Disccuss about the Women Participation is Less Compared to Men in Taxi Drivers: A Brief Study on UBER Company.
Women empowerment related problem in workplaces is really considered to be a serious societal issue in this contemporary world. Women face this empowerment related issues in several organisations under different industries across the globe. Similarly, the women empowerment related problems are also identified in the transportation industry. Especially, the participation of women drivers is less within the cab service industry. The gender discrimination in the workplaces can be considered as the major reason behind this. Gender discrimination related issues in the cab service providing industry usually take place due to the consideration of low wage rate for women, sexual harassment of women in workplaces, unbiased performance appraisal for women, and inadequate social recognition of women in the workplaces. These are considered to be the major reasons behind the less participation of women in the transportation service providing industry as cab drivers.
The gender discrimination problems are becoming a real problem for the women to satisfy individual personal and professional needs. The workplace sexual harassment, huge pay gap between men and women employees, long working hours for the women compared to the male drivers, and gender biased workplace evaluation can be regarded as the major problem for the women drivers. It is a negative perception, which is created that the female cab drivers are not expert enough to control the vehicles with higher speed comparing to the male cab drivers. Hence, the women empowerment issues are strongly identified in this industry. This research paper will investigate the women empowerment related challenges in the cab driver industry, which are causing the fewer women participation in the cab service providing industry as drivers.
The major aim of this research paper is to investigate the causes of fewer women participation in the transportation service providing industry as the cab drivers. The case studies of UBER will be discussed in the conceptual framework to understand the root cause and characteristics of the problem.
The major objectives of this particular research work are as follows:
Now, the researcher will develop the following research questions, which will help the researcher to address the problems associated with the transportation service providing industry.
The above-mentioned aspects, such as long working hours for women in workplaces, poor distribution of the wages, unbiased performance appraisal, workplace harassment and negative perception level about the skill level of women are considered to be the major reasons behind the limited participation level of women employees. This conducted research and potential research output will help to find out the root cause of this societal problem, which is affecting the social sustainability of the country. In addition, this study will also help the future researchers to suggest unique approaches to address such problems, which will help them to bring social sustainability. Hence, it can be stated that the conduction of this particular research work is highly justified.
Workplace environment can become socially sustainable and conflict-free through the consideration of effective cultural diversity and gender equality. Some of the modern day firms think that the consideration of effective gender empowerment and equality ensure effectively and conflict-free workplace environment, which ensures creativity and growth. On the other hand, some companies are considering gender empowerment approaches in the workplaces to gain valuable support from the important stakeholders (Abraham et al., 2017). On the other hand, this is also acceptable that the majority of the companies across the globe are considering the women empowerment approaches in the workplaces in order to ensure effective triple bottom line approach to improve the degree of social sustainability within the workplaces (Hall & Krueger, 2015). Some of the reasons behind the less participation of the women drivers in the cab service providing industry are discussed below.
Neutral and transparent performance appraisal is important for the employees of all cultural background and gender orientation. Effective and appropriate performance appraisal based on the performance level of employees actually helps the employees to boost individual motivation level. This transparent and ethical performance appraisal actually helps the employees to become loyal to the companies (Malin & Chandler, 2017). This specific concept actually helps any company to improve the performance level of the employees, but the transportation service providing firms are not prioritising ethical, transparent and unbiased performance appraisal and performance management process for the women drivers. This particular issue can be considered as the major reason behind the limited participation of the women drivers.
The major reason behind the biased performance appraisal is the negative perception level of the company management and stakeholders of the firms that the men are superior and more efficient comparing to women drivers. Actually, this particular perception level has nothing to do with the performance level (Liu et al., 2018). However, the ongoing social traditions, as well as negative thought process regarding the efficiency and skill level of the women drivers, are causing unethical performance appraisal and performance management process. These aspects should be overcome as the poor performance appraisal is forcing the women drivers to leave the organisations, which is becoming a serious societal issue.
Similar to positive performance appraisal and feedback, this is also important to state that the deserved wage distribution among the employees based on the performance level also can be regarded as the major motivational factor. This is acceptable that the salaries are considered to be one of the important motivational tools for the employees of all the cultural backgrounds and gender orientations. The salaries and wages should be distributed equally without any biases and discrimination (Peticca-Harris et al., 2018). However, the management of several transport service providing organisations is discriminating the fundamental rights of the women drivers regarding the getting salaries, wages, and incentives. This is actually affecting the motivation level of the women employees.
The social tradition and negative perception level are also considered as the major reasons behind this high wage gap between the male drivers and female drivers. Several professionals within the industry believe that the female drivers should be paid less comparing to the male drivers as it is not efficient and skilled compared to the male drivers. In addition, some centralised cultural aspects of the organisations, as well as some wage distribution policies, are also considered as the major reasons behind this (Huang et al., 2018). These problems should be overcome by the company management in order to bring sustainability to the societies of the country.
All the employees within the workplaces love to work with a higher level of flexibility. However, a higher level of workplace stress and long working hours actually affect the degree of flexibility, motivation and performance level of the employees. In several industries, the women employees are facing critical challenges regarding the higher degree of workplace stress. Most importantly, the consideration of long working hours in the workplaces and minimum wage rates are considered to be the major reasons behind the dissatisfaction level. Most importantly, the women drivers in the transportation industry have to work long and hard compared to the male employees, which automatically increase the stress level on such employees (Kooti et al., 2017). It actually forces them to leave the organisations and find for other job opportunities. In this case, also, the negative perception level and social tradition regarding skill and competency of women employees affect the participation level 9Gong et al., 2017).
In several countries, this is the traditional social myth that the women are born to manage the household responsibilities and men are born to manage the external affairs. In addition, several professionals and companies believe that the organisations will not become successful if they fully prioritise the efforts and skills of women drivers similar to the male drivers in the workplaces (Angrist et al., 2017). Most importantly, this is acceptable that the majority of the transport service providing companies start to introduce women empowerment policies and recruiting women drivers. After sometimes, the particular perception level and social tradition force them to follow the traditional path by preferring men over women drivers. The major reason behind the negative perception and social tradition in workplaces is the poor awareness campaign and strongly centralised approaches of the companies (Eckoldt et al., 2016). These specific aspects should be overcome by the company management.
Sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplaces also can be considered as the major reasons behind the minimum participation of the women drivers within the transport service providing industry. Most importantly, this is considered to be the major reason behind the less participation of the women drivers (Leistner & Steiner, 2017). The poor development of the strict policies and implementation of the strict policies can be considered as the major reason behind the growing workplace harassment incidents related to gender discrimination and sexual harassment, which are causing less participation of the women employees (Lowrey, 2015).
UBER is considered to be a popular multinational online application based cab service proving organisation, which is based in the United States of America. The company management has successfully expanded its business network across the globe (Oei & Ring, 2017). Despite the development and implementation of different kinds of innovative and sustainable tactics and approaches, the company management of UBER is suffering the social sustainability issues regarding poor women empowerment despite the strong commitment and introduction of the women empowerment policies.
First of all, the company management has decided to recruit a number of women drivers comparing to the male drivers in the year 2016 and 2017 to fulfil its commitment regarding the development of the diverse and conflict-free workforce. Still, it is identified that the women employees find it difficult to get recruited in UBER as the perception level of management on the skill, efficiency, competency and performance level of women drivers is negative. Secondly, the management of women is not taking proper steps according to the developed strict policies regarding gender discrimination and sexual harassment (Kapoor & Tucker, 2017). Different women employees are sexually assaulted in workplaces of UBER, but the management has failed to address this particular issues. This is considered to be the major reason behind the decrease in a number of the women drivers’ participation (Burke & Broderick, 2017). Lastly, this is also identified that the wage rate for the women drivers is still very much low for the women drivers comparing to the male drivers in UBER. This is considered to be a serious discrimination issue. On the other hand, the women employees are also feeling more stressed as the working hours for the women drivers are not made according to the rooster (Sun & Edara, 2015). These are considered to be some major discrimination issues, which are causing less participation of the women drivers in UBER.
The three-dimensional model on the empowerment of women in workplaces and societies can be implemented in this part of the research work to determine the major dimensions, which are forcing the women drivers to leave the organisation. Societal, personal, and relational dimensions can be considered as the three important dimensions (Scheiber, 2017).
In terms of the personal dimension, it can be stated that the level of self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy has been affected due to the poor motivational and workplace satisfaction aspects of the employees. In addition, this is also acceptable that the poor centralised approaches of the companies and some centralised managerial approaches of the organisations are affecting the performance level and job satisfaction level of women (Mirsadikov et al., 2016). These personal dimensional factors are getting affected.
In terms of the relational dimension, it is acceptable that the degree of bargaining power of the women drivers, social networking, social recognition, collaborative involvement, and the freedom of mobility has been affected by the management of the companies (Wirtz & Tang, 2016). These aspects have critically affected the motivation and flexibility level of the women drivers, which have forced them to leave the organisations.
In terms of the societal dimension, this is acceptable that the percentage of the women leadership and percentage of the female staff promotion to the higher authoritative level is quite poor comparing to the male leadership and male promotion in the workplaces. Hence, these are considered to be the major societal challenges, which are causing limited participation of the women drivers in the workplaces (Gloss et al., 2016).
The researcher has the choice to select any methodological approach, but the researcher should make sure that the selection should be based on the characteristics of the research work. The methodological approaches of a research study can be divided into two major sections, such as qualitative methodological approach and quantitative methodological approach. In this research work, the research has decided to use the qualitative methodological approach as the research work is of exploratory nature. In this research work, the perception level of the professionals, theorists, the literature on the particular topic will be considered to analyse the gathered information to ensure an effective research outcome.
The research also has the liberty to use any kind of data collection approach in this research study, but the researcher has to make sure that the selection information gathering approach should be effective in nature. The researcher can either choose primary data information or secondary data information in this research work. Depending upon the benefits of two data collection approaches, the researcher has decided to consider both the secondary and primary data gathering process. Academic textbooks and academic peer-reviewed journals will be considered as the major sources of the secondary data. On the other hand, a semi-structured questionnaire round will be organised to collect the valuable fresh information on this topic. 50 women drivers will be interviewed and open-ended questions will be created for the questionnaire. Hence, the sample size for this research study will be 50.
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References
Abraham, H., Lee, C., Brady, S., Fitzgerald, C., Mehler, B., Reimer, B., & Coughlin, J. F. (2017). Autonomous vehicles and alternatives to driving: trust, preferences, and effects of age. In Proceedings of the Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting (TRB’17).
Angrist, J. D., Caldwell, S., & Hall, J. V. (2017). Uber vs. Taxi: A Driver’s Eye View (No. w23891). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Burke, R., & Broderick, J. (2017, August). Navigating the gig: rideshare drivers and mobile technologies in context. In Proceedings of the 35th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication (p. 34). ACM.
Eckoldt, K., Hassenzahl, M., Laschke, M., Schneider, T., Schumann, J., & Könsgen, S. (2016). The Gentleman. A prosocial assistance system to promote considerate driving. In Proceedings on the 10th Conference on Design and Emotion.
Glöss, M., McGregor, M., & Brown, B. (2016, May). Designing for labour: Uber and the on-demand mobile workforce. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1632-1643). ACM.
Gong, J., Greenwood, B. N., & Song, Y. (2017). Uber might buy me a mercedes benz: An empirical investigation of the sharing economy and durable goods purchase.
Hall, J. V., & Krueger, A. B. (2015). An analysis of the labor market for Uber’s driver-partners in the United States. ILR Review, 0019793917717222.
Huang, Y. W., Lin, P. C., & Wang, J. (2018). The influence of bus and taxi drivers’ public self-consciousness and social anxiety on aberrant driving behaviors. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 117, 145-153.
Kapoor, A., & Tucker, C. E. (2017). How do Platform Participants respond to an Unfair Rating? An Analysis of a Ride-Sharing Platform Using a Quasi-Experiment.
Kooti, F., Grbovic, M., Aiello, L. M., Djuric, N., Radosavljevic, V., & Lerman, K. (2017, April). Analyzing Uber’s Ride-sharing Economy. In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web Companion (pp. 574-582). International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee.
Leistner, D. L., & Steiner, R. L. (2017). Uber for seniors? Exploring transportation options for the future. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2660), 22-29.
Liu, S. Y., Perez, M. A., & Lau, N. (2018). The impact of sleep disorders on driving safety—findings from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program naturalistic driving study. Sleep, 41(4), zsy023.
Lowrey, A. (2015). How One Woman Could Destroy Uber’s Business Model—and Take the Entire ‘On-Demand’Economy Down With It. New York Magazine, 30.
Malin, B. J., & Chandler, C. (2017). Free to work anxiously: Splintering precarity among drivers for Uber and Lyft. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(2), 382-400.
Mirsadikov, A., Harrison, A., & Mennecke, B. (2016). Tales From the Wheel: An IT-Fueled Ride as an UBER Driver.
Oei, S. Y., & Ring, D. M. (2017). The Tax Lives of Uber Drivers: Evidence from Internet Discussion Forums. Colum. J. Tax L., 8, 56.
Peticca-Harris, A., deGama, N., & Ravishankar, M. N. (2018). Postcapitalist precarious work and those in the ‘drivers’ seat: Exploring the motivations and lived experiences of Uber drivers in Canada. Organization, 1350508418757332.
Scheiber, N. (2017). How Uber uses psychological tricks to push its drivers’ buttons. The New York Times, 2.
Sun, C., & Edara, P. (2015). Is getting an Uber-Lyft from a sidecar different from hailing a taxi? Current dynamic ridesharing controversy. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2536), 60-66.
Wirtz, J., & Tang, C. (2016). Uber: Competing as market leader in the US versus being a distant second in China. SERVICES MARKETING: People Technology Strategy, 626-632.
Three-Dimensional Model
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