Unilever Case Study: Leadership, Management & Operations Strategies

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MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
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Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1 – LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN UNILEVER..............................................................4
1.1 LEADERS AND MANAGERS: ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS............................................4
1.2 HOW DIFFERENT SITUATIONS AFFECT ROLES OF LEADERS AND FUNCTIONS OF
MANAGERS AT UNILEVER..........................................................................................................7
1.3 LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND CONCEPTS USED BY UNILEVER IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS9
TASK 2: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN UNILEVER....................................................................11
2.1 ROLE OF OPERATIONS MANAGERS IN UNILEVER...............................................................11
2.2 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT APPROACHES IN UNILEVER.................................................13
2.3 FACTORS IMPACTING THE BUSINESS OPERATIONS OF UNILEVER.....................................15
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
The following report would be taking into consideration the management and working of
Unilever, one of the largest manufacturing concerns of the UK. The report will be divided into
two parts. The first part of the report would lay its emphasis on the roles and functions of the
leaders and managers in the company, their decision-making skills, etc. also the theories and
concepts of leadership would be discussed in detail. The second part of the report will focus on
different roles and responsibilities of operation managers in the company and also how the
values, cultures, ethics and CSR projects impact the working of Unilever would be explained.
Unilever is one of the oldest transnational consumer goods company selling products around
190 countries, having headquarters in the UK, Netherlands and London. The company deals in a
variety of products which includes food, beverages, beauty products, personal care products,
cleaning agents, etc.
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TASK 1 – LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN UNILEVER
1.1 LEADERS AND MANAGERS: ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS
INTRODUCTION
Unilever follows product type divisional structure in the organization. The company has
different divisions for different products it deals in, for example, personal care products have a
separate division and beauty products are available in another division. The structure of
Unilever is adaptive to changes in the market or industry of consumer goods. This type of
management structure helps the company in manufacturing, distribution and sales of its
products efficiently.
LEADERS AND MANAGERS:
The leaders and managers of the company are its pillars which enable the company to achieve
its organizational goals and missions effectively. Unilever has been following Taylor’s and
Fayol’s principles of management for the success and growth of the organization. The managers
and leaders have some different and some similar roles and responsibilities to follow in
Unilever (Hill, 2017).
ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERS IN UNILEVER:
The role of a leader in any organization is to guide, supervise, direct and control the employees
working under him. A leader at Unilever motivates the employees to work efficiently as a team
in order to achieve the goals of Unilever (Opoku et al., 2015).
In Unilever, the leaders play an active role by encouraging employees to think out of the box,
share their ideas and accept new challenges while accomplishing the goals of the organization.
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The leaders in Unilever use real case studies for employees to make them understand the
problems faced by the company and find a solution for the same. This helps the employees in
learning how to react in challenging situations (Salau et al., 2018).
The leaders follow simulation technique in which they predict the future of the business 10
years from now, and how will they run the business, their decision-making skills which helps
them in understanding what impact will today's decisions have on the company's future (Darsø,
2015).
The leaders in Unilever practices empathy. They try to create an environment of mutual trust,
delegate their work to the employees, establishes good relations with the team members,
initiate open communication to encourage employees to work and boost the morale of
employees.
Adaptability is one of the major traits in the leaders of Unilever. They guide their employees to
work in an effective manner keeping in mind the changing environment. The employees adapt
themselves and their work according to the changes taking place in the industry (Salau et al.,
2018).
The leaders of Unilever are authentic, they work for improving their self-knowledge, learn to
accept who they really are, they try to bring the most out of their strengths, thus, help in
creating a positive environment.
ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGERS IN UNILEVER:
In Unilever, the manager helps in planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the
activities of the organization by themselves and with the help of others in order to achieve the
predetermined goals of the organization effectively (Hill, 2017).
The managers of Unilever engage themselves in formulating strategies and plans and discussing
the same with the leaders of the organization so that they can direct the employees to work in
the following direction and achieve organizational goals.
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The managers at Unilever are the team players, they don’t work in isolation. They are well
aware of the fact that in large organizations, the work needs to be delegated to subordinates
for better results and so the managers can utilize their valuable time in further decision making,
planning and controlling of tasks (Radaelli and Sitton Kent, 2016).‐
The managers in Unilever helps in setting appropriate goals, educating the employees about the
company’s product, environment, work culture and expects them to achieve those goals which
help in employees motivation.
The satisfaction of the consumers is the main focus of the managers in Unilever. They prioritize
the choice of consumers, the managers encourage research in the industry to understand the
needs of the consumers, solve the problems faced by the consumers and cope up with the
changing needs and preferences of the consumers.
The manager of Unilever has technical skills which help in optimum utilization of resources,
techniques and procedures. He has technical knowledge in the field in which he is specialized
like finance, engineering, manufacturing or production (Hill, 2017).
The characteristic of a manager at Unilever includes intelligence, self-confidence, leadership,
education, technical knowledge, positive attitude, integrity, maturity, problem-solving skills,
etc. which makes him a good manager and helps in achieving the goals of the organization.
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGERS AND LEADERS IN UNILEVER:
The managers and leaders of the company focus on achieving the goals of the organization for
which they have to perform the following functions:
PLANNING: The manager at Unilever focuses on planning the objectives of the company and
the leader is held responsible for the implementation of the plans by motivating the employees
in the following direction so as to achieve the desired goals (Radaelli and Sitton Kent, 2016).‐
ORGANIZING: At Unilever, the managers engage themselves in determining the organizational
structure and resources. On the other hand, the role of the leaders is to follow the structure
and allocate the resources for their optimum utilization.
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DIRECTING: The role of managers in Unilever is to direct the leaders in a particular direction to
implement the strategies and policies of the organization (Opoku et al., 2015). The leaders of
the company need to show a path to the followers by motivating them to follow the policies to
achieve the objectives.
CONTROLLING: Both, managers and leaders of Unilever are responsible for controlling and
monitoring the effectiveness of work by matching the actual performance with the set
standards and take actions in case of deviation.
1.2 HOW DIFFERENT SITUATIONS AFFECT ROLES OF LEADERS AND
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGERS AT UNILEVER
In Unilever, whenever a situation occurs, the leader works with the team acting as an
inspiration for the employees and motivating them to solve the issue and work efficiently. The
manager plays an important role in decision making and directing the subordinates to achieve
predetermined goals.
The major problem faced by the company is the increase in imitation of the company’s product.
The product of the company is being copied by the competitors in the market, they sell fake
products with a minor change in the packaging or name of the product, which adversely affects
the brand equity of the firm (Nawaz, and Khan, 2016). The managers of Unilever take decisions
using rational theories also considering the ideas and opinions of the subordinates so as to find
an effective solution to the problem.
Due to inflation, the price of raw material is increasing which leads to increase in input cost of
the company. This was a problem which resulted in the rise in the cost of the products offered
by the company (Radaelli and Sitton Kent, 2016). The leaders use democratic leadership style in‐
the business to get rid of such issues as in this style of leadership, the employees are highly
encouraged for their participation in the decision making of the business, they feel motivated
and give their best which reduces the employee turnover cost.
The situational style of leadership is used by the leaders in Unilever. The leaders change the
style of leadership according to the demand of the situation. Whenever some situation or
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problem is faced by the company to which leaders have complete knowledge and can suggest
solutions on their own, they use the authoritarian style of leadership and when the problem
needs effective decision making and ideas from skilled experts, the leaders of Unilever shift the
style of leadership to participative one ((Salau et al., 2018).
In respect of FMCG products, Unilever has another major problem of high competition from
famous brands like P&G, Nestle, Johnson and Johnson, etc. The company uses management by
objective for decision making and ensuring the effective attainment of goals with the help of
the employees. Unilever uses motivation techniques and frequent leadership concepts for
efficient decision making to stay competitive in the market and provide the best products to the
consumers to achieve customer satisfaction (Mesu et al., 2015).
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1.3 LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND CONCEPTS USED BY UNILEVER IN
DIFFERENT SITUATIONS
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP: Unilever follows this style of leadership in its business. In this
leadership style, the leaders follow different styles and methods of leadership depending on the
situation that occurs in the company. This type of leadership style is dependent on the maturity
level of the team. If the team members have expert knowledge of the subject, participative
leadership is used and if the team lacks knowledge, the leaders use the authoritarian approach
of leadership (Opoku et al., 2015). Like in Unilever, innovative ideas were needed when the
problem of rising in input cost occurred, the leaders used the democratic style of leadership
where the employees are also encouraged to participate in the decision-making process, their
ideas are encouraged so to get multiple solutions to the problem and the best solution can be
implemented by the company.
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP: With reference to Unilever, the system approach of leadership helps
leaders to follow a framework for the development of ideas in business, exercise his leadership
under a structure to avoid chaos and clarify the complexities of the changing environment.
While dealing with the situation of tough competition in the market, Unilever uses this
approach of leadership, in which leaders are responsible for managing effective communication
with the employees and directing them toward the work to be done to achieve the desired
objectives (Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016). In this situation, the leaders encourage the team to
carry out research in the market to acknowledge the problems faced by the customers, bringing
something innovative into existence to satisfy consumers and retain them.
CONTINGENCY LEADERSHIP THEORY: In Unilever, Fielder’s contingency theory works the best
as it says that there is no best way to lead a company, what action must be taken by the leader
is dependent on the situation faced by the company (Mesu et al., 2015). The leaders reward or
punish the employees’ to have control over the situation. This theory says that no one method
of leadership can be best for all the situations faced by Unilever. Therefore, the leader must be
smart and competent enough to understand which leadership style should have opted in a
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particular situation (Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016). Unilever has great leaders who teach lessons
like you cannot do it alone, be realistic and be modest, etc.
DEMOCRATIC STYLE OF LEADERSHIP: This is one of the best methods of leadership used by the
leaders of Unilever where the employees of the company are encouraged to give their ideas
and opinions at the time of discussions and meeting. When the situations like rising in the price
of input costs, rise in competition, etc. arises in the company; the leaders use this leadership
style to get different ideas from the staff and the best ideas can be implemented to get rid of
the situation (Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016).
CONCLUSION
With the help of the above report, it can be connoted that Unilever is one of the largest
companies of FMCG products having branches in different parts of the world. The company is
successful in the market because of the active role played by its managers and leaders that
work hard with the help of their subordinates using different styles of leadership and methods
of management for the achievement of desired goals that are pre-planned by the top level
management of the company which leads to satisfaction of consumers and result in increase in
market share of the Unilever (Darsø, 2015).
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TASK 2: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN UNILEVER
The management of operations in Unilever helps in achieving high productivity in the business
of consumer goods in the entire organization. The operations managers of the company focus
on the quality of production to ensure optimal efficiency (Wild, 2017). The operations managers
have to take into consideration an effective communication with the other departments of
Unilever to avoid issues like overutilization or underutilization of company’s resources.
2.1 ROLE OF OPERATIONS MANAGERS IN UNILEVER
The operations managers at Unilever are responsible for the following:
The role of operations managers in Unilever is to manage the flexibility of operations of
manufacturing of consumer goods on a daily basis in order to ensure the standards of quality
that result in safety and satisfaction of consumers (Garza-Reyes et al., 2017).
In Unilever, the managers of operations have to focus on maintaining the availability of raw
materials and finished goods to avoid the problems of under and overproduction. They are
responsible for the effective utilization of capital invested in productions and operations.
The operations managers play a vital role in managing the issues related to human resource
department, their policies and procedures, their safety and security and ensuring the human
resource involved in the production process are well trained and are giving their best in
accordance with the organizational goals.
The prime responsibility of operations managers in Unilever is to ensure customer
delightedness in relation to the quality of products offered by the company. The operations
manager has to take care of the quality standards in the process of production to ensure the
sale of good quality products by Unilever (Bustinzaet al., 2019).
The operations managers in Unilever must possess leadership qualities so as to inspire and
encourage the team for continuous improvement in the productivity processes by giving their
best towards the achievement of goals of Unilever.
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It is the duty of operations manager to maintain a record of inventory in the warehouse, to
understand the requirement of inventory and so that the orders can be placed at the right time
before the inventory gets short to avoid blockage of the production process (Wild, 2017).
The operations managers have to prepare operations budget periodically and stick to that
budget to ensure the effectiveness of performance.
The operations manager at Unilever has to implement designs of team and organization,
collaborate with business activities in order to create high-performance work culture, provide
measurable performance indicators which explain whether the activities are performed
according to the set standards or not, if not the managers have to make plans for improvement
of performance.
Also, in Unilever, the managers of operations and production have to communicate with safety
and security department of the company to ensure that all the production processes are
undertaken considering government rules and regulations and safety of workers.
Therefore, it can be said that the operations managers at Unilever play a very vital role in the
proper functioning of the production unit and effective management of operational activities in
business (Bustinza et al., 2019).
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