Business Paper Homework

As a member of Uber’s board of directors, I, Arriana Huffington, am writing to address a current case involving Susan Fowler, a woman who was sexually harassed while working at Uber. In this memo, I will first share the details of the case. Following this, I will talk about the effects that this case may have on Uber and our stakeholders. Finally, I will share my recommendations for addressing the current issues our company is facing.

Identify the issue:

Uber is currently being investigated for sexual harassment claims made by a former employee. This recent incident has certainly created a negative brand image for our company. To illustrate our company’s decrease in value, Uber’s stock price has lowered by as much as 15% in recent months following the sexual harassment claims.

Events Leading up to Uber’s Sexual Harassment Case

· (December 2015) Susan Fowler, an engineer for Uber at the time, received sexual messages from her manager over company chat.

· (December 2015) Fowler reported the incident to HR, however HR ignored the report because Fowler’s manager was a “high Performer.”

· (January to August 2016) Fowler learned that other women in the company had similar run-ins with the same manager.

· (August 2016) The group of women called another meeting with Uber’s HR, Human Resources acted like it was their first time hearing of any issues with this manager.

· (December 2016) After continuing to experience problems with management and HR, Fowler leaves the company.

· On February 19th, 2017, Fowler writes a blog post about her strange experience with Uber.

Actions Following the Event

· (February 19th, 2017) Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, states that Fowler’s account is “abhorrent and against everything we believe in.”

· (February 21st, 2017) Kalanick looks into investigation by hiring former U.S Attorney General, Eric Holder.

· (February to June 2017) During investigation, 20 Uber employees fired for incidents related to sexual harassment. More firings possible.

· (June 13th, 2017) Eric Holder announces recommendations for Uber. One of the recommendations includes “reallocating responsibilities of Kalanick.”

· (June 13th, 2017) Uber’s Board of Directors adopts all recommendations made by Holder.

Relevance to our company

This issue of sexual harassment is relevant to our company because it creates a negative perception of Uber’s work environment. After hearing Fowler’s story, it is not likely that women will want to work in an environment where sexual harassment has been such an issue. This is evident now in which only 3% of Uber’s engineers are women. This is a 22% decrease from when Fowler first joined.

Question to be addressed

As a company, Uber needs to be socially responsible. This means taking correct action when employees are not treated respectfully. We have to confront wrong behavior even if it is done by “high performers.” My question is: “How can we create an ethical workplace culture that will prevent sexual harassment cases from happening in the future?”

Social Concerns

With the recent case of sexual harassment claims, we are harming our company’s reputation. Following Fowler’s blog post, #DeleteUber became a trending topic on Twitter and was sent out by over 1000 users. According to Keyhole.com, the #DeleteUber trend was viewed by over 30 million people on Twitter. Social media platforms have gained giant popularity in our society, making social trends accessible to hundreds of millions of people. The exact number of people boycotting Uber is immeasurable, but it is social network that validate people’s unwillingness to support.