Leadership & Management Skills Development Report: A Unilever Study

This report provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary leadership and management theories, with a specific focus on Unilever as a case study. It analyzes and compares leadership and management, discussing theories such as Contingency Theory, Transformational Leadership Theory, Great Men Leadership Theory, and various management theories like Scientific Management Theory, Bureaucratic Management Theory, and Systems Management Theory. The report also examines key performance indicators (KPIs) such as revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and profit margin, and evaluates organizational leadership and management performance at Unilever. It further explores the relationship between performance management and leadership, highlighting the importance of team effectiveness and the role of leaders in creating performance strategies. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of leadership and management skills in enhancing overall business performance, and Desklib provides access to similar reports and study tools for students.

Developing Leadership
and Management
Skills

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report summarise about the contemporary theories and models of the management
and leadership. Along with that, this report also comprises different effective leadership skills.
For further instance this report also summarise the significance and impact of leadership in
relation to the overall business performance.

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Analysis and comparison of leadership and management. .........................................................1
Key performance metrics of organizational sector......................................................................3
Organizational leadership and management performance...........................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management skills helps the individual to have efficient growth in the
future (Sousa, and Rocha, 2019). There are various skills like communication, coordination,
problem solving, time management etc. These all skill help the individual to carry out the
operations smoothly and become more productive in the workplace. Unilever is a organisation
which provides quality products to the consumers in the market. The main vision of the company
is to provide products at very low prices. Unilever is an multinational corporation which is
selling consumer goods like food, beverages, personal care products etc. The main aim of the
company is make the lives of different consumers easier in the market. The organisation is
experienced in terms of generating revenues in the market. Due to their ethical practices Unilever
has managed to achieve the inherent goals and objectives. On the other hand, in this report there
will be brief discussion about leadership and management theories. Along with that, there will be
comparison of leadership and management. For further instance, there will be brief discussion
about key performance metrics of the organizational sector. In this report, there will be
evaluation about the leadership and management performance.
MAIN BODY
Analysis and comparison of leadership and management.
Leadership is an ability of the individual which help them to influence different
subordinates in the workplace and help them to reach more productivity. Leadership helps the
organisation to inherent the inherent goals and objectives in an systematic manner. There are
different leadership theories which are described below:
 Contingency Theory – In this theory it suggests that there is no way or working and
style of leadership which could be applicable in various situations (Megheirkouni, and
Mejheirkouni, 2020). There might be variables which could influence the situations.
Unilever management prepares their leaders to solve the problems which arises in the
future. The leaders of the organisation help management to create different innovative
ideas which enhance their performance.
 Transformational leadership Theory – In this theory there is a relationship between the
followers and the leaders. The leaders needs to influential while making the necessary
decisions for different employees in the workplace. Unilever management provides right
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training and development to the employees which helps them to carry out the operations
smoothly in the organisation. The management involves there leaders while making
several important decisions for the workplace. The company has established new way to
enhance the performance in the market.
 Great men leadership theory – In this theory it suggests that leaders are born which the
qualities and skills. It is one of the earliest theories that are made. Unilever leaders
develops different skills like problem solving, communication, decision making etc. They
give adequate time and experience to develop these skills. This helps the organisation to
generate more revenues in the market. The leaders which develops the effective skills can
have an efficient growth in the future.
Management theories are the general rules which help the organisation to achieve the
inherent goals and objectives in the market. The working culture is mainly regulated with the
different theories in the workplace (Jones, Vaux, and Olsson-Brown, 2019). There are several
benefits of the management theories. For example Increased productivity, decision making, etc.
Various types of management theories are described below:
 Scientific management theory – This theory was developed by Frederick Taylor it
basically improves the performance of the organisation. Taylor believes that management
needs to motivate its employees to work hard and help them to reach greater productivity
in the workplace. Leaders had to take the responsibility and divide the work fictively to
all team member (Davies, and Apperley, 2018). Unilever follows a system to motivate
their employees with promotion and recognition strategies. Their management and
leaders measure the performance of the staff to achieve the inherent goals and objectives
in the market.
 Bureaucratic management theory – This theory was developed by max Weber it
focuses on the structuring the organisation. The main focus of this theory is that the
organisation needs to develop clear set of rules to carry out the operations effectively.
There must be a clear chain of command which includes delegation of authority and
dividing the work properly between the team members. Unilever hierarchical chain is
vertical which pass on different decisions which helps the organisation to become more
effective. On the other hand, this help the employees to communicate with the top
management while implementing new ideas in the workplace. Most of the organisation
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nowadays implement new strategies to cop up with the new changing trends of the
market.
 Systems management theory – This theory suggests that business consists of different
components which helps them to carry out the operations smoothly. The employees needs
to follow the ethical system which is made by the management. The workers are the main
components of the workplace. Their productivity is main source to achieve the
organisation goals and objectives in the market. The working staff is an essential
component of the organisation. On the other hand they had to utilize the resources
effectively to generate more revenues in the market.
Comparison between leadership and management
Leadership Management
 Leadership is an ability to influence
different people. The main work
responsibility of the leader is to carry
out the operations effectively in the
workplace.
 The leaders needs to solve various
problems which arises in the workplace
(Pellegrini, and et.al 2020). They need
to take risks to make the organisation
achieves its goals and objectives.
 The leaders are people oriented they
needs to divide the work between
different employees and carry out more
productivity.
 Leaders have to facilitate the
organisation operations are carrying
out effectively. It is the most important
work responsibility of the leader.
 Management needs to perform certain
activities like directing controlling and
take different important decisions for
the organisation. They needs to
establish a connection with the leaders.
 The main focus of the management is
to implement new strategies and
innovative ideas to make more profits
in the market.
 They are Task oriented the
management has to give orders to the
leaders to manage the operations in a
systematic way.
 Management involves the leaders while
making certain important decisions in
the organisation. They could develop
new strategies which could be
implemented by the leaders in the
workplace.
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Key performance metrics of organizational sector.
A key performance indicator helps the organisation to measure the performance.
Organisation use this tool to identify whether the goals and objectives are achieved in the market.
KPI is simple yet effective to create a balance between the performance and organisational goals
in the market. Key performance indicators only works when every aspect of the organisation is
functioned accurately(Moldoveanu, and Narayandas, 2019). There are various key
performance indicators which help the organisation to measure the performance it is
described below:
 Revenue Growth – This is the main key performance indicator the company can
measure their targets and revenues which they had generated in the market. Unilever
mainly focuses on achieving their goals and objectives which help them to incur more
revenues in the market. The company measure their performance on the basis of profits
which are generated in the market. In retail industry the market is evolving with new
methods and strategies. The measuring of performance could only depends upon the
revenues generation which is incurred by the company.
 Customer Satisfaction – The organisation nowadays facing tough competition from the
market. They had to make the products according to the customer changing preferences.
This could be a key tool for the organisation to measure their overall performance.
Higher customer satisfaction means that the company achieves their goals in the market.
On the other hand, lower customer satisfaction means that the organisation fails to deliver
quality products in the market. Their key performance is low which could be measure by
the customer satisfaction tool.
 Profit margin – This is vital key source to measure the organisation performance in the
market. In retail industry the company needs to improve its productivity and capitalise of
various factors which helps them to generate more profits in the market. Profit margin is
is the main part of the performance metrics. The business can track their operations to
target the goals and objectives which is achieved by the organisations. Unilever use this
method to track their performance and become more effective in the retail industry.
Organizational leadership and management performance.
Organizational leadership is an strategic approach which helps the leaders to implement
new strategies and methods to increase the productivity of the workplace. Their efforts help the
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organisation to achieve the goals and objectives in the market (Day, and Liu, 2018). Unilever
leaders are experienced in terms of providing new and innovative ideas which help the company
to generate more revenues in the market. The company follows a democratic approach in the
workplace. With the help of this approach the leaders can make different important ideas to
improve different aspects of the company. The performance management is a corporate tool
which helps the organisation to measure the performance of different employees. The monitor of
performance needs to certain which includes different critical aspects of the workplace. Unilever
management had managed to improve their performance with the new trends. The leaders of the
organisation and the management has to work in a coordinated in order to achieve the goals and
objectives in the market.
Management of the company also plays and vital to carry out the operations more
effectively with new strategies and plans. Unilever management is agile and structured which
help them to achieve the inherent goals and objectives in the market. The main focus of the
company is to develop new innovative ideas to gain a competitive edge in the retail industry.
Their leaders plays a major role in improving the performance of the organisation in an
systematic manner. Performance management helps the boost the employees productivity. The
workers which are engaged actively achieves better results which is beneficial for the
organisation(Subramony, and et.al 2018). In case of Unilever its helps to have an potential
growth by assessing different strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. There are
different areas in which the management could improve their performance in an effective
manner.
Relationship between the performance management and leadership
 Leadership needs to focus on the team effectiveness - The leaders needs to improve
the productivity of the employees in order to achieve to achieve the goals. The
management and leaders has to develop a cordial relationship to work effectively. As a
leader to achieve the organisational targets it is the main work responsibility. Unilever
has created a hierarchical structure to develop a enhanced connection. This helps them to
carry out the operations smoothly in the workplace. Unilever provides right training and
development to different leaders which helps them to achieve new and different skill set.
Therefore, the company is getting maximum efforts from the leaders in a systematic way.
The leaders needs to work in an composed behaviour to solve the problems in difficult
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situations. They also had to work in an coordinated manner to achieve greater results in
the workplace.
 The teams in the organisation needs leaders to create performance strategy – This is
the most important work responsibility of the leaders. They had carry out the effective
performance from the employees. On the other hand, the management closely monitor the
performance of the leader. They also measure the performance of the employees in the
workplace. Unilever leaders perform this work responsibility in an effective manner.
They implement new strategies and models to make the employees more productive in
the workplace (Oberer, and Erkollar, 2018). Proper alignment of the coordination help
the leaders to maximize the performance of the employees. The leader had to divide the
work between several employees.
 Leaders track and analyse the performance of the data – Leaders are responsible for
helping the employees in various difficult situations and helps them to become more
productive. The main vision of the leaders is to measure the performance with the right
plan and tools. The management has the authority to ask the leader whether the
performance of the employees is not within their potential. Unilever leaders are
management communicate effectively to measure the performance of the working staff.
The helps the organisation to generate more revenues in the market. The company's
culture also plays a major role to achieve the productivity. Healthy working environment
could help the staff to work with the positive mindset. The management is capable in
passing on different important decisions which needs to be fulfil by the leaders. It could
be of achieving the targets and goals in the workplace (Ellis, and Abbott, 2020). In
today's world organizational leadership has set certain standards to management the
employee performance and the work quality in the organisation. Unilever has adjusted
with the new working environment. Their leaders and management work together to
work in an effective manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has concluded that leadership theories and management theories
helps the organisation to achieve their goals and objectives effectively. Unilever management
shares a cordial relationship with the leaders to achieve their goals. On the other hand, there is
brief discussion about the key performance indicators which helps organisation to measure their
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overall performance. The key indicators which are included in this report is revenue growth,
profit margin etc. Unilever use this performance to measure their performance effectively in the
retail industry. Along with that, there will be brief comparison about the leadership and
management. There are certain duties and work responsibilities which the leaders performs in the
workplace. On the other hand, the management has to work effectively with the leaders top
measure the performance. For further instance, there will be brief discussion about the
organizational leadership and management performance. There is relationship between the
performance management and leadership which is also discussed above in this report. It includes
analyse the performance of the employees and strategies to focus on the effectiveness of the
employees. Apart from that, there are different theories leadership and management theories
which are discussed above. In leadership there is contingency theory it suggests that there is no
best working style for the leadership. There are different variables which influence the situation.
Other theory is great men leadership theory it suggests that leaders are born not made. There are
different management theories which includes scientific management theory. In this the
management needs to motivate its employees to achieve higher productivity in the workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Sousa, M.J. and Rocha, Á., 2019. Leadership styles and skills developed through game-based
learning. Journal of Business Research, 94, pp.360-366.
Megheirkouni, M. and Mejheirkouni, A., 2020. Leadership development trends and challenges in
the twenty-first century: rethinking the priorities. Journal of Management Development.
Jones, B., Vaux, E. and Olsson-Brown, A., 2019. How to get started in quality improvement.
Bmj, 364.
Davies, E. and Apperley, H., 2018. 1 Learning to lead. BMJ Leader, 2(Suppl 1), pp.A1-A1.
Pellegrini, and et.al 2020. The relationship between knowledge management and leadership:
Mapping the field and providing future research avenues. Journal of Knowledge
Management.
Moldoveanu, M. and Narayandas, D., 2019. The future of leadership development. Harvard
business review, 97(2), pp.40-48.
Day, D.V. and Liu, Z., 2018. What is wrong with leadership development and what might be
done about it?. In What’s Wrong with Leadership? (pp. 226-240). Routledge.
Subramony, and et.al 2018. Leadership development practice bundles and organizational
performance: The mediating role of human capital and social capital. Journal of business
research, 83, pp.120-129.
Oberer, B. and Erkollar, A., 2018. Leadership 4.0: Digital leaders in the age of industry 4.0.
International Journal of Organizational Leadership.
Ellis, P. and Abbott, J., 2020. Are leadership and management different?. Journal of Kidney
Care, 5(1), pp.45-47.
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