Managing a Successful Business Project: A Unilever Case Study

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MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT
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Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.......................................................................................................................................... 4
PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES..........................................................................................4
TITLE................................................................................................................................. 4
AIM...................................................................................................................................4
OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................................................4
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN.............................................................................................5
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)..............................................................................8
GANTT CHART...................................................................................................................... 9
LO 2........................................................................................................................................ 10
SMALL SCALE RESEARCH.................................................................................................... 10
LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................................... 10
ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF RESEARCH METHODS USED............................................12
LO 3........................................................................................................................................ 13
ANALYSE RESEARCH AND DATA......................................................................................... 13
PRESENTATION...................................................................................................................21
EVALUATE THE SELECTION OF TECHNIQUES USED FOR ACCURACY AND JUSTIFY
RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................................................31
LO4......................................................................................................................................... 33
REFLECT AND EVALUATE THE VALUE OF UNDERTAKING THE RESEARCH FOR ACHIEVING
THE OBJECTIVES AND SUPPORT OWN PERFORMANCE......................................................33
LOGBOOK............................................................................................................................... 34
PERFORMANCE REVIEW.........................................................................................................37
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 38
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 39
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INTRODUCTION
The emergence of trends like globalization has an impact on the growth of the businesses as
the integration of the economies with the increase in the exchange of ideas, people, capital,
products and services, etc. between different countries. The migration of people from one
country to another for a job is beneficial for the workforce as well as the businesses
(Mikalauskiene et al. 2016). Therefore, research is conducted to determine the impact of
globalization and multinational business and steps they can take to improve their practices
of staffing the employees at the workplace to increase their efficiencies and meet the
requirements of the international markets.
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LO 1
PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
All the large multinational businesses have a long and critical process for staffing best
employees that helps in improving the efficiencies for the organization. Due to globalization,
it has become possible to select the most appropriate candidates for the organization from
different parts of the world that results in increasing the competition and necessity of
improving the practices of the company to fulfil international standards.
TITLE
‘How do multinational corporations improve their recruitment, selection and training
procedures to meet international requirements?
AIM
The research project is undertaken to identify the ways of improving the existing HR
practices of the company to meet global needs.
OBJECTIVES
 To identify various ways for improving the process of recruitment and selection of
the company
 To assess the performance of employees with existing training practices of Unilever
 To assess the impact of globalization on the functioning of Unilever

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
This plan is formed to split the whole project into smaller parts so that the work can be
undertaken effectively and the activities can be completed on time without any confusion.
The plan comprises of the details of the project such as risks involved, budget, schedule,
communication, scope, the time needed, etc. for achieving the objectives of the research
efficiently (Heagney, 2016).
PROJECT STATEMENT
The HR practices of Unilever are influenced by the emerging trends like globalization which
make it necessary to evaluate the significance of globalization on the recruitment, selection
and training of the company to meet international standards.
PROJECT STRATEGY
 The focus of the organization must be on improving the existing practices to increase
global presence and achieve efficiencies.
 The researcher would be applying the technique of literature review to gain
knowledge from various sources about the globalization and its impact on business
operations.
 Survey method would be used to gain opinions and views of a large population and
get a better understanding of the topic.
COST
A budget is prepared to determine all the activities and the funds needed for carrying out
the planned activities effectively. The expenses to be incurred in the research project
include:
ACTIVITIES AMOUNT
Project plan £150
HR team £300
Research expenses £350
Tools £250
Travel expenses £150
TOTAL £1200
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SCOPE
It is significant to undertake this small-scale research to understand the impact of
globalization on functioning and HR operations of MNCs like Unilever and identify how large
companies improve their staffing practices to achieve international goals.
TIME
The project undertaken must be accomplished within the specified time for which a
milestone schedule is developed to plan all the activities with the time needed for
completing them to avoid delays.
MILESTONE DATE DELIVERABLES
Developing project
management plan
Guides towards the right
path
Conducting small scale research
and data analysis
Drawing appropriate
conclusions
Final draft Completion of the project
QUALITY
The maintenance of the quality of the presearch is important for attaining required
objectives. Therefore, the researcher must consider the application of tools for quality
control that helps in managing the appropriateness of the data used and measures can be
taken to improve the efficiency of the project (Heagney, 2016).
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
The researcher must inform the work progress to all the stakeholders by communicating the
information that is important for each stakeholder and it may vary such as:
STAKEHOLDER INFORMATION DELIVERY MEDIUM TIME
Project manager Work progress E-mails, reports, etc. Daily
Team members and
project manager
Information about
the project
e-mail, oral and
written
Whenever needed
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communication
Team members Requesting them for
reviewing the
progress
E-mail weekly
RISKS ASSESSMENT
Project planning considers the risk that may arise while undertaking the project to reduce
the impact of risk when they occur. This research project may get affected by various kinds
of risks such as financial, operational, technical, etc. that may arise due to the exploitation
of the information, data loss, lack of resources, human or technical errors, etc. Therefore,
the probability and potential impact of the risk must be assessed by the manager to find
ways to mitigate the risk in advance (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
RESOURCE SCHEDULING
The project execution comprises of the application of various resources such as finance,
human resource, tools and equipment, etc. for carrying out the project effectively and
achieving the research aims within the predetermined time (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
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WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)
With the help of this hierarchical structure, the whole work that is to be performed by the
team is divided into various sections that can be managed effectively. This structure is
beneficial for reducing the complexities of the project and making it easily understandable
by the team (Radujković and Sjekavica, 2017).
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RESEARCH PROJECT
PROJECT INITIATION
SETTING AIMS AND
OBJECTIVES OF THE
PROJECT
PROJECT PLANNING
PROJECT MANAGMENT
PLAN
PROJECT
IMPLEMENTATION
DATA COLLECTION
SECONDARY DATA
COLLECTION
LITERATURE REVIEW
PRIMARY DATA
COLLECTION
SURVEY AND
QUESTIONNAIRE
DATA ANALYSIS
CLOSING
RESEARCH FINDINGS
AND REFLECTION
PROVIDING
RECOMMENDATIONS
AND CONCLUSIONS

GANTT CHART
While preparing a Gantt chart, the project manager plans and sets the time that will be
required for completing each activity involved in the project. This helps in assigning the right
people for the task according to their capabilities. Gantt chart is useful in the
accomplishment of the tasks within the specified period (Tonchia, 2018).
ACTIVITIES WEEKS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Developing
research
objectives
Project
management
plan
Literature review
Methodology
Data collection
Data analysis
Recommendation
and conclusion
Final draft
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LO 2
SMALL SCALE RESEARCH
LITERATURE REVIEW
Globalization and international organizations:
According to Adekola (2016), Globalization has resulted in unexpected changes in the world
by accelerating free flow of humans, capital, technology and products across borders
leading to an increase in competition. The major advantage of globalization is increasing
equality among nations as the demand for resources is transferred from higher-income
nations to lower. Kerzner (2018) further added that the effects of globalization are
beneficial for the businesses operating internationally as there is an ease of transfer of
resources due to free flow of trade, reduced tax and duties, reduced inflation and interest
rates, enhanced employment opportunities raised living standards of people, development
of economies, etc. (Kerzner, 2018).
Lasserre, (2017) in a research discussed that the operations of the businesses have
improved with the emergence of globalization as the need for increasing efficiencies by
innovating technology and processes have increased due to tough competition in the
market and the businesses are constantly engaged in bringing new and innovative products
and services in the market to enhance customer satisfaction, gain competitiveness and
increase market share of the company to achieve higher growth (Lasserre, P., 2017).
HR practices after globalization:
Kundu (2016), pointed that after the experiences faced by the countries due to
globalization, the businesses feel that there is a great requirement of highly skilled, self-
motivated and well-trained personnel that help in increasing the growth and efficiencies of
the business. Every business focuses on the development of the employees by using
different types of training methods to enhance the potential and productivity of the staff.
After globalization, there are many challenges faced by the HRM department in business
especially working on a global level such as MNCs, etc. (Brewster et al. 2018). The factors
affecting the HRM in an organization include the socio-cultural environment, economic
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system, policies of the government, etc. The advancement of technologies and trends like
globalization are resulting in drastic changes in the management of the businesses. Now,
organizations lay major emphasis on gaining effective human resource by staffing worldwide
to increase competitiveness and achieve success (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
HR operations of Unilever and globalisation:
Aust (2018) explained in the process of recruitment, selection and training at Unilever is
necessary to manage the workforce effectively. The company focus on recruiting employees
worldwide to gain best and most talented employees from different parts of the world with
different cultural backgrounds that helps in enhancing the efficiencies of the business (Greer
and Hauptmeier, 2016). The policies of the company are focused on providing a healthy
working environment to the staff and treating the employees as an asset for the
organization, therefore, providing them equal opportunities for development through
effective on-the-job and off-the-job training at the workplace and boosting employee
morale and improving their productivity that results in increasing the competitiveness and
profitability of the organization (Sparrow et al. 2016).
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ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF RESEARCH METHODS USED
The project manager must maintain and assess the reliability and accuracy of the research
by evaluating the validity of the data and information used in the project. The research team
can ensure the reliability of the data by collecting information from sources that are
trustworthy and authentic and also must avoid using incomplete information in the project
(Noble and Smith, 2015). The managers can also test the reliability of the project by applying
the same methods and tools in different studies with similar environment and situations.
Also, it becomes very important for the researcher to assure that the data used in the
research is valid and make sure that appropriate methods are used for collecting and
analysing the data. In the following research, the survey method is used with the help of
questionnaire being asked to the existing employees of large companies to ensure that the
information provided by them is accurate and would be helpful in further measurements
that result in efficient attainment of the research objectives (Noble and Smith, 2015).
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