Leadership and Management Theories in Unilever: A Detailed Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of leadership and management theories, with a focus on their application within organizations. It begins by outlining key leadership and management theories such as contingency theory, transformational leadership theory, behavioral theory, and transactional theory, explaining their relevance to organizational effectiveness. The report then compares the leadership and management approaches of Unilever with Tesco, highlighting the use of transactional leadership in Unilever and transformational leadership in Tesco. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of both hard and soft skills for leaders and managers in today's global environment. The report emphasizes how Unilever employs both transactional and transformational leadership theories, along with situational theory, to address various organizational challenges and improve employee performance, referencing specific programs like the 'Discover Your Purpose' initiative. The document concludes by underscoring the significance of aligning leadership styles with organizational vision to drive long-term success.

leadership and
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Part — 1...........................................................................................................................................3
Leadership and management theories..........................................................................................3
Comparing two organizations leadership and management approach.........................................4
DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT APPROACHES....................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is refers to the ability of influence or guide people within an organization
while management is the ability to control day to day process and keep employees on track to
achieve company goals. Also, management are refers to planning, organizing, directing and
staffing in order to consider leadership that is mainly a part of directing function of management.
Present report is based on Unilever, British multinational consumer goods company with
headquarter London and established on 1929 in UK. It is global consumer goods company that
offering beauty and personal care products, refreshments and food which is related to home care
products (Goute and Aithal,2018). Further, report will discuss leadership and management
approach & theories used by company. Then, it will explain different organization examples in
order to compare different styles of leadership and management approaches.
MAIN BODY
Part — 1
Leadership and management theories
The leadership and management theories play crucial role in the growth of the business
enterprises. with the assistance of the leadership and management theories the organization is
able to grow higher and mage the operation as well as employees of the association in effective
as well as efficient manner. Along with it improve the performance and bring positive culture in
the organization in adequate manner. Some the theories which contribute the effectiveness in the
company which are mentioned as follows:
Contingency theory: the leader of the organizations used this theory as it is one of the effective
theory for the organization growth. The contingency theory refers to the theory which indicate
that the leader of the organization should adjust in the organizational situation in order to
improve the performance of the company (Vasilescu, 2019) . In context to that the leader of the
Unilever organization adjusted themselves in the working condition of the organization and
motivate worker for encouraging the employees of the organization. With the utilization of this
theory the leader of the Unilever deliver huge support to the worker and resolve the problem in
short period. An organization can not rely on the prevailing circumstances. With the progress of
time there will be range of different elemetns which would be taking place. So i
Transformational leadership theory: it is considered as one of the effective theory as the
manger of the organization build relationship with the numbers of workers working in the

organization in order to motivate them and provide support to them. Due to which the workers
work with the motivation. Delivered by the leader. Due to the development of the relationship
the leader is able to improve the performance of the individual person and bring the quality and
standard of the company. Apart from that it deliver assistance in improving the skills and
knowledge of the individual person working within the association. Further it results in
improving the brand image in domestic as well as international marketplace.
Behavioural theory: it indicates the behaviour of the leader and the way the individual person
manage the work and the situation in an appropriate manner. The leader of the organization make
decision by involving the candidate in formation of the strategies (Alajmi, 2022). The behaviour
indicates the quality of the individual person for performing the task and bring the effectiveness.
The positive behaviour of the leader maintain the culture of the organization and encourage the
employees to perform well and deliver the services and productivity in a manner that satisfy
large numbers of the customer.
Transactional theory: it is considered as one of the effective theory for increasing the
capability and improving the performance of the organization. According to this theory the
manger or leader of the association motivate the workers of the organization for the welfare of
the company by offering some rewards, appreciation, bonuses that motivate the workers of the
association. It encourages the workers of the company in order to obtain some reward or getting
something in return. The leader of the organization provide feedbacks to the workers for
improving the productivity and profitability. The feedback includes positive as well as negative
comments. With the support of this theory the leader is mage to satisfy the workers of the
organization. The leader provide direction to the workers and allow them to obtain success in
the career path. Due to that the employees worked with the organization for the long period
(Delanoy, and Kasztelnik,2020.).
Comparing two organizations leadership and management approach
The various organization used various leadership style in order to motivate the workers and
improve the productivity and profitability of the company. apart from that the aim of utilizing
theory is to increase the value of the brand in domestic as well as international marketplace. The
Tesco is one of the leading company which provide effective services to the customer and satisfy
the large numbers of the workers by using effective leadership theory. The leader of the Tesco
company utilized transformational leadership for the development of the business. With the

utilization of this theory the leader of the organization develop the trust among the employees
that motivate them to work effectively. Furthermore, the organization is able to offer the better
customer experience (Owusu-Addo, 2022).
On the other hand the Unilever organization is also one of the leading organization of the UK
which is renowned for the wide range of product and services. The organization is contentiously
expending the business as the leader of the organization utilized transactional leader. With the
assistance of this the leader of the organization appreciate the workers for the efforts deliver in
the organization for welfare of the company. It delivers huge support in bringing innovation and
creativity at workplace as every individual person contribute their skills and knowledge which is
different from each other. Due to that the leader of the Unilever company the leader is able to
deliver the competitive advantages at workplace (Gautam, 2019.).
DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT APPROACHES
Unilever is a global giant which is engaged in the business of providing a number of
consumer goods. The organization is working in more than 190 countries with its around 400
brands. There are around 150000 employees are being associated with it, so having great ability
to extend well articulated leadership and management to pave the way for higher performance
(Mango, 2018)
Leader is the person whose role is to guide or direct the organization or individuals in
attempt to make them inclined to achieve the organizational goals. A leader is generally the
person with idealistic characteristics who influence others with its personality. It can also be
defined as an ability of a person to influence subordinates with the set of qualities and skills it
possesses. The role of a leader is very significant when it comes to success of an organization.
Since if a leader is extending its best then only would be able to hike the overall performance and
personality of employee which would ultimately drive the entity to accomplish bigger.
Management is a constellation of practises which is performed by a manger to drive the
organization accomplishing its vision, objectives, goals etc. A manager is supposed to carry out
key functions such as planning, organizing, cooperating, controlling etc. In simple words,
management is a process of managing a range of business activities. It gives them motivation to
perform on their merit and ultimately drives higher performance of the organization.
Management can also be defined as an art and science. This is art to manage a range of business

activities and it is a science to perform different tasks in rational way to eradicate all potential
troubles which may hinder the performance of the organization.
Hard Vs Soft Skills- As it is known that Unilever is working with great diaspora in the
market. So the leaders and managers are rigorously supposed to have both hard and soft skills in
order to perform with higher efficiency.
Hard skills can be defined as specific knowledge or skill required in a leader or manager
to execute their roles and responsibilities successfully. The modern organizational environment
is quite hectic in nature so such hard skills like Accounting knowledge, Machine operations,
software knowledge, Language knowledge etc. are needed. These help to perform both
leadership and management act with robust efficiency. In the organization employee expected to
get safety and security which is related to obtaining health insurance and health care that are help
for contributing money in saving account and also moving to safer neighbourhood. With greater
hard skills their safety can be secured.
Soft skills are those skills which can be defined as personal traits such as communication,
leadership, time management etc. this eases the work to carry out business activities in efficient
manner. Unilever is working in more than 190 countries so there is huge need to have such soft
skills to be on top and getting competitive advantage in markets (Khorakian and Sharifirad,
2019) The basic need which is necessary for survival as well as propagation of species. In
context to employees working in organization are work fort earning money, so they can survive
accordingly. These all sensitive aspects can only be hiked if the leader is having soft skills and
ability to understand such sensitive dimensions of employees. In the present scenario an
organization is having need of such leaders who possess great soft skills. These incentivize
organizational efficiency as a whole and eradicate potential troublemakers.
There are number of leadership theories which are being used by Unilever to make its
business operations affective. Unilever uses both Transactional and Transformational theories
as per requirement of time and circumstances. It also uses Situational theory to take advantage
of market dynamics. These theories are having their importance to sort out various issues in
different circumstances. So, these are being used by organizations to manage and lead their
employees and other resources in more efficient way.
Transactional theory stands for the notion where the employees are given something for
reverting something to the organization. The employees are given different facilities such as

Occupational Illness Frequency Rate(OIFR), different motivational offers in order to make them
influenced and deploying to perform better, making changes in their attitude.
To achieve those goals all types of strategies and tricks are supposed to be used. If
employees are not performing good then can use both reward and punishment to achieve the
goals so it can be concluded that the theory is having its direct relationship with the performance.
The role of leadership can not be eliminated when it comes to performance. The performance
factors is directly linked with the morale and how employees are performing their task.
It makes the decisions effective and also drive effectiveness to overall organizational
performance. For example- In Covid-19 the organization worked on Physical, Purposeful,
Mental, Emotional aspects of employees to enable them feeling attached to the organization.
“Discover Your Purpose” programme run by Unilever had turned out great effectiveness in the
overall performance of the organization (Salihu, 2019)
Transformational theory suggests that rather than transactions there must be change
imparting in the overall performance, attitude of employees. For example- The employees of
Unilever are guided to follow the vision or mission of the organization. The vision of Unilever is
making sustainable living. So all the employees are driven to make this vision come true.
The above models are helpful in decision-making too. Since while making decision it is
essential to make employees abide with changes which is a complex task. By paying attention to
the long term goals, an organization can drive its workforce to hike their performance. This
leadership style mainly accentuates to transform behaviour of employees rather than motivating
them for short term. The salient aim of this theory to bring vision of the organization in centre of
all priorities so can uphold that and can drive employees to perform on their merit.
For example- In January 2022, the organization has introduced big changes in its
management. The present Matrix Structure would be organized in five distinct groups of
business. Such as beauty, home care, personal care, nutrition, ice cream. So it became possible
due to great leadership practise (Lee, 2021)
Situational theory of leadership, which says that as per requirement of time and
circumstances, leadership can be mould. There are number of such events where it was seen that
due to greater leadership the effectiveness and decision-making capabilities of Unilever it gets
augmented. Here, it can be summarized that the practised leadership theories or the organization
are bringing best in term of performance effectiveness and faster, absolute, advantageous

decision-making. The role of this management theory is highly prominent since it suggests better
ways to deal with different employees. An organization can not rely on a single set of practise to
manage its performance so with this regard this model offers a wide window to hike the
performance. The organizations efficiency and effectiveness depend on its leadership and
management skills which are drivers of these factors.
Comparison of management and leadership activities in various organizations-
There are number of management and leadership activities performed in different
organizations. All the entities are having their needs and circumstances which drive their way to
perform it. These are some yardsticks which are to be used in order to measure the performance
and activities of these organizations who are using different management and leadership
activities in order to hike their business operational efficiency (Shaturaev and Bekimbetova,
2021)
Johnson & Johnson is having Punishment-constructs to motivate employees, whereas,
Nestle is having “Democratic leadership” model of leadership. At the same time Unilever is
practising multiple models of leadership to perform different leadership activities such as
motivation, driving, suggesting etc. the organizations are practising these models as per their
suitability and ease. Being global giants the fact can not be ignored that there is need to pay
severe attention to these notions.
In Johnson & Johnson and Nestle management is more centralized since the
organizations are operating their business in limited nations. At the same time the business area
of Unilever it expanded and it is running its business in around 190 countries (Mueller, J., 2020)
so to a wider extend the business is having decentralized structure of carrying out management
activities.
Johnson & Johnson prioritizes health and safety of its employees, at the same time same
model is being used by Nestle and Unilever but Unilever it practises this management and
leadership activity to larger context. They are having their well-structured programme to prevent
any type of decease in their employees. At the same time it also runs different programmes to
make employees satisfied (Rehbock, Pircher Verdorfer and Knipfer, 2021)
The planning activities in Johnson & Johnson and Nestle are based on the approach of the
highest authority since the realm they are serving its limited, on the other side, Unilever have its
ethnocentric approach of planning activities. The organization is running business in around 190

nations so having need to fabricate its plans suitable to the nations of operation. Both
organizations have notched up their presence in a number of nations so it is essential for them to
install such a planning style which may hike their performance.
From the evaluation above it can be summarized that there are different activities of
leadership and management are being performed by organizations. With this regard multiple
organizations are taken to bring comparability with Unilever plc which is one of the biggest
organization based in UK.
Importance of culture and Role of leaders
As we know it is a very reputed brand. Organizational culture is defined as the values,
ideals, attitudes and goals that characterize an organization. Unilever has an organization culture
of performance, which emphasizes the significance of employee output. This corporate culture
focus on performance, individual performance and organization performance. It focus on quality
of output in all the areas which is necessary for development. A healthy culture improve
organization value as such success is significantly based on the ability of Unilever's
organizational culture to instil high performance and quality in employee's work ethics to
maximize business output (Raj and Aithal, 2018).
A leader plays important role in an organization. He is the backbone of a company. It
makes sense that if we want to build a purposeful business with purposeful brands, we need to
encourage our people to bring their purpose to work. In addition, a leader is a person that
influences the thoughts and actions of other people using his power of convincing and redefining
approaches to given problems. They tend to influence people so that their vision and goal for
something become the goal of the fellow workers who are working under the leadership of such
leaders.
Critical reflection on leadership and management
I have analysed that leadership has direct cause and effective relationship upon
organization and their success also leaders are determined avenues, change tolerance and culture
and employees motivation which are help to shape management strategies and their execution
and effectiveness. In addition to this, management help to focus on all the activities that are
necessary for improving efficiency and achievement of goals. On the other hand, it has been
critically analysed that bad leadership leads to toxic working attitude loss of high performances
of employees and unattractive workplace culture which is impacted based on performance of

employees (Sinulingga, 2019). Then negative leadership management is impact on lack of
vision which lead to failure and cannot motivate or inspire them members in order to achieve
goals of organization.
Reflection
Reflection 1
During the assessment I have learned various things about the leadership that was one of the best
experiences for me because I get a chance to enhance my skills and ability that I can use in
forthcoming time. Along with that I come to know that being a leader is not an easy task as the
individual person need to manage the whole work in effective as well as efficient manner. The
leaders are the most responsible person as it mange the operation and employees of the
organization together. Being a manger is not easy task as it consist of various hard as well as
soft skills. In my opinion the leader is the one who appreciate the workers of the organization
and increase the capability of the individual person for accomplishing the goal of the business
enterprises. I personally determined that I have strength of being a leader in the forthcoming
period of time. It further boosts my confidences to increase my capability of delivering values
and knowledge in effective as well as efficient manner. As leader, I can inspire other people
which is consider as the main job role and responsibility of the leader. In my opinion being a
leader means the individual person should encourage the individual person by sharing the values
and ideas with the consumer.
Along with that I identified that for the further development I need to consider some area of
development that will help me in improving my skills which is essential for position of
leadership. For becoming successful leader the individual person need to evaluate the skills and
knowledge. During that I evaluate that the operation of the company will be perfect if the leader
of the organization contribute is its efforts in the organization. In order to learn the skills of the
leader I communicate with the variety of people and exchange the views and ideas in adequate
manner. For the leader of the organization it is important to communicate with the workers of
the organization. Due to which the leader of the association is able to determine the values and
efforts of individual person which is important for monitoring the performance of the association
in domestic as well as international marketplace. With the efforts of the leader the organization
provide the positive culture within the company and inspire the people working in the association
in adequate manner. For the welfare of the organization the effective leader of company discuss

the plans of action with the employees of the firm. As I am having good decision-making skills I
have opportunity of being a leader of the organization who can increase the profitability and
productivity of the organization in positive manner. Along with that I determined that the person
whoo is leading the people deliver the direction to the employees and increase the satisfaction of
large numbers of the customers. This assessment is quite profitable for me as I acknowledge
myself with the roles and responsibility of being a leader.
Reflection 2
throughout the research I have come through various skills and learning that deliver the
cherishing movement to me because I come know about the leaders and the way they handle
each and every situation in effective as well as efficient manner. The leader of the organization
is responsible for operating the function of the organization in effective as well as efficient
manner. The research acknowledge me that the leader of the organization is the essential assets
of the organization that push the growth toward the success in adequate manner. The leader of
the organization is consist of various skills that includes communication, coordinating, decision-
making and various skills. The leader of the organization deal with the various people as per
their mindset of performing the task of the organization.
The leader motivate and encourage the workers of the organization due to which the company
is able to accomplish the goal in effective as well efficient manner. During the researching I
face many difficulties as different authors have different opinion about the leaders but my family
members, friends and mentor deliver huge support in collecting all the research in adequate
manner. I come to know that the leaders is the one who empower the workers of the
organization for dealing with the various forthcoming challenges of the organization. Along
with that the organization plan the strategies for welfare of the organization and allow the
company to lead the marketplace for the long period of time. Basically the leader of the
organization has various plan to resolve the problems of the workers and delver better solution to
them. As per my research I determined that the leadworks such a cooperative person but strict
too regarding the job role and responsibility.
Throughout the research I determined my strength which is decision-making power and good
listing power which I can use in the future for making communication with the workers of the
organization. In context to that with the good problem solving skills I can satisfy the employees

of the company and develop better relationship with them to boost their capabilities for
performing the task allotted to them.
Along with that I observe that I need to work on my communication skills which is the essential
element for the leader to deliver the message which is understandable by the people. If the
communication skill of the individual person is not better than the person find difficulty in
motivating the people and delivering right direction to them. During the assessment I have
developed a plan of becoming the effective leader in my career path that is I will focus on all the
skills that is mandatory for a leader and make myself physically and mentally strong as leader
has to operate the function as well as people working in the company in adequate manner. Along
with that I learned that the Tesco is one of the leading company is ruling the market and getting
success as the days are passing due to harder efforts of the leaders.
Refection 3
From the analysation I acknowledge that the leader of the firm is renowned for the operating and
managing the various situation in effective as well as effective manner. The leader share its
values and personal experiences with the workers of the organization in order to encourage the
labour of the company for giving values to the mission and vision of association. In my opinion
that the leader of the company bring the changes in the workflow of the company. I learned that
the leader of the association is always ready to expend the business operation in order to satisfy
large numbers of the customers and fulfilled the requirement of buyers the leader always fir the
strategies as per the taste and preferences of the individual person as well as marketing trend. For
the welfare of the business the individual person collect the point of views of the workers for
accomplishing the task or goal in effective as well as efficient manner.
Basically I identified that the effective leaders asked for the support of the workers of the
association. Form the examples of the various organization such as Tesco, mark and Spencer,
Sainsbury etc. I determined that the leader of the organization prepare the employees for
accomplishing the goal of the company and meet the challenges in a way that the organization
will not affect negatively. Along with that the leading person make sure that the employees are
performing the job role and responsibility inadequate manner. In context to that the leader,
maintain the performance chart of each and every individual person working in the organization.
Apart from that I observe that the person make sure that the workers are getting enough
equipment or the requirement for performing the role in effective as well as efficient manner.