Analyzing Unilever: Corporate Culture and its Impact on Growth

This report delves into the influence of corporate culture on Unilever's growth trajectory. It begins by defining corporate culture and its significance, followed by a discussion of research questions, objectives, and the research framework. A comprehensive literature review explores the relationship between corporate culture, innovation, and performance, specifically within Unilever. The report examines Unilever's organizational structure, service standards, and ethical considerations, providing insights into how these factors contribute to its success. Key aspects such as employee morale, productivity, and the impact of leadership are analyzed. The report concludes with an assessment of outcomes, offering a detailed understanding of how corporate culture shapes Unilever's market values and overall growth, supported by a Gantt chart outlining the stages and milestones. This document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib. Desklib is a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

How does
corporate culture
affect
Unilever’s growth?
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE and INTORDUCTION ........................................................................................................3
1. Significance of Corporate culture:...........................................................................................5
2. Research Questions..................................................................................................................5
3. Research Objectives and Framework......................................................................................6
4. Literature Review ...................................................................................................................6
5. Research Methodology and Design ......................................................................................11
6. Ethical Considerations...........................................................................................................12
7. Outcomes...............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................................15
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TITLE and INTORDUCTION
In today's scenario, every organization comprises of certain objectives which are needed
to followed in systematic ways. Such objectives can be forming structure, organization culture
and operating human resources in optimal ways. corporate culture can be defined as the values
and ethics which are being formulated in organization through associates, employees, manager
and staff members (Benn, Dunphy, and Griffiths, 2014). Corporate culture consist of various
terms which are assumption, faith, behavioural, characteristic, language pattern and values. The
corporate culture is developed through cumulative efforts of organisational members in the firm
over the period of time. Things like client satisfaction, dress code, discussion, employee
incentives and benefits, hiring, office structure, market values, treatment with customer, product
values, turnover, working hours and various other factors which are related to the organization. It
also includes the values of CEO, their myths and other company's symbols which can be their
logo and trademark. Corporate culture in current era is influenced by business expansion,
economical and market values of company, international trade business, national culture, ethics
and tradition adopted by company and goods along with services provided by the company.
Corporate culture act as glue to the values and rituals for the integration of organizational
members. It tells about the view of organisation, related to behaviours and belief of clients,
employee, management, stakeholder and workers in terms of interaction and effectively
operating external transaction. Such professional values are required by every organization in
order to achieve market values and accomplish goals along with objectives. For illustration,
every one knows about Google Inc. which is famous for its employee-friendly corporate nature.
The corporate cultured was developed in the year 1980s and was widely used in the organisation
till 1990s. Such things are utilized in order to forecast the details about company by academic
holders, managers and sociologists.
Current reports aim about the corporate culture in Unilever’s organization and how they
affect it. Various significance of organisational culture and literature review, research
methodology, design structure, ethical aspects are being evaluated in effective ways. Moreover,
the report contain details about the outcomes of organizational structure. For understanding more
clearly about the affect Gantt chart is constructed detailing about stages and milestones of
organisation with allocated time limit (Bourgeois III, and et.al., 2017).
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Company's introduction:
Dutch-British based company, Unilever is transnational consumer goods company established in
1930. According to 2012 revenue survey the company is the world's largest consumer goods
company which produces refreshment (beverages and ice cream), cleansing agent, foods and
personal care product. The company is expanded over 190 countries and have more than 400
brands. Company mainly focus on 13 of its main brands and is established as two dual-listed
company i.e. Unilever N.V. And Unilever plc which are situated in Rotterdam and London,UK.
The organization is having the R&D facilities in China, India, Netherlands, United Kingdom and
United Nations. The company was created by merging two companies of Dutch-British based
which are Margarine Unie and Lever Brothers.
Company corporate affairs:
Legal structure: Company is dual-listed company.
Senior management: Organisation is having highest executive body as leadership Executives.
Logo: The company is having Logo of 'U' shape which was introduced in 2004 and was created
by Wolff Olins. and consist of 25 different symbols.
Sources: https://www.unilever.com.sg/about/who-we-are/our-logo/
The company overall process is totally linked with corporate culture along with various kinds of
activities and policies adopted by them over period of time. HR, leadership and corporate culture
are basic interrelation in the firm (Bourgeois and et.al., 2017). Development in one sectors is also
adopted in the other areas. Such culture affects every part of the organization. Unilever is able to
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Illustration 1: Unilever logo

achieve this success due to effective efforts of their leaders for the development and
improvement in the corporate culture. Such culture also supports improvements in production
and HR of the company.
1. Significance of Corporate culture:
Corporate culture enhance the performance of the company. The company have
employees more than 169,000 people are working under the company and 46% are women. The
company is No.1 FMCG graduate employer. According to the Forbes report the company is
holding seventh position in terms of corporate culture. Such things are evaluated in terms of
employee retention, reputation, productivity and quality. In Unilever, employees have high
morale values and positive attitude towards the company. Through this company receives
valuable employees and they have to invest less on HR. Unilever is having high positive
reputation which have further attracted the talented and skilled employee. This also helped the
organization to gain financial advantages and builds solid corporate reputation. Company is
having improved morale of employee along with effective corporate culture which helps in
increasing the productivity and quality. Increase in quality also help in encouraging the workers
in order to deliver better quality of goods and services (Eccles, Ioannou And Serafeim, 2014).
2. Research Questions
 How to analyze the organizational structure and service standards of Unilever.
 How corporate culture standards help the organization in achieving its goals and
customer satisfactions?
 What ideals were adopted by the organization in order to achieve the goals.
 What key values and culture must be adopted by the organization in order to compete
and thrive in market.
 What impact did services delivery and organizational standards on consumer
satisfaction of Unilever.
 What strategical efforts must be made by the organization in order to have effective
and reliable workplace.
3. Research Objectives and Framework
In order to complete the research following study about certain objectives are identified and are
enlisted below:
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“To analyze the organizational structure and service standards of Unilever and analyze the use of
corporate culture followed by the organization. A case study on Unilever.”
The main aim behind the research is to evaluate the important aspects of corporate culture that is
about the organizational views, there business terms and employees working within service
standards. These will help to analyses that how this factors directly impact on the company and
to the corporate society (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014).
4. Literature Review
As per my view on the topic, the term corporate culture is an important factor which can
uplift the organizational standards. It is commonly said that business may not change completely
due to innovation but business innovation includes changes. From past studies have suggested
about the existence of building relationship between the corporate culture and innovation. The
following study of above related literature includes research about :
1. Corporate culture
2. Corporate culture in Unilever
3. Corporate culture and performance of Unilever.
4. Corporate culture and its affect on Unilever's growth.
5. Leadership role in Unilever's corporate culture
Suggested review of literature includes details which have been made after deep study and
synopsis of the related topic.
Corporate culture
Generally, corporate culture includes the details about any organizational culture which are
divided among seven division. They are aggressive, detail oriented, innovation, outcome
detailed, stable, respecting of people, stable and team oriented. This are the shared values of
employee, staff, manager, clients and stakeholder which demonstrate there relation in market.
Using corporate culture in the company increases the performance, capability and the tasks are
achieved within the limited time. Corporate cultural involves the business ethics and values
which are needed by the organization in order to maintain the positive market values and
structural hierarchical model. The corporate cultural evolves during the period of time by the
employees hired by the organization. Such reflection are important for employees as they provide
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social responsibilities to the society. This also helps the organization in hiring more effectively
and hardworking members (Epstein, and Buhovac, 2014).
Corporate culture standards help the organization in achieving its goals and customer
satisfactions. For the organization like Unilever such aspects are very necessary as it increases
the brand value and satisfy the customer, client, stakeholder and employee along with manager.
Unilever is considered to be among the largest consumer goods organization in the increasing
international economy. The profit motives are gained by the company through the corporate
culture and various activities along with policies which are implemented by the leader of the
Unilever over period of time. Corporate culture, leadership as well as human resources are all
interlinked with each others and are necessary for the development and increase in the
productivity of the company. Company is expended in various countries and need to follow
different corporate culture in order to have effective growth. For illustration, the company uses
the role of women in the advertisement of the company which enlightens the details about the
company. The Logo of the company which is 'U' has 25 other symbols shown which according to
then shows the cultural aspect of the company. Such cultural aspects followed by the company
have increased the market values, performance and productivity of the company. In complete the
Unilever's internal and external growth of the company.
Before establishing any company, Unilever identifies the cultural aspect of that country through
which they can directly affect customer and increase the growth.
Unilever have six components which forecast details about the company and introduces the
corporate culture in the company. Such culture are intuitive and are highly supported social
groups. The cultural aspect of the organization fully supports the performance capabilities of the
employees. Such corporate culture are being reflected by the company and helps in the
organizational stable performance' in the customer goods and services industry (Feldman and
Korn, 2017).
Corporate culture and performance of Unilever which are needed which focuses on the
significant efforts of employee performance and their output. These type of culture are also
necessary as they are important criteria for the measurement in order to show the results and
adequacy of results. The corporate cultural and there performance are mention in the report.
Following characteristic about the performance Unilever corporate culture are shown:
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1. Key focus on the performance level- it comprises of employee and organization
performance.
2. Maintaining quality: quality in the products, performance and other areas.
3. Efficiency- increasing effectively the performance level by utilization of technology and
other things.
Company completely focus on the performance measures and the quality of the product. The
corporate culture of the organization can be seen through the long past of Unilever. From the
small business to the such multinational company the company growth has taken place due to
such factors. For illustration: due to high quality of product, the preference of the customer is
high and remain competitive in the global market. The main emphasize is given on the quality of
the product and its effectiveness. The company has developed advanced technology and have
new innovative in their internal organizational procedure, which have main contribution by the
human resource.
Corporate culture and how its affect on Unilever's growth.
Unilever is the multinational company have its plants in many countries. The company sales its
product in more than 190 countries. Unilever follows the corporate culture which increase the
brand values in other way contributes to the finance of the organization. This way the company
growth increases. There are more than 1.5 million people working under Unilever and are
contributing to the corporate culture of the company. The growth of the company are totally
depended on the culture, leader and the human resource. All this factors are affects the practices
and structural aspect of company. The corporate culture are reinforced by Unilever through
leader in order to improve the performance along with quality. Leader then monitor and evaluate
the role of human resources in order to accomplish those tasks (Feldman and Korn, 2017).
Leadership role in the Unilever's Corporate culture
Unilever doesn't require any degree for the leader. Company believes that everyone and anyone
can become the leaders. The selection process of the company consists of 3 rounds and the
judgment are taken by the single person. Such qualities of employee in the organization reinforce
and builds the development of the corporate culture in Unilever. Leader and manager have
contributed and supported the organization in order to achieve the quality and increase in
performance level. Market-based management and research-based management helped the
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organization in order to achieve the management tactics and desired outcomes. This factors
helped the human resources in order to increase their productivity and business performance of
the organization. Leadership commitment, team building, business motivation and passion for
making the organization to high are the main motives of the leader in order to achieve the
organization target and to make further growth. Competence like accepting the new
opportunities, having positive responses to the challenges and problem solving ability and skills.
Moreover, leader must be self developing and should be able to learn from experience. They
must motivate in every situation and must contribute with full dedication to the company.
Organization is highly contributing in the corporate culture mainly. The company has focused on
the main motives which are the improving the health and well being, reducing environmental
impact, enhancing livelihoods. In terms of health and well being the company is focusing on the
health and hygiene, improvement in the nutrition level. For reducing the environmental impact
company is focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gases, utilization of water in effectively and
waste associated disposal and its management, with sustainability in development. In terms of the
enhancing livelihoods the company focus on the fairness in the workplace, provides the
opportunities to women and had created positive impact on the livelihoods of more than 1.5
million people. Unilever has highly focused on the role of women in the society and many of its
product are for the women health care. The company has over 46% of women employed in the
organization which have constructively supported the organization from many past many years.
Unilever approached Corporate responsibilities culture due to following 3 major considerations:
1. Corporate values and culture.
2. Corporate culture is never related to studying about the ethics.
3. Consistent communication with other member of the organization (internal and external)
Due to following of the corporate culture the company was found to have 42% targeted graduates
interested in joining the organization (Grant, 2016). More than 30% of the employees have
received the increment in their salary. Retention of people. Due to the corporate culture the
company is highly trusted by the consumers are many of the product are sold over world wide
due to the name of the company. This has also increased the market values and the share of the
organization. As the corporate culture of the company is positive hence the company product
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prices are also high as compared to other local products. Company is producing more than 400
products which are sold over 190 countries due the corporate culture.
Following are the business principles which are followed by the organization:
The company have high standards of conduct which are operation related to the honesty, working
together, complete open about the company policy and provide respect to the human rights. AS
being expended in many countries the company needs to follow many rules so that the social
responsibilities of the company and consumer's are not affected. For this the company has
followed all the rules which are legal and adopted the policies which needed to operate in that
country. Next comes the employee or the human resources which are important part of the
organization. The employees in Unilever believes in the deep diversity in their work place. They
can completely provide the feedback to the company regarding any issue. Company provide high
range of product and services to the customer's which also have high brand values. The quality of
the product are very high and have good market reputation. Unilever's shareholder and business
partners provide function over good support over governance. The link between then are timely
and legal information about the company are being shared by the company to all the business
member of the organization. Involvement of the community is the key aspect for the corporate
culture. Corporate citizen have trust on the organization product and services and play key role in
the society. Corporate culture can't be completed if there is no involvement of public activities
and environment in order to preserve them (Henson, 2016). Unilever's important aspect is to
encouraged and develop the interest of the public in order to promote the business rather than
party. Moreover the company focus on the development without harming the environment, the
main motive of company is to make development in sustainable ways. Company uses various
ways in order to get contact with the customer's needs and demands. To fulfill this demands and
needs uses the scientific innovation methods. There is growing competition in current scenario
and organization like Unilever focus on the fair competition. Company is completely transparent
to their consumer, shareholder, stakeholder and employees which forecast the business integrity
of the Unilever's. Company makes sure about that there is no conflict between the personal
activities and financial interest and the two must remain separated in order to achieve targets and
success. For doing all the process the company uses monitoring and reporting method in order
achieve the target and makes positive efforts in business success.
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5. Research Methodology and Design
Research methodology consists of all the details regarding the research proposal as they
contain the details about the methods and techniques of research which are evaluated during the
time of study. Following report consists qualitative aspect and data which were accessed through
various sites and through data collection method. Method adopted are applied in appropriate
ways about the topic and various tools and techniques are applied through the report.
 Types of investigation:
Formulated research is descriptive in nature. Such methods are used so that user can study get
acknowledged the deeper insight about the client satisfaction. Such studies are made on the
observation and descriptive action. Using the descriptive research will help in order to investigate
the corporate culture and its affect on the Unilever's growth. Through the above investigation,
details about the corporate culture and its necessities in the Unilever company are being
comprehended (Kor, and et.al., 2016).
 Data Collection Method:
Complete research is documented on the qualitative aspects. Along with it the data accessed is
also qualitative in nature. Following report contain details in two ways which are primary and
secondary methods of data collecting. Primary data will be evaluated through the customers and
clients. For collecting of data from customers and clients, a questionnaire will be developed.
Questionnaire helps in providing satisfaction level and understanding the corporate culture and
its affect on the Unilever growth. Secondary information will be source from varied types of
article, books, journals, newspapers and online sites and various other places where secondary
data is available.
 Sampling Method
Sampling methods are used to gather necessary information from the chosen samples. For the
following report the methods adopted are simple random sampling. SRS is the part of probability
sampling, so in current study the researcher has identified various aspects which are necessary in
order to understand the cultural aspects the effective role played by it for the growth of Unilever..
In this regard, the method of random sampling will be chosen as they will be selected on random
basis. Some consumers are chosen for the evaluation which can be up to 50. Smaller the size of
sampling helps in understanding better the topic. Based on the topic of the research that is to
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analyze the corporate culture and its affect on the Unilever's growth. These sample size is enough
for the research to access the satisfaction level of the consumer.
 Accessibility Issues:
Accessing data is one of diversified factor as if data is not accessed from valid and reliable
sources than information provided will be complete vogue. For this factor the data accessed is
from the clients of the Unilever's. While the secondary data will be mostly accessed from the
online websites and newspaper resources (Kunisch, Menz and Ambos, 2015).
 Data Analysis:
Following report data will be collected from both the methods of data collection that is from
primary and secondary method of data collection. To analyze this data a method of qualitative
data analysis will be used in the research. For analyzing the data in qualitative aspect, technique
of thematic analysis will be used. Through this technique the data will be analyzed in different
charts, graphs, patterns, tables and themes
 Plan Research Limitations:
During the time of studying this research there can be some of the limitations which can be
encountered during the research. There may be chances that there is lack of availability of
literature on the current topic. Another is that participants will not easily ready to give the
required information. Accessing the data from the primary and secondary information will
require excessive time and cost.
6. Ethical Considerations
Ethically consideration of the issues of the research an ethical protection would be complied in
the study. Participants of following report will be informed about the nature and purpose of the
research. Before gathering the valuable information from them, their consent will be taken and
their personal information will not be disclosed. However, the detail information about purpose
and reason behind the study will be conveyed to them. Without their consent not a single
information will be included in the research. Such consideration are made so that the data remain
legal and confidential to the consumer (Lam and Quinn, 2014).
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7. Outcomes
For the following descriptive research study, the researcher is anticipated the corporate culture
and its affect on the Unilever's growth. It is also anticipated that the level of growth of Unilever
will be through corporate culture, Human resource and leader that whether they are satisfied with
the process organization or not. At last the all the aim and objectives of the study will be
accomplished in efficient manner. The report contain all the facts and figures which were
available through the primary and secondary data. Details mentioned are appropriate and
accurate as available on the websites.
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8. Timescale and Gantt chart
Gantt chart is made in order to clarify the details collected and the time period required for
collecting every details:
Key Activities
1st
Week
2nd
Week
3rd &
4th
Week
5th
Wee
k
6th
Week
7th &
8th
Week
9th
Week
10th
Week
11th
Week
12th
Week
Preparing for
Introduction
Literature Review
Collection in the
primary Data
Collection of
secondary Data
Research Design
Research
Methodology
Processing the
primary and
secondary data
Analyzing
primary &
secondary data
Conclusion &
Recommendation
Final Completion
Revision and
uploading draft
Final Submission
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