Organisational Behaviour Analysis of Unilever: Culture, Politics, Power, Motivation, and Effective Teams

This report analyses the impact of organisational culture, politics, and power on individual and team behaviour and performance at Unilever. It evaluates the content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques that enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context. It also explains what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team. The report provides recommendations for Unilever to improve its organisational behaviour.

Organisational
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.........................................................................................................1
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context...........................................4
P3 Explain what makes an Effective Team as opposed to an Ineffective Team .......................6
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organizational
context and given business situation...........................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Organisation behaviour is study or observation of the behaviour of individual or group of
worker on workplace and their effect on the work output of the staff and profitability of the
organisation (Aigbavboa, Akinshipe and Mutshaeni, 2020). These studies help to find the
adaptation of persons according to the personal history that the will able to do work assigned to
him. By matching the required behavioural skill Human resource department choose the best
talent among the available pool of potential work force. It is very helpful in testing the pressure
tackling quality of the personnel. In this report Unilever company has been taken into
consideration for organisational behavioural analysis. Unilever is a UK based MNC which deals
in majorly in many product category which include Foods and Refreshments, Home Care, and
Beauty & Personal Care. Unilever was founded in September 1929, By the merger of the British
soap maker Lever Brothers and the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. Following report
include organisation work culture observation, internal politics and power dominance on
individual as well as group behaviour and performance. Then estimation of how employees get
motivated according to motivation literature and how it contribute in the achievement of
organisational goals. Then in the report differentiation is done between effective and in effective
team in order to find the corrective measure to turn ineffective team into effective one. Unilever
behavioural analysis will be conducted and Problem detection and solution recommendations is
provided in conclusion.
MAIN BODY
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.
Charles handy gives us a Charles handy model of organisation which enable us to find the
organisation culture, through observing the Four factors which includes the following :-
 Culture:- mean the decision taking process which consist of authorities and
responsibilities provided to take decision is spread over person or centralised to one or
one body of persons (Alblas and Wijsman, 2021). Both have their pros and cons if
company follow centralise management then it take fast decision but compromise on
mutual consent. If they fallow decentralised structure then decision lays and loss of
opportunities will be faced but easy acceptance by work force. In context of Unilever
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adopted hybrid version of management in which the palace needed fast decision making
they centralised it and the palace where delay can be tolerated decentralised management
adopted.
 Task Culture:- Is the formation of teams company adopt in order to accomplish the task
assigned. So they team up with specialized and generalised personnel in a proportion that
the cost of such team will be least and operational efficiency to the highest. Unilever
follow a team head with specialised knowledge and other member with general
knowledge.
 Person Culture:- In this culture personnel give preference to their interest over
organisational goal. So they are working for sake of money only. They will
definitely so things due to which company have to suffer. In case of Unilever
company only choose loyal persons over more talent but not loyal. They see their
past records with other companies to find their nature.
 Role culture:- In this culture every personnel is assigned a job or task in which
they are specialised and willing to do with all responsibilities as that work is
owned by them. Unilever follow this culture as well. They assign specific heads
for particular function in order to make a effective and specialised management for
organisation. This will also train future high post management staff.
Culture of Unilever influences productivity to 2x level as they follow balanced
power according to the requirements of the departments. They provide target to
employees to make them more effective. Personal culture not present in the organisation.
Roles are designated so in problem of confusion and miscommunication so company
work smoothly.
Politics
It refer the way the management or the personnel use their power and position in
the organisation. Management can exploit the power in order to influence organisation
toward success or it can be destructive at times. Michael Jaraett provided 4 type of
politics are:-
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 Weeds: mean the informal organisation within formal organisation. Company
management use these organisation to create social harmony in the organisation. It is
called weed because if not controlled it can be disastrous to organisation.
 The Rocks: - It refers to the formal authorities present in the organisation which is
powered by Memorandum of association of the company. These order is very essential
part of organisation in order to achieve goal (Alexandrescu, 2018) .
 The High Ground:- It consider both the formal authority with organisation structure in
order to establish and maintaining the formal organisation. It include the rules and
regulation which governs the responsibilities and authorities relationship.
 The Woods:- These include the work ethics which is not told by anyone but it is stored in
mind of people where good working ethics are stored. These thing help in crises
situations to handle the causes.
Unilever balance between all the factors informal organisation exists here, Acts as
productive for social peace, Rock solid management is present so proper control over resources,
divisional and functional organisations combined is utilized. Company recruit best personnel as
their work ethic are good .
Power :- Is the ability to divert the force of other s in the direction of organisation goal and
objectives. Power can be of many types formal, informal and etc.
 Reward Power:- This is a concept which uses incentives, bonus, target, pay increase to
influences employees action towards organisation goals.
 Coercive Power:- It uses unpleasant experiences to control the action of other, such as
temporary suspension, demotion and dismissal.
 Legitimate Power:-It is based of the agreement between the agent and principal. This
provide the principal to order agent as they mutually agreed upon.
 Referent Power:- It is present in influential people, as they are followed by people so
they posses influence power.
 Expert Power:- This power is assigned to somebody when the target of the organisation
is in relation of the speciality of field is aligned. Then the say of verified party given
priority power (BuiKuan and Chu, 2018).
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Unilever Focus on to Reward, Legitimate and expert power for the achievement of
organisation goal through providing individual development & growth opportunities and proper
incentives.
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context.
Motivation is the art to satisfy the personal need of the employee so they can contribute to their
highest potential. Unilever's focuses to employee retention and attracting best talent by good
incentive.
Content theory of motivation:- include a priority based personal need list which is satisfied on
achieving a certain level work targets that keep employees motivated to work(Zihayat and et.al.,
2018).
Maslow's theory of motivation:- This theory is proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943, In this
the following needs are discussed in their level of satisfaction provided by them.
 Psychological Needs:- are the essentials which need to be fulfilled as employees can
focus von their work as if individuals basic need is not fulfilled then they cannot operate
on to full potentials, Unilever's take care very well as the pay handsome salaries.
 Safety Needs:- Includes all safety measure like company providing safety gears and good
working environment. Provide emotion securities, financial security, medical holidays.
Unilever follow a well planned benefits structures.
 Love/Belongings:- provides social belonging which includes friendships, family,
friendlily working environment . As humans have emotional need which can be fulfilled
with good relations between employees and management. Unilever organise events on
regular bases.
 Self Esteem:- human have the feeling to get recognition among the society as it provide
sense of pleasure which act as motivator for individual which help increasing the
productivity. Unilever provide regular promotions.
 Self Actualisation:- If individual see growth and development opportunities then they
feel encouraged and motivated. Unilever provide regular training to their employees.
Process Theory of motivation:-
Positive Reinforcement:- In this model employees get appreciation in any form such as
promotion, intensives , rewards. Which motivates employees this model followed by Unilever's.
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Negative Reinforcement:- In this model employees get deprived of normal incentive and
demotion on any kind of mistakes . So employees work due to fear of loss (Surjawati and Lestari,
2020).
 Punishment:- In this approach company reduces rewards available to employees on non
compliance with the target or organisation goal.
 Extinction:- In this no reward are present for good performs or target which lead to
unsatisfactory and poor performance.
Motivational Techniques:- techniques which is used by companies to satisfies employee's needs
and wants in order to increase the quality and quantity of work.
 Intrinsic Motivation:- Motivation which is derived automatically from inner feeling,
such a employee which are placed on work of their interest perform better and feel better
without any extra incentives (Erthal and Marques, 2018). Unilever ensure their
employees get best suitable position in the companies, so they can perform to the best
potentials, Unilever have best unique recruiting process to find interest.
 Extrinsic Motivation:-This motivation come out from the external things such as
monitory things like cash, bonus, incentives and payment in any kind . As cash is the best
motivation provider .In Unilever's there is a fixed target based intensive programmes.
After achieving that target company provide intensive and bonuses.
Vroom expectancy theory
victor vroom's expectancy theory of motivation is a structured process that how to motivate
individual for working process. It respect the fact that expectation regarding the future is result in
motivation which can be seen on output result (Sogancilar and Husniye, 2018). It is concluded
that individual motivation is affected is affected by how much they relate reward with action that
can be called valence. How much believe that doing something more can create good result
according to their expectancy. Believe system that good results will generate rewards in
accordance with efforts made by them.
 Valence:- The deep value of the reward which can be awarded when task are performed
in accordance with specific results and behaviour's. This will act as motivation for
employees to work in accordance with management prescribed.
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 Expectancy:- How much additional efforts will help to achieve the target or setted goal
in order to pursued the behaviour's. This is also another factor which help to pursued the
employees behaviour as company use expectation of employee to control their behaviour.
 Instrumentality:- How much they have believe that achieving certain level of
productivity will able to get reward. The achievement of certain level of productivity will
provide definite result in form of rewards (Fishbach and Woolley, 2022).
Recommendations:
Unilever's should provide regular feedback on the performance of employees as they known that
work is regularly monitored that make it easy for management to know the efficiency as to
provide critical feedback.
Unilever's should provide regular awards in order to appreciate the employees to regularly
improve their productivity in order to inculcate target achieving behaviour.
P3 Explain what makes an Effective Team as opposed to an Ineffective Team
Team is a generally classified into the group of people come together to achieve a common goal.
Team can be classified on many basic but here we take the compliance with dead line. If team is
able to complete work on time it is considered effective. If team is not able to complete task on
time then it is considered ineffective.
Effective Team Ineffective Team
 Interdependence:- In this team
member work interdependently on task
and every person fulfil their
responsibilities and achieve objectives.
 Proper and understandable
communication:- all member
understand each other thoughts and
cooperate with each other. Don't
contradict with each other efforts.
 Nobody dominate the group:- Both
chairmen and group equal importance
 No Proper interdependence:-
Members don't trust each other and
unable to fulfil assigned task. So people
cannot divided their task within group
as it would not be accepted by
members.
 Unable to understand each other:-
They have problems in communication
with each other. They cannot work on
same idea as duplication of work will
prevail.
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to each other. Both the parties maintain
good relation with each other.
 Try to over-shine among member:-
Member will break code of conduct in
order to outshine in the member which
lead to disturbance on non completion.
people indulged in unhealthy
completion lead to loss for organisation
as well as individual.
Conflict or difficult situations to develop roles during team
As team consist of humans and humans are dynamic in nature so it is very common to have
conflict within the organisation among team member(Hampton, Chinyio and Riva, 2019). This
create difficult situation for the management as conflicts are not good for the organisation proper
working. Some of the skills are developed in management while dealing such situations some of
them are presented below:-
 Problem solving skill:- As management regularly focus on solving problems, they
develop the problem solving skill (Reidhead, 2020).
 Leading Quality:- As the leader are directing the work force, management get
specialised in leading the team to work.
 Provide sense of belongingness:-As management keep eye on the team member which
provide feeling to be a part of company.
 Confidence and morale:- As management have the exposure of such environment
provide them with opportunities to apply the learnings which improve their confidence.
Critically analyse at least two group development theories to discuss the effectiveness of
teamwork in achieving the goals.
Tuckman's Model
Tuckman's explained that team development have stages which is divided on the bases maturity
and ability, relationships establish, and leadership style. In this model he explained that what all
problem people face while working in team and how they can deal with it can over come these
things.
There are five stages of team development are
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Forming:- In this stage as it is starting of team development so the environment of the team is
lenient as all the member is here want to known about each other. In Unilever When they recruit
new members they make sure they feel like family , each and every member get familiar with the
organisation.
 Storming:- In this stage team member try to dominate the group to acquire leadership
position in the organisation. So here conflict take place as all are fight or competing for
the same position. In Unilever every member get equal chance and opportunities to
develop and show their talent. Voting will decides who will be the leader.
 Norming:-In here team develop trust by executing team project in order to achieve
organisation objectives. Here they develop understand that who can be trusted and with
what kind of authority and responsibility. Unilever assign their new team with demo tasks
(Javed, 2019).
 Performing:-In this people are assigned with real project in which team member
establishes relation by helping other members in competing the assigned tasks. In
Unilever Here expert level people train the middle level people to accomplish assigned
task. Due to this Unilever have always ample of managerial talent in-house.
 Adjourning:-In this stage team member loose their previously assigned group after task
done. As team member develop flexility in accepting new member for other task as
members cannot be retained forever. Unilever's provide regular rotation of member in
team as they are able to deal with every members.
Belbin Theory – In this theory belbin describe the group behaviour that an individual places
different role in different situation. Individual develop a way of thinking and level of trust within
that group to complete the task on time (Nuckcheddy, 2018).
 Resource investigator – To find the best option to use resource, come up with alternative
use of same resource in order to achieve different level and different type of productions.
 Team worker – Is a skill will enable the leader to distribute the work in small piece to
team member in accordance with the members specialisation with related subject. Hold
the members trusts and responsibilities about the task assigned to them.
 Coordinator – Proper communication of ideas what to achieve, how to achieve,
responses what is achieved and feedbacks what need to be changed.
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 Plant – Their ability to handle pressure in difficult situations and come up with the ideas
to combat problems in achieving the prescribed target.
 Monitor Evaluator – They also posses the duty to evaluate the working of member, to
do so leader need to keep a close check on the decision and activities performed by team
on the project assigned
 Specialist – Provide the work to the matter specialist person so it can guide the team in
that respect of work. Only the specialist posses level of expertise in particular field that
will provide accurate knowledge for project.
 Shaper – They posses deviation skill through that they deviate the effort of team member
towards the achievement of assigned goal and target (Kalogiannidis, 2020).
 Implementer – Their main task is to implement the plan made by top management for
the project assigned to their team. Proper implementation of plan lead to the achievement
of predetermined goals.
 Completer Finisher – They need to have ability to solve the problems getting in way to
achievement of goals and ensure the effectively completion of project assigned.
Unilever's apply belbin model in team activities to achieve the desired result. For proper
completion of task include evaluation of the work of member directing towards goal and finally
achievement of goal is structure to achieve goals.
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organizational
context and given business situation.
Organisation behaviour is understood as the environment with in organisation, it observes the
individual behaviour's. It would be helpful in noticing how people interact and work as team so
policies can be formed accordingly to improve efficiency.
Path goal theory
These theory is how the leader interact with their co-worker have the impact on satisfaction,
motivation and efficiency of employees. It has their roots in expectancy theory as expectation of
outcome drive the action of employees. It is the duty of the good leader provide direction to the
team in a way that the personal goals of the employee get fulfilled in process of achieving the
organisation goal. There are 3 most common leadership qualities which are present below:-
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Employee characteristics:- leader have a duty to analysis internal and external environment so
they have full Knowledge in order to provide right direction to subordinates. In this duty the
leader have to analysis each and every employee to the fullest so they can provide respective
personalised intensives in order to motivate the employees to perused to achieve personal goals
in a way that help to achieve organisation goal.
Task and Environmental characteristics:- Task are the activities assigned by the management
to the employees in other words the target which have to be achieved in order to complete
monthly and yearly quoits. Environment analysis is also very important as it provides insight
about the weakness which can be overcomes by good management. Threats can identified and
tackled with advance preparation.
Leadership Behaviour:- There are many kind leading approach management use in order to co-
ordinate the action of the work force. Leader behaviour is the traits and characteristics that make
some effective as a leader. Leaders utilize their behaviour to help them guide, direct, and
influence the work of their team. These are the type of leadership style .
 Democratic Leadership:- In this leadership style employee also have the flexibility of
thoughts over the management of organisation, top management take the opinion of
employee's but take decision which seems them right.
 Autocratic Leadership:- In companies they already assigned the decision making power
to the expert of that department, no freedom is provided to the employee for participation
in decision making process.
 Laissez-faire Leadership:- In this approach management leave all the power of decision
making to the employee. Here no interference is made by top management in working.
The management trust their employees to the best believes.
 Strategic Leadership:- Is a bridge between top management and low worker as they
ensure proper working condition according to the employees and top management take
other decision related to business (Khan, 2019).
 Transformational Leadership:- In this leadership style company set targets to the
employees and management which is targeted to expend boundaries of the capabilities
and function of working. Target change over time as to increase productive.
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 Transactional Leadership:- In this approach company provide target based incentives
so to motivate employees and to achieve such target employee productive increases and
company growth prospectives.
 Coach-Style Leadership:- In this company assign particular head for each team which
personally monitor and review on the performance to improve their efficiency and
productivity (Miao, Eva, Newman, 2020).
 Bureaucratic Leadership:- Only the decision or choice of the employees respected
when it is according to company polices and company objectives. Most of the time it is
rejected by the top management.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, these conclusion can be drawn such as organisational behaviour is
the observation of internal environment which include human reactions in response to the
transaction under goes in normal course of business. Its also increase culture, politics and power
how these factor affect the working of employees in an organisation as individual as well as
group. It is studied with the help of content and process theories of motivation and motivation
techniques which help management make personalised motivation scheme for the employees as
to help them achieve full potential this is only way to achieve organisational goals and targets. It
also comprises the differentiation between effective and ineffective teams. How leader have to
deal to increase productivity and effectiveness. How difficult situation can be avoided or tackled
in management. Group formation, maintenance, and development theories in addition with
concept and philosophies of organisation behaviour.
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REFERENCES
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