Change Management at Unilever: A Focus on Environmental Sustainability

This report examines Unilever's change management strategies with a focus on environmental sustainability. It begins by outlining Unilever's organizational profile and structure, highlighting its various divisions. The core change driver is identified as the need to reduce and ultimately eliminate plastic use in its operations, driven by environmental concerns and consumer demand for sustainable practices. The report identifies key stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, supply chain members, and customers, and assesses their likely reactions to the proposed changes. The initiative aims to foster ethical considerations regarding environmental sustainability and its success will be measured by the level of awareness spread and the reduction in plastic accumulation. The report concludes that this change initiative aligns with the company's goal of providing the best end-user experience and achieving punctuated equilibrium, while also potentially improving shareholder value.

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

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Introduction
It is the main objective of every business to achieve favourable amount of revenue in the
long run. In order to achieve that they must design a business model that is perfectly aligned to
their long term organizational goal. Unilever have been practicing major CSR activities and have
been idolised by many companies in the past (Rangan, Chase and Karim 2015). However the
company has been employing the extensive use of plastic in majority of their products and the
former intend to change the same. The following paper will throw light on the profile and
structure of the organization, it will identify the key change driver while discussing the overview
of the initiative and the stakeholders associated to the same.
Organization profile
The following paper Discusses about the change process that will be needed for the
smooth functioning of UNILEVER. Unilever was established back in 1930. The company’s
headquarters is in London, United Kingdom (Unilever.com 2018). The company started its
operation in London, however the company is one of the present market leaders throughout the
world with dedicate branches throughout the globe. The main product that is offered by the
company is of the FMCG type and they have products that cater to the need of every possible
demographic. Some of the flagships of the company are AXE, Qwality walls and Dove. The
company is headed by Alan Jope and Marijin Dekkers (Unilever.com 2018). As of 2017, it was
found that the company employs roughly 172,000 people all over the world (Unilever.com
2018).

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Organizational structure
The structure of the company is responsible for the efficiency and efficacy of all the
division within the company (Pathan and Faff 2013). The company is employs three divisions in
its operations. The operation is divided on the basis of their functioning. Since the company is an
fmcg, a product based division is made and is identified as one of the most important features of
the organization. There are four divisions within the department: Personal care, Food,
Refreshment and the home care division.
Figure 1 (Source: As created by the author)
The geographical division is segregated on the basis of the countries and regions they
operate in. The American division, the European division and the rest of the world division are
the bases of differentiation.
Product
Division
Personal
care Food Refreshment Home care

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Figure 2 (Source: As created by the author)
The corporate structure is headed by the Chief executive, followed by the HR
department, the research and development division, supply chain and others. The corporate
business structure is based on the main business operations of the company.
Geographical
division
European
division
American
division
Rest of the
World

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Figure 3 (Source: As created by the author)
The various divisions with the organization deems to provide the company operations
with a considerable competitive advantage over its competitors. The idea behind creation of such
division is market segmentation so that the company can devise operational strategies for a
particular demographic.
Change drivers
The operations of the company revolves around end user satisfaction. The company
firmly believes in the idea of eliminating the middlemen form operations. Middlemen hamper the
overall satisfaction that the consumers receive from the product (Arya et al. 2015) The intention
of the company is to sell their products directly to the consumers and the same implies that the
operations of the company is not dependent or influenced by the middlemen. The company has
identified the need for satisfaction of the consumers in the long run. One of the drivers of change
is identified in the company’s intention to satisfy as many customers as possible. It can be said
Chief executive
Product division Geographical
division
HR department Research and
development
Supply chain Marketing and
communications
Finance

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that the operations of the company is perfectly aligned to the idea of punctuated equilibrium.
Punctuated equilibrium is a change model using with the help of which a company is able to
sustain itself over the long run through continuous periods of stability (Lam and Chan 2015). In
order to achieve this goal the operations of the company should be influenced by yet another
driver of change which is realised in complete removal of plastic associated to all the operations
of the company. It was identified that most of the operations of the company involves plastic.
Plastic poses serious threats to the environment and thus the use of the same should be reduced
(Depledge et al. 2013). Furthermore plastic is not biodegradable which makes plastic residue of
hazardous nature (Hong et al. 2013). Thus it can be recommended that the company should
eliminate the use of plastic in operations such as packaging and use in disposal bags.
Key stakeholders
The stakeholders are of key importance to every company since they are responsible for
the business’s long term and short term sustainability (Nasim & Sushil 2012). The key
stakeholders of the company have been identified as the employees, shareholder, members of the
supply chain and most importantly the customer community. The proposed change drivers will
affect the overview of the company form the stakeholder’s perspective. The company will be
able to spread awareness regarding their sustainability initiatives by removal of plastic from their
operations. They will also be able to gain the trust of the shareholders. Share prices are said to
rise with the advent of favourable news (Dumay and Garanina 2013). Rising share prices will
attract new investors. However this initiative can upset some of the members of the supply chain,
the suppliers of the packaging materials. Other than that every other stakeholder is likely to
appreciate the company’s initiative.

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Initiative overview
In providing the change initiative for the operations of the company, the issue that has
been located is environmental sustainability. This can help in achievement and success of both
the change drivers that are necessary attaining organizational success and achievement of the
organizational goals. The success of the initiative will be measured by the level of awareness that
the company is able to spread regarding boycott of plastic and the amount of accumulation of
plastic. The proposal deems to build ethical consideration regarding environmental sustainability.
The initiative will be considered a failure if the use of plastic and similar hazardous materials are
continued.
Conclusion
On a concluding note it can be said that the intention of the company is to provide the
best possible end user experience for the consumers. They aim to reduce the influence of the
middlemen from their operations. They proposed change driver is to remove the use of plastic
form all the operations of the company. This will be linked to their achievement of punctuated
equilibrium. This initiative is likely to spread awareness among the stakeholders and lead to
favourable performance in the share market.

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REFERENCES
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supply chain coordination problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 240(2),
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Depledge, M.H., Galgani, F., Panti, C., Caliani, I., Casini, S. and Fossi, M.C., 2013. Plastic litter
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Dumay, J. and Garanina, T., 2013. Intellectual capital research: a critical examination of the third
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Hong, W.D., Chen, X.W., Wu, W.Z., Zhu, Q.H. and Chen, X.R., 2013. Metal versus plastic
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Pathan, S. and Faff, R., 2013. Does board structure in banks really affect their
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