I need very brief answers please, THANK YOU QUESTIONS: 1. Why is it a battle for
ID: 350094 • Letter: I
Question
I need very brief answers please, THANK YOU
QUESTIONS:
1. Why is it a battle for technology companies to increase the number of women working at the organization?
2. What approach is Uber taking to improve the work environment for women? Why are they under scrutiny to improve workforce transparency?
3. Why is Uber considered lacking a diverse and inclusive culture? How is this driven by senior leadership? What steps are needed to change the organization?
4. What is ‘Organization Culture’. What factors affect the Organization’s Culture?
Uber Releases Workforce Data Amid Criticism of Company Culture --
Uber Technologies Inc. on Tuesday published the first breakdown of its workforce by gender and ethnicity, part of an effort to push back against criticism that the ride-sharing company's culture is hostile to women
As of this month, women comprised 36% of Uber's employees, in line with other tech companies, thanks to a prevalence of women in customer support and other nontechnical jobs. On the technical team, 15% of staff were women.
But Uber faces an uphill battle improving its numbers. There is a dearth of top tech talent, and recent scandals could hinder Uber's ability to attract job candidates who are also being courted by other companies.
While civil rights groups have been calling for transparency into the makeup of Uber's workforce for nearly a year, a crisis this year forced it to move. Last month, a former engineer, Susan Fowler Rigetti, published a stinging assessment of the company's workplace, which she said was permissive of sexual harassment and sexism.
"It is disappointing this comes only after a public crisis," said Joelle Emerson, chief executive of Paradigm, a diversity consultancy that works with many Silicon Valley firms.
Chief Executive Travis Kalanick acknowledged his company is late to post its report. "I know that we have been too slow in publishing our numbers, " he said in a statement. "The best way to demonstrate our commitment to change is through transparency."
Uber is one of the last big tech firms to release its diversity report. Companies including Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. began reporting their diversity statistics in 2014 in response to calls for measuring progress toward more diversity in the industry.
Nearly a year ago, Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Uber employees began calling for the company to disclose its data, because it was a holdout in the industry. Mr. Kalanick and Rev. Jackson met last week to discuss diversity and inclusion.
Overall, Uber's workforce of about 11,000 workers contains a slightly higher portion of women than Apple, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook, although a smaller portion of its leaders and technical employees are women. Uber doesn't count its roughly 1.5 million contracted drivers.
In the U.S., 8.8% of Uber's employees are black and 5.6% are Hispanic. Apple employs a larger share of black and Hispanic employees than Uber, particularly in technical and leadership roles.
But experts in diversity caution against relying on top-line figures to understand how women and underrepresented minorities are advancing in the workplace. The data doesn't reflect the internal climate for these employees.
Early Uber investors Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein have criticized the company's toxic culture and a pattern of responding slowly to pressure to change. A leaked video of Mr. Kalanick yelling at a driver illustrated what many perceive to be an abrasive management style that is a turnoff to some employees. Uber's corporate values of "meritocracy and toe-stepping" also shuts out some employees, experts say.
"Progress would look like beginning to build an equitable and inclusive culture regardless of the numbers," Ms. Emerson said. "The public outcry hasn't been that Uber is still relatively homogenous, it is look at this terrible culture this company is perpetuating."
The company has been buffeted by other setbacks in recent weeks, including a potentially damaging lawsuit from rival Alphabet Inc. alleging stolen corporate secrets, a backlash over supposed close ties to the Trump administration, and several high level executive departures.
Separately, Uber said Tuesday it is pulling its operations out of Denmark in April in protest of local laws that are favorable to the taxi industry there. It has pulled out of other markets before, including Taiwan earlier this year and Austin, Tex. last year.
Still, Uber has said it is standing by its beleaguered founder, Mr. Kalanick, and will bring in a steadying hand in the form of a chief operating officer. In the search for the new executive, Uber director Arianna Huffington has said there is no room for "brilliant jerks" at the company. The company has also hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help with its internal investigation stemming from Ms. Rigetti's charges and said last week it has held hundreds of sessions with women employees.
Uber CEO Will Seek 'Leadership Help' Amid Challenges
Uber Technologies CEO Travis Kalanick says he'll seek leadership advice after a string of troubling news involving the company, capped Tuesday by an online video of him arguing with one of the ride-hailing service's drivers. WSJ's Lee Hawkins explains. Photo: Associated Press
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40TTVsNjQ_E
Explanation / Answer
1. It is a battle for technology companies to increase the number of women working in the organization because these organizations are mainly cultured and dominated by male employees. Women feel less capable,insecure and not a part of the workplace. Being less in majority they feel their voice will not be heard and thus they stay sumissive before the male ratio ruling the majority. They trail behind men in salaries and incentives being awarded for their job performance. These factors make them feel left out and opt not to work in technology companies.
2. Uber is improving work environment for women by keeping the transparency in the internal activities. They are under scruitny to improve workforce transparency to increase the number of females working in the company and review the internal climate of the company.
3. Uber is considered lacking a diverse and inclusive culture because a very small portion of its employees are women who are in the leadership or technical jobs. Even the black and hispanic are very few in number. This is driven by senior leadership by giving the percentage of number of workers who are womenor minorities but not giving the positions they are on or they internal climate they face in the organization.
The steps needed to change the culture is to build an inclusive and equitable culture not based on the numbers merely. They will encourage the hiring of women employees on leadership and technical positions and maintain the transperancy in the work culture.
4. Organizational culture comprises of the policies, beliefs and practices followed in any organization. It gives the employees a direction which is to be followed in the organzation on the way they behave and do things. The factors that effect the organizational cuture are: the employees working in it, the sex of the employees, the nature of the business, the goals and objectives of the business, management and organizational structure and the customers and external bodies related to the organization.