Change management and sustainability in organizational contexts

The organization requiring change in through this project is Uber, which is one of the world’s most valuable start-ups in the recent past. Transformation change is vital for Uber to address its deteriorating reputation and enhance its operations. As a change agent, I seek to introduce transformational change in Uber’s operations in order to address its recent challenges that have affected its reputation the taxi services industry. My role as a change agent for this organization will entail developing a change management plan through which necessary changes will be made to the organization’s operations. This plan will play a major role towards enhancing the success and growth of Uber in today’s changing business environment. As part of the plan, this paper highlights factors driving the change, relevant change model, change vision and values, required resources for implementing the change, and goals, timeline and outcomes of the change process.

Brief Overview and History of Uber
Uber is one of the world’s most valuable start-ups which was established in March 2009 as a transportation technology company. The idea for Uber was first introduced at the LeWeb technology conference in December 2008 (Hartmans & McAlone, 2016). It was initially thought as a means to lower the cost of a black-car service through the use of a mobile phone. Following the development of this idea, the organization was founded in March 2009 by Garret Camp, Conrad Whelan, and Oscar Salazar as a black-car service. Travis Kalanick served as the organization’s mega adviser and chief incubator during the initial months of its inception and operations. Kalanick later became the Chief Executive Officer of Uber, which was initially founded as UberCab. The company launched its operations in San Francisco in January 2010 in which customers would request a car service by pressing a button or sending a text. While the initial cost of requesting the car service was 1.5 times as much as a cab, Uber became an instant hit because of the ability of customers to request a car using their phones.
Since its inception, Uber has experienced tremendous growth and profitability coupled by rapid global expansion. The company has developed to become one of the most reliable and commonly used transportation services in various places across the globe. Uber commenced its international expansion in December 2011 beginning with Paris, France before moving into other parts of the globe like India and Africa in August 2013. The company later expanded to China in July 2014, which becomes Uber’s biggest market since five out of Uber’s 10 largest cities are located in China (Hartmans & McAlone, 2016). Despite having a short history, the company has experienced tremendous success and profitability that have been fueled by product diversification. For instance, in April 2015, Uber launched UberEATS, which is an on-demand food-delivery service that delivers meals to customers in their respective locations within minutes upon request.
Need for Change at Uber
Since inception, Uber has developed to become one of the most reliable and commonly used transportation services in various places across the globe. However, the firm’s success and operations are facing numerous challenges as reflected in a series of bad news and some major setbacks in its management (The Economist, 2017). The company is currently facing the need to transform its operations in order to enhance its effectiveness, reputation, and profitability in the market. There are various internal and external forces driving the need for change at Uber despite being one of leading start-ups across the globe.
The internal forces driving the need for change at Uber include its organizational culture that has had considerable negative impacts on the productivity of its workforce (Zipkin, 2017). The other internal forces include the need to provide more support to HR department and establish clear guidelines for tracking and addressing employee and customer complaints as well as the need to provide mandatory training for its senior executives, managers, and HR professionals. On the contrary, the external forces driving the need for change at Uber include bad reputation among employees and customers, increased incidents of employee and customer harassment, and the series of bad news and major setbacks in its top management.
Change Vision and Values for Uber
The vision for the desired transformational change for Uber is to improve the organization’s reputation among employees and customers as well as enhance its profitability in the ever-changing and competitive market. Some of the values for the new change include creation of a safe and secure workplace for all employees, promoting the safety of customers, excellent customer service, integrity and honesty, and good corporate image.
Goals, Timeline and Outcomes of the Change
The goal of the transformational change at Uber is to bring changes to the organizational culture in a manner that enhance the company’s reputation and operations in the competitive market (Zipkin, 2017). This change management project seeks to accomplish this goal within the next six months given that the current situation has significant effects on the operations and profitability of the company. Since the company is facing stiff competition in the various markets it operates in, instituting transformational change in its organizational culture within the next six months is critical towards enhancing its responsiveness in the market and improving its competitiveness. Some of the outcomes that will be used to help determine the success of the change process includes a safe working environment for its workforce, improved measures for handling customer and employees’ complaints, enhanced capabilities of the top management through mandatory training, enhanced safety for all customers, and increase in it’s bottom-line.
Application of the Change Model
According to Ha (2014), there are various change management models that can be utilized to institute organizational change in order to achieve desired objectives with respect to enhancing the operations and profitability of an organization. Some of these change management models include Kurt Lewin’s Three-Step Change Model, The Action Research Model, John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, and The Positive Model (Ha, 2014). The most suitable change management model that will be utilized to institute transformational change at Uber is Kotter’s 8-step model.
The first step in this change management model is increasing urgency for the change, which is crucial towards creating a climate for change (Ha, 2014). For Uber, this would entail conducting a meeting with the top management and employees to highlight challenges and issues the firm has experienced in the recent past and the desired state. This will be followed by creating a change management team, which will be mandated with the task of creating a plan for the change. During this process, the team will collaborate with the organization’s top management to establish the vision for the change with respect to the desired state of the organization following the implementation of the change.
The next step in this process will entail communicating for buy-in in which a meeting will be held with Uber’s management and staff to communicate the plan and vision for change. These internal stakeholders will be given specific responsibilities and given necessary resources for their respective roles in instituting the change. To empower action, Uber’s senior executives, HR professionals, and managers will be provided with mandatory training with regards to the desired state of the organization and their role in developing policies and practices to support the change. These executives and employees will be required to provide feedback on the change process to help enhance its success. Employees will be rewarded for decrease in customer complaints while HR professionals will be rewarded for decrease in employee complaints. HR professionals will work with the change management team to update existing policies on discrimination and harassment. This will be followed by implementation of the change, which will involve making the company’s board more independent and giving HR the necessary support to keep records of complaints and address them through the established disciplinary policies (della Cava, 2017). Customers complaints will be utilized as the premise for making necessary changes in operations and building relationships between the company and its drivers. This transformational change will be reviewed and improved periodically based on employees’ feedback until the desired organizational state is achieved.
Resources Required to Implement the Change
The implementation of the proposed transformational change at Uber will require some resources that will contribute to direct and indirect costs of the change. Some of these resources that will be required to implement the change training materials, personnel costs i.e. allowances for training, consultancy services, office supplies, and administrative costs. A sample estimated budget for these resources is shown in Appendix A.
In conclusion, Uber has developed to become of the world’s most valuable startups since its inception in March 2009. While the company has a relatively short history, it has experienced tremendous growth and profitability that has partly been fueled by global expansion. However, the company has experienced significant challenges in the recent past following a series of bad news relating to increased employee and customer complaints. The forces driving change at Uber include its bad reputation, the need for updated HR policies on discrimination and harassment, better ways for handling complaints, and the need for training of senior executives, managers, and HR professionals. Through the proposed transformational change using Kotter’s 8-step model, Uber will achieve the desired goal of this change process i.e. enhanced reputation and better operations for improved competitiveness in the market.




References
Della Cava, M. (2017, June 16). Can Uber Really Change? USA Today. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/06/16/uber-travis-kalanick-holder-report/102889068/
Ha, H. (2014). Change management for sustainability. New York, NY: Business Expert Press, LLC.
Hartmans, A. & McAlone, N. (2016, August 1). The Story of How Travis Kalanick Built Uber into the Most Feared and Valuable Startup in the World. Business Insider. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-history?IR=T/#june-1998-scour-a-peer-to-peer-search-engine-startup-that-kalanick-had-dropped-out-of-ucla-to-join-snags-its-first-investment-from-former-disney-president-michael-ovitz-and-ron-burkle-of-yucaipa-companies-1
The Economist. (2017, March 25). Uber is Facing the Biggest Crisis in its Short History. The Economist. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from https://www.economist.com/news/business/21719509-can-ride-hailing-giant-stay-fast-lane-uber-facing-biggest-crisis-its-short
Zipkin, N. (2017, June 15). Uber Needs to Recreate its Company Culture. Here’s What You Can Learn From Its Mistakes. The Entrepreneur. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295844


Appendix A – Estimated Budget
Item
Amount in USD

Direct Costs
· Project Manager Allowance
· Staff Allowances
· Training Materials
· Consultancy Services
· Logistics and Planning
· Allowances for Trainers
· Space Rental

$5,000
$5,000
$2,000
$1,500
$1,000
$3,000
$1,500

Total Direct Costs
$19,000

Indirect Costs
· Travel and Accommodation
· Program Expenses
· Administrative Costs
· Office Supplies
· Telephone/Internet
· Refreshments i.e. food and beverages
· Printing and reproduction
· Miscellaneous

$1,000
$3,000
$1,000
$500
$500
$1,000
$300
$1,000

Total Indirect Costs
$8,300

TOTAL OVERALL COSTS
$27,300