culture, power and politics in Unilever Assignment

The effect of culture, power and politics in Unilever
Nguyen Quynh Nga- F12101
Email: [e-mail]
Abstract
Unilever is one of the most renowned multinational companies in food and family products. At
that time, where specializes in manufacturing consumer goods such as cosmetics, laundry
chemicals, toothpaste, shampoo, food and so on. Unilever employs about 180,000 people and
has sales of nearly 40 billion euros or more than 62 billion euros in 2005, and according The
economist in 2017, Unilever is the company is ranked seventh in Europe. Because of that
impression, I studied about the politics, power and culture of factors on the performance of
Unilever’s employees. Then, I research about the Maslow hierarchy of needs when applied in
Unilever change attitudes, performance of employees in that. it also researches about the
leadership style of managers, it like types of authority. Finally, I will give the recommendations
for improving efficiency in Unilever.
Key word: culture, Unilever, power.
1. Introduction
Unilever is a British and Dutch multinational company specializing in the production of
consumer goods such as cosmetics, cleaning chemicals, toothpaste, shampoo, and food products.
But presented and established in Vietnam in 1995 with the name is that Unilever Vietnam
International Co., Ltd. By the success of this as well as the great policies in motivating
employees to achieve high results. Moreover, in a paper of Human Resource Asia Magazine,
Unilever is one of the best workplace in Vietnam by policies for employees and equality in every
aspect in operation. By success of that, this research I will focus on analyze about that success
from culture, power, and politics. From that giving recommendation about shortage to maintain
that success in the future.
2. Culture, power and politics
According to Weis and Wiest “corporate culture is a system of values, norms, and symbols
typical for a company, which develop over a long time, and its result is the establishment of best
practices for the entire social group and the specific hierarchy of values”. In a production of
consumer goods such as cosmetic, detergent chemicals, foods, and so on like Unilever, a large
organization where have a lot of employees work and want to work for. They still achieve a lot

of achievement in operation. The good relationship between employees and manager must be
required, because it is hard to reach to specific conclusion when remaining the conflict between
two sides- employees and manager. In a famous newspaper in American, that is The economist
in 2017, it shows that Unilever is the company is ranked seventh in Europe and is one of the best
workplace to work for. In HRchannel, on February 14, employer branding solutions company
Anphabe announced the results of an independent survey of the 100 best workplaces in Vietnam
based on nearly 10,000 voted people from nearly 1,000 different companies in Vietnam. Because
in here the rights and voice of employees to be respected, and in here employees have rights to
voice about own opinion to be encouraged. It is clear that people will want to work in place
where their voice and their co-workers was heard. It creates the flexibility and creativity in
working process. When employees can voice about their ideas, which also become more active
and excite in working. It also reflects their enthusiasm and ability in work, from that it is easier
for manager can evaluate and consider about the promotion in the future if they still dedicate for
company.
In Unilever, they applied task culture in their business which was defined as in this almost
power dispersed and mainly determined by expert in which every worker tends to collaborate
with others and focus on reaching common goals and objectives of company. With the slogan of
company "To add vitality to life", we partly understand the identity of the Unilever corporation.
With the aim of building a sustainable environment besides always focus on the aim of business
such as making and creating products which is suitable with health, or hygiene of consumers but
always attach that with the society development as environment protection, company also focus
on employee’s satisfaction in workplace to create a comfortable working environment. Because
of that trying, the Unilever is one of the worthiest workplace to work in Vietnam also show
partly about the leadership style. This strategic also created to Unilever logo design thinking. The
task culture applied in Unilever and it causes certain influence on the business operating
activities and productivity of the employee, that is an always innovating, always creating for
suitable and convenient products. That also the reason why for Unilever success in performance
as well as the success in satisfaction of employees in workplace.
To individuals in Unilever, the organization always have basic criteria such as salaries, bonuses,
benefits, growth opportunities, culture and values, leadership, quality of work and life for
employees. To Unilever, it known as a group that has good policies in bringing benefits to
employees and has built up a beautiful image of a business when investing in Vietnam since
1995. Sharing on sggp.org.vn, Mr. JV Raman - President of Unilever Vietnam - said that
Unilever always creates a friendly, open, and empathetic environment among employees where
employees feel trusted and shared. That way, they can fully promote their creativity and stick
with the company for a long time. Moreover, Unilever also focuses on creating a working
environment with equal and sincere treatment among employees in the company, regardless of
rank and position.

According the Merriam Webster, the organizational politics is being actions or attitudes that are
taken to gain interest or power within a company. However, organizational politics is a
complicated concept. In another view, the management experts in book Enlightened office
politics, it is not positive or negative at all. To M. Taylor (2021), organizational politics that take
place in an organization that achieves, develops, and power using to reach to better results when
it must be choice between uncertainties and disagreements. In Unilever, organizational politics
also known as the way to enhance to individuals as well as influence/ increase to interest of
organization. To people in workplace who have right perception and suitable skill with politics, it
is helpful to their career development, they can gain power, or control individual pressure or
time. From that it is clear that politics has both negative and positive aspects that some people
realize it too late. This problem often related to managers in company, so it is necessary to accept
and understand right, it is also to be equipped with a reliable map of the political context and a
right understanding about origins of political activities.
The type of motivation in workplace known as an effective way is that reward power. It is a
practical policy in organization now, the leadership who can use this power at the right time and
place can create a good motivation for their employees. The higher performance in workplace
often receive with higher salary. Reward power can impact to employees’ attitude. That is
worthy to employees work effective than others or more effective than the past performance.
Because of that in Unilever also applied and created a lot of rewards as the motivation for the
employees with the aim to make behavior and attitudes in working performance of employees
become positive. The organization always care about basic criteria such as salaries, bonuses,
benefits, growth opportunities, culture and values, leadership, quality of work and life for
employees. Sharing on sggp.org.vn, Mr. JV Raman - President of Unilever Vietnam - said that
Unilever always creates a friendly, open, and empathetic environment among employees where
employees feel trusted and shared. That way, they can fully promote their creativity and stick
with the company for a long time. Moreover, Unilever also focuses on creating a working
environment with equal and sincere treatment among employees in the company, regardless of
rank and position. Unilever always create good environment and condition working or even
relaxing for employees such as meeting rooms, laptops or space for relaxing or gym help
employees feel most convenient, because of that in Best Employer Brand in 2013, Unilever
achieved at top 2 over 3 categories that have Best Workplace price in 25 industries.
Content and process theory of motivation
Content theory is tending to be the earliest theories of motivation or later modifications of early
theories. In work environment, they have had the greatest impact on management. It can be
called needs theories because it focuses on the importance of determining 'what' motivates us. In
other words, they try to identify what our 'needs' are and relate motivation to the fulfilling of

these needs. Content theory divide into 4 main types including Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg and
McClelland. I will apply Maslow in Unilever.
Process theories of motivation try to explain why behaviors are initiated. These theories focus on
the mechanism by which we choose a target and the effort that we exert to “hit” the target. It
includes Expectancy-based models (Vroom, Porter and Lawler); Equity theory (Adams); Goal
theory (Locke).
Content theory
Each of organization understand that the vital role of people to organizations, which related to
the survive of an organization. To knowledge academic, the human is necessary and important in
raise the competitive advantage of the organization. To applying in company, firstly, the
organization must understand about the theories. Motivation theory is a broad and frequently
researched topic in the sciences related to humans and society. It is the concerned with
explaining why and how human behavior is triggered. The motivation of employee which can be
defined as the driving factors that encourage employees to commit and follow behaviors.
According to Ashley Donohoe (2018), the employee’ motivation is the way to describes how to
employees will committed to his job, it is the beneficial of each individual by trying their best in
their work to bring the best result for organization. In work place, the motivation which will
affect to the ability to achieve the best performance of employees such as bonus and reward. On
the one hand, leaders can use motivation by different ways to get more positive performance and
results from employees (Career,2020).
In Unilever, the organization applied both content theory and process theory. Firstly, Unilever
applies Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in content theory.
Source: Authors: Quarterman Lee

Maslow divided it into 5 needs: physiological needs, safety, social, esteem and self-
actualization. Five needs all applied in Unilever with the purpose of motivating employees. From
that it creates high possibility to achieve objective of company.
To physiological, the salary and wage basic level is enough to meet the employee’s basic needs
such as they enough to buy water and foods. When the basic living level is not problem they
must care every day. They have more time to focus and forward higher level in career.
Moreover, in Unilever, they have equipment and beverages such as cold water, warm water, and
coffee with coffee maker to employees can awake and comfortable during work time. In each
period of time, Unilever also organized activities insides and outsides for employees to relax
(holidays) as well as improve physical issues (jogging competitions). It means that besides
operating activities, Unilever also care about reducing the pressure for employees after stress
working hours. To safety need, all salary, bonuses and benefits of employees are always on top
priority. The bonus level is always parallel to employee’s performance. To social needs (work
environment), Unilever’s employees are close-knit with each other, which make them feel better
and not pressured when they come to work every day, and on website sggp.org.vn, Mr. JV
Raman - President of Unilever Vietnam - said that Unilever always creates a friendly, open, and
empathetic environment among employees where employees feel trusted and shared. It is a
signal answer for the question of a lot of people why Unilever is one of the best workplace in
Vietnam. Besides that Unilever also extremely success when applying different criteria for
different types of employees in company different job with different requirements. According
Unilever Career, the Unilever's Chief Human Resources Officer Tim Munden, shared “Every
leader must know exactly what their purpose is, thereby connecting it with business goals”. For
example, with an introvert employee, Unilever show the way for reward is more secretly than
extrovert ones because they don’t want others know about that. But, when extrovert working,
Unilever create KPI which related to their tasks. At esteem needs, besides comfortable work
environment, Unilever also try to create opportunities for employees to study more and train
more to develop. Unilever's employees are allowed to participate in foreign high-level human
resource training programs, being exposed to many senior personnel in other countries. This is an
opportunity for human resources to study and work in better conditions and serve the business.
About enhancing self- actualization, Unilever’ employees receive attractive salary and bonus
policy, this is also the reason why many people are interested in and applying for Unilever. The
company has the best salary regime and personnel policy in Vietnam. Unilever also have clear
reward policies to recognized employees’ dedication when they finish good projects. Moreover,
the promotion opportunities for each employee in company is equal. From work environment,
facilities, working conditions, promotion opportunities and so on. All of them are evidence to
support and prove for Maslow model in Unilever. When Unilever ensures for employees and
make employees satisfied, they have times and conditions to develop career as well as dedicate
more for company. To comfortable environment, employees can try their best, about long-term
goal, their trying bring benefits for both sides (Unilever and that employees). Therefore, with

good performance in tasks and projects, proving for self-esteem. That why I wrote above that
five needs all applied in Unilever achieving good results with the purpose of motivating
employees. From that it creates high possibility to achieve objective of company. Hence, these
motivation techniques bring the effectiveness for Unilever in both improving employee’s
motivation and company’s objectives achievement (bartelby research).
Process theory of motivation (EQUITY THEORY OF MOTIVATION: ADAMS)
Adams's equity theory states that an employee cannot achieve satisfaction if they find themselves
being treated unfairly from their salary, training opportunities, and support from their superiors.
Equity theory of motivation which knowns as theory focuses on people’s feelings of how fairly
they have been treated in comparison with the treatment received by others. There are six broad
types of possible behavior which result from a sense of inequity including Changes to inputs,
Changes to outcomes, Cognitive distortion (of inputs and outcomes), Leaving the field, acting on
others, and Changing the object of comparison. John Stacey Adams believes that people want to
be treated fairly, especially in organization when employees tend to judge fairness by comparing
their effort with what they receive and comparing their percentage with that of their co-workers
in the company. According MisaAim, Unilever apply the online salary/ wages payment policies
for all employees as well as employers in Unilever, they do not use cash payment, it means
Unilever is trying to keep individual salaries a secret to avoid comparison and not satisfaction
between individuals with each other’s. And even private information of individuals is secret,
according Unilever.com, Any personal data provided to Unilever or collected by Unilever is
controlled by both Unilever PLC and Unilever NV, which are the joint parent companies of the
Unilever Group (all Unilever Group companies, collectively known as data controllers). Unilever
is one of the world's leading multinationals, Unilever currently operates in more than 190
countries and territories, because of that it is essential to be subtle in many matters so that
employees feel they are treated fairly in problems such as policies to eliminate discrimination on
age, sex, race, religion to make sure working environment as well as performance and
productivity of work. Because of that policies, the Unilever’ working environment become one
of the best workplace to work for. Also because of policies about problems such as policies to
eliminate discrimination on age, sex, race, religion, it is easier for employee can work in team to
achieve result better than individuals, and also good chance for Unilever can find talented
employees from different countries working for company.
3. Relationship culture, politics, and motivation.
In the case of Unilever, there is a close relationship between culture of organization and power.
When culture concentrate on business results such as performance and productivity of
employees, which is reason of application of power and motivational techniques. When applying

in organization where leader and manager have rights to give specific tasks for each employee
base on experience of each people. Therefore, it is suitable to use legitimate power- where power
stream from top to bottom, it means that higher positions in Unilever like directors, managers
have influence to lower positions. This type of power suitable for the task culture because people
in high position often have talent, viewpoint and experience to ensure can moderate employees
and operate business activities. To an organization, when director and manager can apply power
by right way, they can motivate employees’ energy to more dedicate to jobs performance.
Unilever also create promotion opportunities as well as reward or bonus to employees finish their
task with high achievement and hard working. Unilever also have training programs for
employees to self- develop and upgrade knowledge because reward power can affect to behavior
of individuals as well as groups. Besides, if employees cannot finish minimum requirements
receiving punishments of fines, it also a part of task culture in Unilever operating. Finally,
Unilever with goods policies achieve specific achievements in performance of company.
Therefore, it can be concluded that it is useful and positive changing if company. Moreover, it is
clear that CEO of Unilever know different ways to fines as well as motivate employees. For
example, to extrovert employees, manager have rewards and recognition different with introvert
employees. About Process theory of motivation, with equity theory, Unilever make sure the
fairness between individual to achieve the best performance and results. Because of that the
above reward part, we can see clear about these policies to motivate employees, Unilever
policies also flexible. Therefore, with the high satisfaction of employees in that, Unilever in The
Economist is one of the best workplace to work for.
4. Recommendation
In Unilever, it applying task culture brings many benefits but it includes some negative effects
which is negative to behavior of employees in organization. Unilever is a large organization, so
the work pressure also high, while company apply reward or too focus on competing projects, it
can cause problems for relationships in company. It can be between employees with each other
or employer with employees because of lacking time. In Unilever, the workloads are quite large
and the pressure is high. It has opportunities but also have a lot of pressure. In JobPro, according
to many reviews of employees from the company on forums, although working at Unilever there
are many opportunities to learn and improve experience, but always subject to high pressure,
high risk of rejection. if the target is not met, and sometimes the chances of advancement are
very low. It shows clearly about the level of pressure in Unilever. Therefore, to manager team, it
is very important to care and listen more about employees. In every organization, the connection
between human resource indispensable, the communication is very important and necessary in
Unilever.

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