, who does not want to take responsibility and accountability for

his leadership actions, I always take responsibility for my actions.

Reflection

Leadership styles vary across organizations ranging from transformational, transactional,

democratic, autocratic, affiliative, and authoritative to laisseiz-faire style. I believe a democratic

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leadership style is the most effective leadership style (Newcomer (2017). Compared to

Kalanick’s leadership style, democratic leadership gives room for efficient problem solving,

building team relations, enhances workable management hierarchies, and facilitates a strong and

clear vision for the future alongside inviting higher commitment levels. I would encourage

leaders to adopt this form of leadership because of its advantages.

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References

Chen, K. (2007). The Value of Flexible Work: Evidence from Uber Drivers [Ebook]. Retrieved 8

January 2021, from

https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/keith.chen/papers/Final_NBER17.pdf.

CNN, B. (2019). Meet the CEO taking Uber public. CNN. Retrieved 8 January 2021, from

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/10/tech/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-ipo/index.html.

de la Merced, M., & Conger, K. (2019). Uber Prices I.P.O. at $45 a Share, Valuing It at $82.4

Billion. Technology jobs, NYC. Retrieved 8 January 2021, from

https://technologyjobsnyc.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/uber-prices-i-p-o-at-45-a-share-

valuing-it-at-82-4-billion-by-michael-j-de-la-merced-and-kate-conger-2/.

Hook, L. (2017). Uber: “the crisis inside the ‘cult of Travis.’ [Online] Ft.com. Retrieved 8

January 2021, from https://www.ft.com/content/9b65a59a-03e1-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9.

Kleinman, Z. (2017). Uber: The scandals that drove Travis Kalanick out. BBC News. Retrieved

8 January 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40352868.

MIT entrepreneurs, U. (2015). Uber CEO’s eight traits of great entrepreneurs | MIT Sloan. MIT

Sloan. Retrieved 8 January 2021, from https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-

matter/uber-ceos-eight-traits-great-entrepreneurs.

Newcomer, E. (2017). Uber paid to delete stolen data on 57 million people. Retrieved 8 January

2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-21/uber-concealed-

cyberattack-that-exposed-57-million-people-s-data.
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The New York Times. (, 2017). Uber uses 'secret program' Greyball to hide from regulators.

BBC News. Retrieved 8 January 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-

39164880.

Todd, S. (2019). Uber’s IPO is a lesson in the true cost of a toxic culture. Quartz at Work.

Retrieved 8 January 2021, from https://qz.com/work/1593845/the-uber-ipo-filing-admits-

workplace-culture-is-a-risk-factor/.

Uber Estimator. (, 2020). Uber Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020). The business of Apps.

Retrieved 8 January 2021, from https://www.businessofapps.com/data/uber-statistics/.

Winsor, M. (2021). Uber reveals nearly 6,000 incidents of sexual assaults in the new safety

report. ABC News. Retrieved 8 January 2021, from

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/uber-reveals-6000-incidents-sexual-assaults-safety-

report/story?id=67538499.