Write a memo to the company CEO that explains the nature of the problem and why it should be addressed as a “cultural” problem (perhaps in addition to a legal, economic, labor, or marketing issue)
Your final assignment asks you to bring together the themes and questions that have been raised in the course and apply them to solving a hypothetical business culture problem. Imagine that you have been hired as a consultant or work in-house for a company experiencing a problem of some kind. The problem can be internal, like an issue with management-worker relations, a sexual harassment issue, or a racial discrimination problem, or external, like reputational issue, breach of customer data or trust, or marketing failure.
THE PROBLEM: Uber is the world’s top cab service application, with 40 million users worldwide each month. Because it employs the low-cost – high-value organizational style, the firm has grown to become the leading market shareholder. When one examines Uber’s strategic position, one may claim that many individuals commute from one location to another on a regular basis. Uber must ensure that there is always a car ready to pick up clients when their demand arises in order to be efficient.
To do this, the company must not only attract a large number of drivers to the platform but also guarantee that all drivers are pleased with their interactions with the application and remain loyal to the company. In turn, Uber has the difficulty of encouraging drivers to work through challenging shifts with no oversight. As previously said, Uber advocates lower-cost rates as compared to traditional taxis. As a result, drivers must be willing to pick up and drop off customers at affordable pricing. Critics have claimed that the agreement benefits Uber rather than the drivers. As a result, one of the most serious issues that Uber confronts is the financial incentive of its drivers.
I will examine this problem deeply and come up with a solution after considering all ethnographic factors.
Write a memo to the company CEO that explains:
- The nature of the problem and why it should be addressed as a “cultural” problem (perhaps in addition to a legal, economic, labor, or marketing issue)
- How and why the problem is impacting the company
- How the ethnographic research and analysis you are trained to do (imagine that this is the case) will allow you to help the company find a viable solution to the problem and improve company morale, boost sales performance, enter new markets, etc.
- What challenges the company might face in implementing a successful “culture change”
The memo should also include:
- At least 2 references to materials from our course and 1 reference to an outside source and a substantive discussion of how they relate to the company’s problem, your planned research, or your anticipated findings
- A timeline and plan for the research and analysis you plan to do, including a discussion of your methods
- What resources (human, equipment) you will need to perform the research and analysis
- What questions you will address
- A discussion of the potential challenges for your research (i.e. language barriers, access problems, time constraints, etc.)
- What your anticipated findings will be.
- How the ethnographic insights you provide will help the company take action to solve the problem.
Your memo should be typed in Times New Roman 12-pt font with 1-inch margins. It should be double-spaced. No separate works cited page is necessary if you use parenthetical citations, i.e., (Malinowski 1922: 27), but feel free to include one if you want. It should be a minimum of three full pages.
Requirements: 3 Pages
