Report on Management and Operations: A Case Study of Unilever

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's management and operations. It begins with an introduction to Unilever, its structure, and different levels of management. The report then delves into the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders, contrasting their functions. It explores management functions such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, as well as leadership roles including interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles. The report further examines Unilever's situational context, including its fast-changing environment and the influence of competition. It discusses various leadership styles, such as directive, supportive, participative, and transformational leadership. Finally, the report analyzes key management and leadership theories, including situational leadership theory, systems theory, and contingency theory, and how these theories apply to Unilever's operations and strategic approach. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of both management and leadership in ensuring Unilever's success.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS: UNILEVER
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Table of contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Task P1...........................................................................................................................................3
Task P2...........................................................................................................................................5
Task P3...........................................................................................................................................7
Task P5.........................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
This assignment is going to focus on management and operations of the organization
Unilever. Unilever is consumer goods based industry established in 1929 with its headquarters
located at London, United Kingdom. It is an Anglo-Dutch MNC and it is the world’s third largest
consumer goods company. There are three level of management in the Unilever organization
that is top level, middle and low level of management. Basic management and leadership
functions of an organization are going to be studied in details. Further, organizational structures
with its various roles are also going to be discussed in this assignment.
Task P1
Different roles and characteristics of a manager and leader with its comparison are going to
discussed in this section.
a) Management and Leadership
Management: The act of bringing people together in order to achieve a desired goal or objective
by utilizing available resources can be stated as management (Rosemann, and Brocke, 2015). It
is a human action for facilitating effective production within a system.
Leadership: The act of leading a group of people to meet a common objective and involve in
major decision making process for an organization can be defined as an act of leadership. It
involves a process of a human sharing a vision with the group of people. Then those people
willingly follow with the same and accordingly act together.
Roles and characteristics of lead and a manager is as follows
b) Management functions
There are mainly four functions within a management as stated by Henry Fayel. They are as
follows:
Planning: This is the most basic and prior function of the management. It involves the
development of strategies or plans in order to meet a proposed objective. Planning helps in
smooth operation of a business and determines the most effective action required to reach the
goal. Unilever planned for expanding business internationally by acquiring more than 400 brands
under their organization.
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Organizing: The structures of an organization are maintained by this organizing function. It is the
structure of the company which clarifies day to day operation of a business (Aitken et al. 2014).
Organizing involves deciding the roles and responsibilities of employees to complete a specific
task. It is also responsible for developing a chain of command within the organization. Unilever
features product type division organizational structure which enables the operation of
manufacturing, development and distribution simple.
Leading: To ensure the various activities are functioning together for the benefit of the company
there is a need of supervision. This is the role of leading within the organization. The efficiency
of the operations is observed and any improvements required are also taken into consideration.
Unilever have an effective leading function which enables it to achieve their goals by desired
deadline.
Controlling: This function of the management is for ensuring all the operations and other
functions are operating successfully. It monitors the output of employee’s performance and
identifies the problems or situations that are needed to be improved (Bhat et al. 2014).
Controlling includes setting of performance standards for each employees and monitor if those
standards are met and act accordingly. Unilever authorised the controlling function so as to
monitor the efficiency of the operations and have applied strategic planning accordingly to
achieve the maximum production result.
c) Leadership roles
Leaders are the responsible person for leading a group of people together in order to achieve a
desired goal or objective. A leader motivates employees provide a clear vision for the
organization and guides through the work process. As suggested by Mintzberg, there are three
groups of leadership roles. They are as follows:
Interpersonal roles: The roles which are specifically designed for a leader in an organization to
build the morale of their employees are said to be interpersonal roles. It has an important role for
establishing and maintaining relationship within an organization People working under a leader
will be highly influenced by the interpersonal roles as it can serve as a source of inspiration. For
example, a leader provides a bonus or incentive after it surpass its desired objective act as a
source of motivation
Informational roles: The main role is to develop a successful communication within every part
of organization. Further informational role can be categorized as monitor, spokesperson and
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disseminator. Its main role is to research information and then analyze data for identifying the
area which needs to be improved (Burlton, 2014). This information is then conveyed through a
chain of command which is worked upon further. For example, a failure in monitoring a
production department decreased the rate of production and hence requires the informational
roles to be acted upon.
Decisional roles: An entrepreneur, resource allocator, disturbance handler and negotiator are the
main roles of decisional as a leader. These are the main factors which decide the effective output
of an operation. Hence, decisions with a clear objective are necessary in order to fulfill it with
available resources and time. For example, a decision for establishing a production unit in order
to meet the consumer demand can make considerable difference in the economy output of
company
d) Comparison of leadership with management
The basic difference among leadership and management is a leader always innovates and invents
whereas a manager only organizes. The leaders are responsible for developing new ideas or
objectives, goals, and strategies within an organization. On the contrary, the managers are simply
responsible for putting those ideas and objectives into action by organizing the responsibilities
and roles of the employees (Conger, 2014). Secondly, a leader motivates and encourages an
employee to work depending upon their respective pace. Managers, on the other hand, establish
control over their employees by assigning tasks for them and taking out the most potential from
its employees. A leader will be always answerable for any failure and hence must have good
judgment ability. Leader will mainly questions the “what” and “why” of the organizational
operations. However, managers are required to assess the “how” and when” questions of the
operations. This enables them to complete a task or achieve a desired objective within the
stipulated time.
Management and leadership both have an important role to play for an organization to be
successful. Leadership roles helps to define the goals and objective of the organization and
management helps in putting those objectives into action. In respect to the goal set by leaders,
the management defines the roles and responsibility of every designation and ensures an
effective, smooth operation of a business.
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Task P2
Introduction
In this section situational context of an organization are going to be studied with reference to the
current business organization Unilever.
a) Situational context
The growth and success of an organization vary greatly depending upon the present situation of
the same. The various situations are as follows:
Stable situation: When an organization remains unchanged or goes through a same rate of
production over the years, it falls under stable situation. The business neither experiences a
growth or fall thus stating to the condition of stable (Davenport, 2014). However, there is a high
chance of decreasing sales if it remains to be stable for a prolonged period.
Slow to moderate changing situation: An organization when goes through a process of change
but in slow or moderate pace then it falls under this category. The growth of such organization is
very slow and does not meet the requirements of major customers.
Fast changing situation: When an organization develops a fast changing or flexible
characteristics for developing its operation according to its need, this situation is said to be fast
changing. This benefits the organization by enabling its fast changing in production according to
need of consumers which are variable.
b) Present situation of organization
Unilever is currently in a fast changing situation. Since the products are based upon consumer
goods, the choices are variable in different regions and are changing constantly according to the
needs of the consumer (Hammer, 2014). To meet the customer satisfaction, Unilever have
developed fast changing situation for their company and hence are successfully showing a
constant growth over the years. The competition have also influenced the company to develop
such strategy and hence benefiting their economy condition in whole. Rival company like Nestle
have created high customer standards due to which Unilever had to match the product service
otherwise it would be difficult to capture its position in market. Continuous customer feedback
for their products also made significant changes for the production hence collectively adding up
for the growth.
d) Leadership styles
There are different leadership styles which governs the leadership of an organization. Some of
them are as follows:
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Directive style: In this kind of leadership, the decision making authority is held by one person
and provides with its decision in a direct approach. These are dictatorial type of behavior within
the organization where subordinates to the leader are bound to abide the decision. For example,
at Unilever it is important to follow decision which is made by higher authority and work
accordingly.
Supportive style: In this style the leader acts in a considerate behavior towards its subordinates.
The other members get the support of their leader and considering their situation a decision is
taken (Harmon, 2014).
Participative style: The leader when it participates in the process of decision making the style is
known to be as participative style. The decisions taken are not only for the members but also
own to follow.
Situational leadership: This type of leadership is regarded as one of the most effective
leadership style. In situational leadership, a leader changes their strategies as per the needs of
their team members. It is often termed as micro-management. Leaders are involved in the whole
management process for helping their team members and thereby leading them towards the path
of success (Stephenson, 2014, p.10).
Transformational leadership: Transformational leadership aims at initiating change in an
organization. The leaders try to motivate their staffs and thereby improving work performance. A
transformational leader aims at empowering their followers.
Task P3
Introduction
In this section various theories for management and leadership are going to be studied in detail.
The theories will provide an insight to the basic build of a business organization. Further, the
effects of it’s in the current organization are also going to be identified.
a) Situational leadership theory
Situational leadership theory is a part of contingency theories of leadership. According to this
theory, effectiveness of a leader depends on the decision making ability in a given situation.
There are different leadership behaviors depending upon the purpose and maturity of their
follower. The leader needs to determine the maturity level and then apply behavior accordingly
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(Houy et al. 2014). For instance, the maturity level of the higher designations in Unilever is
appropriate and thus requires minimum situational leadership.
b) Systems theory
To treat an organization as a system, system theory is applied. A system can be stated as
different parts within an organization interacting with each other in synchronization to ensure
smooth flow of operations. Organizational parts such as products, assets, resources, employees
and information together forms a system. Basically, an organization is treated as an open system
and contains three essential elements- inputs, throughputs and outputs. The resources,
equipment, work of employees are termed as inputs which are then transformed to throughputs.
This produces desired results and is called outputs. Within the system of Unilever, raw material
and manufacturing of the consumer goods are first organized which results in application of the
process for producing (Karagiannis, and Woitsch, 2014). Then the products are delivered to the
appropriate destination within the system.
c) Contingency theory
This theory of contingency prioritizes both the importance of leader’s personality and the
operating situation. Further, it can be categorized into task motivated and relationship motivated.
Within the task motivated, when there is any contingency arriving as and obstruction for the
completion of a task, leader generally solves the problem. Relation between leaders and
members mainly influence the atmosphere of the group and depends upon loyalty, trust and
confidence. For example, Unilever when failed to implement relationship between the
maintenance and production department, the rate of output fell down considerably. Hence it is
much necessary to build a optimal course of action to lead a company effectively.
d) Chaos theory
There is another theory which has an influence over the operation of a business known as chaos
theory. This theory is applicable when there is a lack of management system and does not follow
any particular rules or law (Luftman, 2014). It describes the unpredictability of system and
sometimes generates energy without any direction or predictability. Unilever, once resided in a
chaos system in the late 80’s where the flow of work was haphazard and the production rate was
declining consecutively. Since it can be defined by mathematical formula and are not in random,
they were solved applying this chaos theory.
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Therefore, these various theories have a huge impact for the management and leadership which
enhances the quality of performance for both. The theories are required by the organization in
order to analyze and operate the business effectively.
Task P4
In this section the key approaches to operations of a business organization are going to be
discussed with various roles of leaders and managers.
a) Operations Management
The management section which is solely concerned with controlling and designing of the process
of production can be defined as the operations management. It also includes redesigning of any
business operations depending upon the production of goods and services. Basically, in an
organization it contributes in converting the energy, raw materials or resources and human labors
into the desired product with highest level of efficiency (Markus, and Jacobson, 2014).
b) Approaches to operations management
There are six main approaches to operations management which includes as follows:
Total Quality Management: These types of approach are generally applied in order to enable
long term success through the satisfaction of customers. All member of the organization
participate in improving the quality and set a basic standard to be followed.
Just-in-Time: This approach takes place in an operations management to increase efficiency of a
production process and minimize the output waste, thereby decreasing the inventory costs.
Continuous Improvement: This has a similar resemblance to the total quality management. Like
the previous approach this also aims on improving the quality of the product by introducing new
technologies, reducing length of time taken to process, and focusing on problems with customers
or suppliers.
Six Sigma: The method of increasing efficiency of an operations management by eliminating the
errors and defects, saving time and reducing cost within the process can be defined a six sigma
methodology (Ouyang et al. 2014). Generally, it is costly to implement however provides high
end engineering and management.
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Lean production: The method of minimizing the waste products within the manufacturing system
without harming the productivity rate is defined as lean production. It proves to be highly
efficient by eliminating waste, reducing cost and maintaining high level of quality.
Queuing: The mathematical study of queues or waiting lines falls under the queueing theory.
Through this a model can be created to predict the waiting times and lengths which is often
needed during a business decision about resources to provide a service.
c) Roles of leaders in operations management
Leaders are the most essential factor for defining the efficiency of operations within the
organization. There are various roles associated with a leader. First, the leadership is required at
every level of management. The top level needs leadership in order to formulate plans and
policies which will be interpreted and executed in the middle level and lower level. Secondly,
leaders act as representative of the organization and thus has to represent the concern at general
meetings, conferences, seminars, etc. Third, a leader integrates the personal goals of the
employees with the organizational goals by coordinating the people together and thereby
achieving a common objective (Grabara et al. 2014). Hence, a leader invents or innovates an idea
based upon which a management organizes a plan to meet its purpose collectively.
d) Roles of managers in operations management
Operation managers or managers in operation management have a senior role in the organization
which involves the managerial monitoring for the production of goods. The manager ensures
smooth operation of a system with effective and efficient output. Generally, the roles include
monitoring the operations with analysis to check its effectiveness.
There are different types of operational roles within the organization are taken care by the
leaders and managers which results in efficient production.
Task P5
a) Business objectives of the organization
The business objectives of the organization can be classified into followings:
Survival: This is applicable to the fresh or newly started organization where the survival is the
primary factor for establishing itself into a successful organization. Hence it is a short term
objective.
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Increasing sale: The most important factor for deciding the successful of a business is its margin
of sale. An increasing sale means the business is improving and running its profit. Therefore, this
objective is long term and interprets the growth of a business organization.
Maximizing profit: The profit of business is maximized when the cost of production is much less
than its cost of selling. Every business aims for achieving maximum profits by introducing
effective system. Various factors depend for maximizing profit like highest quality of product
and service ensures customer satisfaction resulting in reliability for the brand.
Satisfying customers: The customer satisfaction have a significant role in deciding the survival
as well the profits of businesses. If the product is reliable then customer will find it satisfactory
resulting in preference for future also. Industry like Unilever is highly dependent on consumer
goods as they produce consumer goods which are used in daily life. Hence the products are
always selling in cycle and need to assure the quality is highest so as not to lose its potential
customers.
Growths: The growth of an organization depends on overall performance of the business
members. To achieve this objective, the members are required to work collectively in an efficient
process.
b) Functions of operation management
Operation management functions in order to provide highest level of efficient performance. It is
responsible for managing the functions within the organization. The main function is to manage
the cost behind the production. It also looks after the quality of the product, which should be
high and error free. The promise and expectations made to the customer should be met and
should be able to change according to the market needs.
Control: It is often found that some organisations seem to give power or control to male
employees. It can be said that both the genders are required to provide power both in the hand of
a man and a woman. Women are often underrepresented in regard to decision making powers.
An organisation is required to choose leaders based on capability (Wynn, 2015, p.26).
Distribution system process: While conducting distribution system process, leaders are to
supervise distribution system. Generally, men are associated with distribution procedures and
this is to be changed because women could also participate in distribution procedures.
Process design: In this function of operation management is to design the entire process in an
effective manner. Further it is an activity for determining the workflow, requirement of
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equipment and implementation for the process. It includes different number of tools such as
flowcharting etc.
Capacity management for scheduling: It is known as the process of determine the capacity
which is required by an organization for meeting the changes needs for its products. It consider
different resources such as for implementation.
:
c) Roles of operation management in achieving business objectives
Operation management ensures every business objective is met. Increasing sale and growth are
the primary objective of a business thus the operation are designed to enable minimum cost of
production and maximum sale of the products. The quality of products meets a certain set
standards and hence customers also get satisfied with the products. In this way operation
management helps in achieving various business objectives.
Task P6
a) Factors impacting upon operations management and decision making
Factors that are influencing operation management and decision making process within the
business environment are enlisted below:
● Cognitive bias
● Individual and age differences belief in personal relevance
● An escalation of influence as well as commitment of the choices that people make
b) Corporate social responsibility
CSR can encourage companies like Unilever to develop effective steps in order to help the
existing society to improve itself in some way. The management of Unilever can perform eco
friendly operation to help the society to get rid of pollution.
b) Stakeholders
The role of the stakeholders is to help the business organisation to develop proper design of the
project and implement those in the market to gain competitive advantage in the market.
c) Entrepreneurship: An entrepreneur is also an important part of operational systems because
their decisions are liable to put impact over operational management of an organisation.
Effect of operational management
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Operational management is putting positive impact over an organisation. It provides a
framework for developing and managing operational activities. Organisation are benefiting from
operation management (Kot, 2014, p.12). It has been found that an effective procedure for
operational management is able to improve the supply chain management. Competitive
advantage can be achieved through operational management procedures. An effective
operational management system could assist a firm to increase their production process but in the
absence of a good operational system, an organisation has to incur losses.
Sustainability: Sustainability is one of the increasing issues for the organization and due to this
it is important that company used Sustainability management strategies for growing significance.
This lead to have implication for decision, and process related with all aspects of operation
management which includes design, planning, strategy and improvement. For instance, it is
essential for company to have right environmental and social performance objectives and
indicator need to be integrated with quality
. Recommendations and conclusion
Through this assignment we learnt that for a successful running of an organization it is necessary
for management and leadership management to function in an efficient manner. The decision and
ideas are taken from the leaders. A manager manages day to day activities with statistics
analysis, writing and reading reports, thus proving to be an essential role to play. Other duties
which a manager play are controlling and planning a change, managing the quality assurance
programme, developing new technologies or alternative methods for efficient production,
reviewing settling and managing the budget A manager needs to maintain sustainability while
managing their employees. It is to be considered by a manger that production procedures are
completed by abiding by sustainability guidelines. It is the responsibility of a manager to ensure
sustainability of resources during operational management.
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