BSc Business: Leadership Case Study on Unilever During COVID-19

This case study analyzes leadership practices at Unilever, a multinational company, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It assesses the changing perspectives of leadership in economic, social, and political contexts, highlighting the challenges faced by leaders in areas such as employee safety, uncertaint...Read More

Case study
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INTRODUCTION
A leader is an individual who passionately guide, lead and encourage individuals towards
determined goals and objectives (Hennekens and et. al., 2020). A good leader is having different
qualities and characteristics through which they fulfil needs of company.
Leadership is defined as an art in which leaders motivates individual or group towards a
common goal. In this they direct colleagues and workers towards company vision. A successful
leader undertakes advantage of effective leadership practices to encourage behavioural conduct
of individuals.
Leadership theory allows leaders to successfully guide teams or individual towards
accomplishment of organisational goals (Grint, 2020). There are mainly five leadership theories
that are transformational, transitional, charismatic, contingency, behavioural, and situational and
trait leadership theories.
Present report has been conducted on Unilever which is operating their business functioning
as a multinational company and headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Entity was founded
in the year 1929. Company is operating their operations in many industries such as consumer
goods, manufacturing, food and beverages, agriculture and more.
Present report includes formative discussions upon changing perspectives of leadership in
political, economical and social context during pandemic period. Along with this challenges
faced by leaders in respective organisation during COVID-19 crisis is also being discussed in
this report. Lastly, various characteristics of responsible leadership and importance of
demonstrating responsible leadership in company in which business practices get changed due to
pandemic is also being discussed in this report.
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TASK 1
1. Assess changing perspectives of leadership in economic, social and political contexts during
the pandemic period in organisation.
During the pandemic period leadership perspectives in organisation undergoes with various
changes that affects their leadership behaviour as well as practices in multiple manner. In terms
with Unilever leadership practices it has been identified that leaders of company are subjected to
overcome the unpredictable challenges in order to respond effectively to this situation (Knowles,
Lynch and Dollens, 2020). Along with this leader are requires to formulate network of team in
order to collaborate individuals with transparency and collaboration. In the crisis situation
individuals are forced to perform their business operations from work from home, for this they
are undertake advantage of technology in order to ensure regular communication. Along with
this in order to deal with this crisis in social way, leaders demonstrate empathy and provide
personnel as well as professional support to their employees and assure that employees are
working under safe and secure workplace environment (Góez Becerra, 2020). Further it has been
evaluated that leaders of Unilever with their ability of deliberate calm and bounded optimism
display their leadership quality effectively.
2. Assess the challenges faced by leadership in the chosen organisation in current pandemic
period.
Due to the corona virus outbreak many companies are affected in different ways, especially
those organisations who are dealing in agriculture or consumer goods sector faced multiple
challenges. This crisis acts as a biggest test of leadership, it has been evaluated that leadership in
Unilever faced number of challenges in terms of behaviour and safety of employees, challenging
guidelines and more (Arslan and Tarakci, 2020). In addition to this it has been evaluated that
leadership within respective organisation also faced challenge associated to uncertainty and
fear. It has been underlined that employees are feared about their professional as well as personal
lives that affects entire organisation (Tourish, 2020). Along with this, rapidly changing and
evolving situation also acts as a major challenge that effect leadership in COVID-19 crisis.
Leaders within respective company also encountered with different level of fear among
employees such and anxiety which is obviously justified in this situation. Leaders are required to
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make sure that they stay calm in order to overcome this difficult circumstance by controlling
emotions.
Rapidly changing environment from new regulations such as social distancing also acts as
a major challenge that has been faced by leaders of Unilever. In this situation they are required to
adapt different changes with more flexibility in order to survive beyond this crisis. Further it has
been evaluated that toxic organisational culture is also one of the major challenge that Unilever
leaders faced (Van Belleghem, 2020). Along with this, productivity and communication is also
a major challenge that has been faced by respective company leaders. In this it has been
identified that working from home affect communication and productivity of employees that
impact leadership in adverse way.
3. Clearly explain different characteristics of responsible leadership in the chosen organisation.
Responsible leadership not only allows leaders to effectively encourage and motivate other
individuals efficiently but also facilitates organisation to assure determined outcomes. It has been
evaluated that leadership is having different type of characteristics, in terms with leaders of
Unilever it has been identified that they provide psychological, physical and emotional support to
their employees in order to manage their stress and fear (Van Hijfte, 2020). In addition to this, it
has been underlined that leadership within Unilever are equipped with the characteristics of
integrity and sympathy. Along with this, they also appreciate and acknowledge law of cause and
effect in their leadership practices (Yang and Ren, 2020). Further this has been identified that
with the assistance of transparency, commitment and expertise leaders with Unilever lead
individuals more effectively. Commitment is also one of the most important characteristic of
responsible leadership in Unilever, in this leaders assures stakeholders are satisfied. For this
leaders undertake advantage of technology through which they provide regular update to
audiences and ensure their commitment towards organisation.
Empathy is also an essential characteristic through which leaders of Unilever ensure trust
building (Waweru, 2020). This is an essential element in which leaders of company showcase
their concern towards every individual in organisation in order to encourage individuals by
caring and supporting them. With the help of this they also manage fear that can affect
productivity adversely. With the help of empathy leaders of respective company provide safe and
positive workplace environment with a sense of duty to their employees.
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4. Analyse the importance of demonstrating responsible leadership in your chosen organisation
where business practices or processes have been changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 pandemic nearly affected each in every aspect around the world. Business
organisations from every sector are also not untouched from this crisis. This makes leadership to
be more responsible in order to overcome impact upon business processes and practices. This
crisis changed many aspects within organisation, for example employees are forced to do work
from home that affected direct communication channel (Rakshit and Veeravalli, 2020). It also
exaggerated upon their productivity in many ways. Thus, in this situation demonstrating
responsible leadership in Unilever is essential in order to redefine the manner in which entity is
operating their business. For this technology proves to be an effect measure in which leader will
enable themselves to operate their leadership in order to promote productivity.
Leaders are required to organise a network of team through which they can take
effectively respond to the negative impact of COVID-19 crisis upon company processes and
functions. In addition to this leadership must also foster transparency and collaboration among
network of team in which they must share information among each and every member in order to
encourage performance efficiency (Fernandez and Shaw, 2020). Leaders in Unilever are also
required to provide emotional support to employees as this pandemic developed tensed and
fearful working environment. Thus, promoting psychological safety and having concern towards
their fear leaders can deliberately handle the situation. Along with this leaders of Unilever by
empowering senior executives to undertake decisions without having approval can also establish
a quick decision making process at different level that not only empower right individuals but
can also allow entity to effectively response to this crisis in efficient way (Rowan and Galanakis,
2020). Thus, according to the above mentioned analysis it has been identified that responsible
leadership is a crucial aspect and plays an important role in respective company in which
organisational practices and functions get affected by COVID-19 crisis.
CONCLUSION
According to the above mentioned report it has been concluded that, leadership is a practice
in which leaders encourage and motivate other individuals or team towards a common objective.
For effective leadership leaders undertake use of different leadership practices as well as
theories that enhances their leadership skills.
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Corona virus crisis affect each and every aspect of business organisation in multiple ways
which also impacted upon leadership style and the ways in which leaders are practicing their
functions within an organisation.
Thus, to overcome the impact and challenges of Covid-19 pandemic responsible
leadership is required to be practiced in order to redefine the way of operating business
leadership functions.
It is essential for responsible leaders to embrace different characteristics of leadership in
political, economic and social context in order to face the economic crisis and mange different
operations effectively. This will allow leaders to provide emotional as well as physical assistance
to individuals and team within organisation and manage this situation effectively.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hennekens, C.H and et. al., 2020. The emerging pandemic of coronavirus and the urgent need
for public health leadership. The American journal of medicine.
Fernandez, A.A. and Shaw, G.P., 2020. Academic Leadership in a Time of Crisis: The
Coronavirus and COVID‐19. Journal of Leadership Studies. 14(1). pp.39-45.
Yang, L. and Ren, Y., 2020. Moral Obligation, Public Leadership, and Collective Action for
Epidemic Prevention and Control: Evidence from the Corona Virus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) Emergency. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health. 17(8). p.2731.
Tourish, D., 2020. Introduction to the special issue: Why the coronavirus crisis is also a crisis of
leadership.
Grint, K., 2020. Leadership, Management and Command in the time of the
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Rakshit, P.P. and Veeravalli, U.R., 2020. A Study to Review Charity and Philanthropical
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Van Hijfte, S., 2020. Blockchain and Industry Use Cases. In Decoding Blockchain for
Business (pp. 55-87). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Góez Becerra, M.E., 2020. Análisis de la influencia de la maternidad en la brecha de género en el
ámbito laboral de egresadas del CESA.
De Guzman, M., 2020. The Role of the Private Sector in Global Governance.
Arslan, B. and Tarakci, M., 2020. Negative Spillovers Across Partnerships for Responsible
Innovation: Evidence from the 2014 Ebola Outbreak. Journal of Management Studies.
Van Belleghem, S., 2020. The Offer You Can't Refuse: What if customers ask for more than an
excellent service?. Lannoo Meulenhoff-Belgium.
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Waweru, M., 2020. A Multi-Case Study on Integrated Customer Management: Ewals Cargo
Care and Arosci Trading Limited.
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