Report: Understanding and Leading Change at Unilever

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of change management within Unilever. It begins with an introduction to the company and its operations, followed by a comparison with Marks and Spencer, highlighting differences in training, working hours, leadership, culture, technology, and organizational structure. The report then delves into internal and external drivers of change, utilizing SWOT and PEST analyses to evaluate their impact on leadership and individual behavior. It identifies strengths and weaknesses within Unilever, as well as political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the organization. The report further examines measures taken to minimize the negative impacts of change, specifically focusing on the continuous improvement model. It also explores barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making, and different leadership approaches for navigating change. The conclusion summarizes key findings and insights regarding Unilever's approach to change management.

UNDERSTANDING AND
LEADING CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Comparison between the Organisation and impact on the change.......................................1
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P2 Evaluation of internal and external drivers of change that effect the leadership an
individual behaviour....................................................................................................................3
P3 measure that taken to minimize the negative impact of change............................................4
LO3..................................................................................................................................................5
P4 Barriers of change and their influence on leadership decision making.................................5
LO4..................................................................................................................................................7
P5 Different Leadership approaches for with the change ..........................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Change Management is the process which is used by the organization to prepare about
the making the changes in the organisation using the approaches. It is used for make the
organisation better and improve the individuals, teams in the organisation. Unilever is a British
and Dutch based company. Its have headquarters in London, UK and Rotterdam Netherlands.
Company founded in 1929 and founder was the William lever and James Darcy lever. The firm
dealing in the customer goods like beauty products, personal care products etc. Unilever owns
the around the 400 brand and they serving the product all around the world. It has around
155,000 employees with operating income of 9.808 Billions pound. This report includes the
leading and understanding changes. This study will also state the ways in which internal and
external forces of change affects the leadership as well as the measures are taken to minimize the
destructive impact of modification on organizational structure. It will include the difference
between the different drivers of the change with the help of example and also include the type of
changes that will impact on the structure of organisation. It will also explain the different kinds
of barriers of change and its influence as well as the approaches to deal with the changes(Al
Barwani, Flores and Imig, 2018).
LO1
P1 Comparison between the Organisation and impact on the change.
Every organisation follows the same strategies which makes the impact on the
organisation. There is the comparison between the Unilever and Marks and Spencer.
Basis Unilever Marks and Spencer
Training Unilever provide the training to
the employee in technical way
which help them to learn a new
thing for the employee and help
the organisation to increase the
working potential of the
employees and also increase the
knowledge of the employee.
Marks and Spencer provide the
training to the employee in the
managing by the trainer Which help
them to increase the working
potential of the employee that help
the organisation in the product of the
product.
Woking Hours Unilever provide the flexible Marks and Spencer not provide any
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working hours to the employee
which mean the employee select
the time of working according to
their own way. This impact of
the company and help then to
retain the employee and also
provide the good working
environment for the
employees(Diaz-
Rainey,Robertson, and Wilson,
2017).
kind of flexibility to the employee in
the working hours. It will impact
negative on the company and
employee were frustrated from the
work. This cause the organisation as
the loss of the employees.
Leadership Company apply the democratic
leadership which mean that the
every employee has the right to
speaks and if they facing any
problem then they can tell to the
Administration of the
organisation.
Marks and Spencer not using this
kind of leadership for the employee.
It means the employee of the
company have no rights to speaks to
high department. They have to
complete the given task in the giving
time. This create the negative impact
on the employees mind.
Culture Structure In the Unilever company it
provides the good culture
structure. They provide the
works for the same work for the
different culture and skill
employee which increase the
efficiency of the employee.
Marks and Spencer provide the
hierarchical culture structure which
mean that the head of department
decide the work for the employee
and they have done the work in the
deadline(Dudar,, Scott, and Scott,
2017).
Technology Hugh Impact of the technology
in the Unilever. It helps the
organisation to apply the change
which help them to sell the
Marks and Spencer not apply the
technology on the organisation
which impacts negatively on the
organisation and it reduces the
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product online and also increase
the rate of production with the
low cost.
production of the product and also
company close the around 100 stores
in all over the world.
Organisation Structure Unilever use the matrix structure
which mean that the all sub brand
of the company were connected
to the single management and
administration
department(Espedal, 2017). It
creates the complicated work for
the management and it impacts
negatively on the organisation.
Marks and Spencer use flat structure
which mean all department work
separately and then they give the
report to the administration
department. It reduces the middle
department and provide the good
working environment for the
Company.
LO2
P2 Evaluation of internal and external drivers of change that effect the leadership an individual
behaviour
INTERNAL DRIVERS (SWOT analyses)
Strength
 Strength of Unilever is that it has great communication between employees and other
level of workers.
 Apart from this, company has great culture which helps in retaining talent in the firm for
longer duration.
Weakness
 But weakness of Unilever is that its structure is not good
 its products can be replaced easily.
communication: This is the weakness of Unilever, if any organisation want to achieve their goal
then they need to be a good communication system with the employee. It helps the organisation
to understand the problem which are facing by the employee in the company. Unilever need to
create a good communication system which help them to understand the problem of the
employee and also commination help to build the good relation with the employee and create
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good relation with the management. If in the company the commination is one sided then it
creates the many problems for the organisation like lack of commination between the employee
and the management which impact on the work of the employee and also impact on the
performance of the company(Iles, 2017). Poor communication creates confusion and all team
members fails to understand their duties well which increases problem for them to perform their
work effective hence their team performance get affected badly. It also makes people negative
because they feel burden. But Unilever has maintain good communication which helps in making
people positive and improving performance of company.
Culture: every person have different value and the culture and in the organisation every
employees have different culture. It is very difficult for the organisation to create culture and
environment for the employee which is suitable for the all type of the employees. Unilever hire
the employees for the all over the world and all employee have different cultures. This will
impact on the organisation and create the lack of the trust between the employees. Unilever has
good culture at its workplace which motivates people. This thing improves performance of
individual and improve their performance in team as well. Hence this type of working support
business in improving organisational performance. Hence if there is culture difference of poor
culture then it will impact on individual team and organisational performance badly.
Organisation structure: Unilever does not have great structuring in the firm, as people are
unable to discuss their problem with higher authorities. Sometimes it creates confusion at
workplace which impact negative on individual behaviour and people fail to work well in
organisation and team as well. if the structure of organisation is not good that this things effect
on the performance of the organisation. It also effect on the behaviour of the leaders and also the
employees of the Unilever(Nelson-Brantley And et.al, 2018). Flow of the organisation is top ton
bottom which mean that the impact of change will effect the economic growth of the company.
Organisation structure help the company to maintain the system of work if structure is not good
then it effect on the whole organisation.
EXTERNAL DRIVERS (Pest analyses)
Political Factors: political factor effect on the performance of the company. Company start the
new business in other country then they need to cheek and apply the all political factor of the
country. Unilever check the all political factors which cause them in the decision making.
Political factor affect of the growth and business of the company so organisation needs to check
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the all political factors (Doppelt, 2017). If political conditions are not favourable, then profit of
business can be reduced in such condition leaders have to react hard with employees, sometimes
company terminate employees in such condition which impact negative on individual and team
behaviour.
Economic factor: If value of currency is down or if there is poor employment rate then
enterprise will not be able to manage cost of such staff members in such condition leaders force
people to work more which reduces their motivation level and they feel overburden. Hence this
thing impact on their behaviour and tam performance as well.
Social factor: if company consider cultural values of particular employee and treat them
accordingly hence it will motivate works and they will be positive and will performance well in
team and company as well.
Technological Factors: change in the technology will affect the company. Company needs to
apply the change in the technology which help them to improve the performance of the employee
as well as the production of the product. Regularly change in the technology will affect the
performance of the comp nay they need to provide the training for the new technology which
make the impact on the Company's decision making. By this way people will work effectively
and they will feel happy which will improve performance of team and Unilever.
Competitor: this is the big external factor for the organisations and also Competition increase in
day by day. At the present time Unilever facing the competition form the P&G, Nestle, Marks
and Spencer. It makes the Decision making very difficult fir the company. Company needs to do
some different thing to attract the customer's which help them to make more profit. Employees
and the leader of the company Optimize the Mass-market and then giving So many efforts of the
employees and leader are needed to compete against the competitors in this engaged market
P3 measure that taken to minimize the negative impact of change
Small changes in the organisation structure made a Hugh impact on the organisation. It
impacts on the production rate and also the work of the employees. Company needs to minimize
the negative impact of the change. Unilever use the continuous improvement model for the
minimize the negative impact. This model work in the four phases which are there-
Identify: this is the first phase of the model and also the most important phase. In this phase
Unilever firstly identity the changes which are creating the negative impact on the company like
Technological change. Change is necessary for the organization so company will check the all
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kind of profit from the technology change(van der Voet, Kuipers and Groeneveld,2015).
Unilever identity the all opportunists form the change as well as the threads from technology
then they take any step about the applying the changes and company will also ensure that the all
points are covered in this step which is necessary for applying the change that's why this is the
most important step of the Continuously improvement model. Company should employ
processes that report the effect and problems that are being raised by change. When the company
is able to accurately identify the change appropriate measures can be taken for minimising the
negative impacts of change.
Planing: after the identify phase company will go ahead to make the plan about the changes , in
this phase administration department of the company make plan that how they apply the change
and what strategies will be used in the organisation foe adopting the changes. After making the
plan about the change Administration department of the Unilever deicide the best strategy for the
company. The planning stage should also review the strategies it is planning to implement
whether they will be effective seeing the size and nature of business. So that the money of the
company is not wasted over strategies which will not help company to reduce the negative
impacts of change.
Execution: after the planing phase company will apply the strategy in the execution phase. In
this phase company apply the change on the organisation structure which help them to minimize
the negative impact of the change. After that company will also ensure that how they create the
new environment about the change(Wilkinson and et.al, 2017). It is needed that company
provide the training to the employee. It will help the company to adopt the change and minimize
the negative impact. Company should execute the strategies on selected department or on small
scale and should proceed further if receives positive responses.
Review: after completing the all steps of the identify, planing, execution then company take the
review about the applying the changes form the employee. Unilever take the review about the
applied strategy and also ensure that the if any employee facing any kind of problem about the
change then they resolve he issues as soon as possible. It makes the more easily to adopt the
changes for the employees and review also help the company to create a good working
environment for the employee.
Unilever apply the changes buy using this model and also ensure that they provide the training
about the change which increasing the working potential of the employee. Company also create
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the good commination with employees which help them to create the relation between the
organisation and the employee. It helps the company to retain the employees(Wylie, F. and et.al,
2017).
LO3
P4 Barriers of change and their influence on leadership decision making
Change is a must for the success of the organisation. People, market and technology are
going to change without any regard to the business leadership. Changing the ways of doing
business is important for cost reduction, becoming more efficient and foe increasing the sales of
the company. At the same time change is not as easy as it seems to be, there are various barriers
to the change that can prevent the effective implementation of the change.
Fear of Unknown
Implementing right change at right time is important to avoid risk of failure. Some people
might accept the change while some fear change. It is important for the people to overcome
personal barriers with respect to change management foe successful implementation of the
changed business practices and procedures. Leaders of Unilever have the responsibility of
implementing the change effectively(Al Barwani , Flores and Imig, 2018) , but before that they
have to create an environment for the acceptance of change. Fear of change may lead to
resistance of change by the employees therefore the leaders will have to motivate employees to
overcome their fears by explaining them the positive side of the change. People are unknown
with the changed situation hence they feel nervous in such condition they don’t accept changes
easily hence it is the biggest barrier of change. It influences decision of the firm because leaders
now have to make them aware with the actual condition and have to make them familiar which
will help in motivating workers and convincing them to accept modification.
Ineffective Leadership
Change management can prove to be uphill battle for the leaders if employees resist the
new change. This is the biggest worry as well as challenge for the leaders of Unilever as it is
very sensitive phase for the company. Leaders are the real drivers of change if they are not
effective it may be harmful for the company implementing any change. Most of the employees
resist change because they have the fear of becoming obsolete and mainly of losing their job. It
is the leaders who have to ensure employees about the job security and how change will help in
developing their personality(Diaz-Rainey, Robertson and Wilson, 2017). Leaders should also
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provide the employees with the requisite training for showing them that they are worth-full for
the organisation. If leaders are not effective then they will not be able to convince people which
will impact on working of people. In such condition resistance of employees increases hence
leaders have to make changes in their leading way so that individuals can work better in the firm
and can accept change effectively./
Ineffective Communication
Ineffective communication is the first barrier of change. Some leaders of the Unilever
have the habit of giving announcements for the change with a notion that people are ready and
will adjust with the change for new development which mostly results in the resistance. It is
crucial for the leaders to communicate the implementation of the change to each level of
organisation. Everyone should be considered as the key stakeholder of the company for ensuring
a successful result. If the change is not communicated and explained properly , the leaders will
not be able implement it successfully. The leaders will face conflicts with the staff as most of
them are not able to understand the change and its benefits to them and the organisation(Espedal,
2017).
Bad Cultural Shift
Leaders have to know to that change which they are planning to bring can affect people.
Leaders of Unilever have to consider the feelings and intuitions of the people before
implementing any change. For example any raw material used in the production of any product
might be against the culture or the tradition of the employee, so he must not be forced to work in
that field which might hurt his religious sentiments. And if there is a majority there will be a
declared resistance. Disrespecting taboos and traditions etc. will affect the feelings of the
employees. Leaders have to incur an objective analysis considering the feelings of employees
for the effective implementation of any organisational change.
LO4
P5 Different Leadership approaches for with the change
There are different leadership approaches describing some of them foe effectively dealing with
the change.
Democratic approach
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Leaders ae required to implement this approach, by this way they will be able to treat
people well and build strong bonding with them in such condition employees of Unilever will
support their leaders and will accept changes easily and work effectively.
Trait Approach
A major approach of leadership is the trait approach which deals with mental, physical
and personality approach. The concept of this approach is that the leaders place the right person
at right job, people who welcome change and are challenging should be allocated with the tasks
that are more prone to changes(Wilkinson and et.al, 2017). This will help the leaders of the
Unilever to avoid the resistance of the change and implement it effectively.
Situational Approach
With the emergence of the new approaches of leadership this approach was theorized
which led that leadership was facing contingencies based on various situations. This approach
focus on that the leaders will lead the employees to accept change considering the various
situations in which the change is to be implemented. Examples of this approach are follower
commitment/ motivation , leader – follower relationship and interactions etc. It is further divided
in some effective approaches like task structure, leader-follower relationship and position power.
This is considered as best leadership approach which can help the firm in making people ready to
accept changes and work hard in new changed condition.
Functional Approach
This approach deals with forming an objective and purpose for the change that Unilever
is planning to implement. Every change has a motive behind it and it is necessary for the leaders
to communicate objective of the change(van der Voet , Kuipers and Groeneveld,, 2015).
Effective leaders always invite the suggestions and new ideas for the effective implementation of
the change this will increase the ability of the leaders and widen there scope of thinking.
Effective communication channels should be established for effective management of the
change. Leaders of Unilever will have to help the other employees to work on the change and to
accomplish the organisational change.
Transformational Approach
In this approach Leaders of Unilever creates connections and engages with the others for
raising the level of motivation as well as morality between the leader and its followers.
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Transformational approach help the leaders in preparing the employees in advance about the
change. This approach is further divided into.
Charismatic and Inspirational Leadership.
Leaders try to identify the unique quality of the individuals which is different from others
. Charismatic Leaders have the influencing powers which motivate large number of employees
in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organisation. Leaders motivate the employees to
welcome change showing them the vision of the future and motivating them.
Intellectual Stimulation
By inspiring the employees and its followers to be innovative and creative and motivating
them to achieve the goals and objectives of the change by challenging their values and beliefs.
By helping the employees to become innovative and creative leaders , leaders inspire them to
accept as well as to bring the change(Wylie and et.al, 2017).
Individual Consideration
Individualised considerations is difficult but effective factor to apply the change. Leaders
assign tasks and set examples on individual basis for followers for helping them to alter their
abilities and skills along with motivating them to satisfy the changing organisational needs.
CONCLUSION
Analysing the above report it is concluded that leadership plays an effective role in change
management of any organisation. The study shows that change is important for any organisation
for its long term growth some changes like people, technology and market are beyond the control
of the organisations and leaders but are important factors which influence the decision making of
the Leaders. Change is important at the same it faces various barriers which make the change
management process difficult like fear of losing the job, ineffective leadership will not inspire
the employees to accept the change, ineffective communication will create misconceptions about
the change. There are various leadership approaches which can help the leaders in implementing
the change. Approaches lays down the ways through which leaders can motivate and prepare the
employees to accept the change. It is the leaders who influence and inspire the employees who
show the positive aspects of the change showing them the glimpse of the positive results and
how it will enhance their personality. Therefore, it is very important foe the organisation to have
effective leaders who can drive the employees to accept the change.
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