Unilever's Organizational Change: A Leadership Perspective

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Understanding and Leading Change
1

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1............................................................................................................................................4
LO2............................................................................................................................................7
LO3..........................................................................................................................................11
LO4..........................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................19
Reference List..........................................................................................................................20
2

Introduction
Organisational change is the concept of entirely changing the business structure, strategies,
company policies, operating procedures, and business culture of an organisation. It is a very
complicated and crucial aspect in the world of modern business. This is so because it is
necessary for a company to find out new opportunities, utilise all available resources to gain
profits, and make sure that the business is sustainable. Organisational change can be managed
by having a strong and capable leadership who can ensure that the transformation process
goes as planned without any obstacles.
The chosen organisation for this report is Unilever, which is British-Dutch multinational
FMCG producer with its headquarters in London, UK and Rotterdam, Netherlands. The
company specialises in selling food and beverage products, along with cleaning products,
beauty products, and personal care products (Unilever global company website, 2019). In this
report, the accelerators of change will be explained in reference to Unilever along with their
relationship with singular and collective team behaviour. The various barriers of change will
be analysed along with leadership approaches that will influence the internal and external
changes of Unilever.
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LO1
Compare ways in which change impacts on an organisation’s strategy and operations
Change in an organisations operations and strategies can happen only when a driver of
change is responsible for bringing it (Anastassiu et al., 2016). In order to explain different
organisational changes, two organisation and their changes will be explained - Unilever and
Reckitt Benckiser, another company specialising in selling personal care products (Rb.com,
2019) using PESTLE analysis and explaining the drivers of change.
Changes:
PESTLE
Drivers of
change
Impact on strategy Impact of operations
Political Brexit - decreased
sale of products
in other European
countries (Knoke,
2018)
Unilever needs to make
better strategies to
market these products
in those countries
The company needs to
focus on creating special
products that can attract
customers in those
countries
Economic Increase in
Exchange Rates
Increase prices of
products sold in non-
UK foreign markets
Decrease cost of
operations to increase
profit margin (Esch et al.,
2019)
Social Change in
customer trends
Develop new kinds of
products that Unilever
have not produced
before
The HRM of Unilever
needs to hire new
employees specialising in
producing those products
Technological Introduction of
modern
machinery
Lower production costs
for products which
needs to be considered
in budget planning
Employees need to learn
the use of new equipments
along with the HRM
hiring new employees who
know how to use them
Legal Law concerning
Health and Safety
of employees
The use of potentially
harmful machinery will
be reduced which will
cause the use of other
The use of machinery that
can potentially hurt
employees will be used
only by specialists
4

machinery to make up
for the deficit
Environmental Increase in carbon
content in the
atmosphere of the
UK
Strategies should be
focused around
lowering carbon
emission from
manufacturing units
Equipments that produce
more carbon should be
used less or if possible not
used (Evans et al., 2017)
Table 1: Impact of change on Unilever
(Source: Created by the learner)
Changes:
PESTLE
Drivers of
change
Impact on strategy Impact of operations
Political Brexit - decreased
sale of products
in other European
countries
Increase the marketing
of products in non-
European countries to
increase sales and make
up for deficit
The company needs to
focus on creating special
products that can attract
customers in those
countries
Economic Increase in
Exchange Rates
Increase prices of
products sold in non-
UK foreign markets
(Bashir and Verma,
2019)
Increase the supply of
products to generate more
profits
Social Change in
customer trends
Improve products to
meet customer
demands
Increase the supply of
products to generate more
profits
Technological Introduction of
modern
machinery
The use of these new
products should be
planned in the strategy
HRM hiring new
employees who know how
to use them
Legal Law concerning
Health and Safety
of employees
The budget plan should
consider the medical
helps given to
employees
A new medical wing
should be introduced to
address employees
medical conditions
Environmental Increase in carbon Strategies should Employees should learn
5

content in the
atmosphere of the
UK
incorporate the use of
newer carbon filters
(Doppelt, 2017)
the use of carbon filters
Table 2: Impact of change on Reckitt Benckiser
(Source: Created by the learner)
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LO2
Evaluate the influences that drives of change have on organisational behaviour
Many external and internal changes due to political, social, economical, technological, legal
and environmental factors took place that affected Unilever’s leadership, departments and
individuals working in the company in positive or negative way. The table down below is to
evaluate how the changes have affected the organisation and what measures should be taken
to minimise the negative impacts.
Change Internal/
External
Impact
on
leadershi
p
behaviou
r
Impact on
team/
department
al
behaviour
Impact on
individual
behaviour
Measures to
minimise
negative impacts
Brexit External
change
The
leaders
have
decided to
move the
headquart
ers of
Unilever
from
London,
UK to
Rotterda
m,
Netherlan
d.
 To
maintain
its
position
as a giant
retail
chain,
Unilever
should
expand
into
foreign
markets to
decrease
the effect
of Brexit
(Dhingra
et al.,
7

2016).
 Unilever
should
survey
markets of
several
countries
to produce
products
that attract
customers
of that
market
(Vernon,
2017).
Increase
of
Exchange
Rates
External
change
The
leadership
had to
look into
new
suppliers,
transport
methods
and many
ways that
will help
to
decrease
the
productio
n cost.
Departments
had to
function
with limited
resources
and
workforce in
order to
decrease the
production
cost.
 Productio
n cost
should be
decreased
in order to
maintain
and
increase
profits.
 Supplying
more
products
in the
market so
that it can
fulfil the
demand of
a large
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number of
clients can
help the
profits to
increase.
Change
of Market
Trends
External
Change
Due to the
change in
the tastes
of the
customer,
the
leadership
has
decided to
traditional
personalit
y. The
new
marketing
strategies
such as
advertisin
g on
popular
social
networkin
g sites
like Face
book,
Pinterest
and
Tumblr
are
Departments
that are
connected to
the
production
process went
through
changes to
produce new
things
according to
the market
demand.
 Unilever
must
produce a
new range
of
products
that is
able to
fulfil the
new
demands
and
requireme
nt of the
consumers
.
 The HRM
of the
organisati
on must
hire
eligible
employees
who have
expertise
in making
those
products.
9

planned
to drag
customers
. The
leadership
decided to
make the
customers
’
relationsh
ip with
the brand
stronger.
Introducti
on of
modern
machiner
y
Internal
Change
 With
the
help
of
mode
rn
mach
inery,
many
depar
tment
s are
able
to do
their
jobs
withi
n a
short
er
 As
the
prod
uctio
n can
be
done
with
fewe
r
num
bers
of
empl
oyee
s,
many
of
them
beca
 The
managem
ent of
Unilever
must
ensure the
products
produced
with the
help of
new
machinery
are not
lacking
quality.
 The
managem
ent must
make sure
no
10

perio
d and
with
less
numb
er of
empl
oyees
.
me
unem
ploye
d
(Ote
khile
and
Zele
ny,
2016
).
employees
get
unemploy
ed as it
can affect
the brand
impressio
n of
Unilever
negatively
.
Law
Regardin
g Health
and
Safety of
Employe
es
Internal
Change
Leadershi
p had to
become
more
aware of
employee
s’ health
and safety
related
issues.
All the
departments
had to
become
more careful
regarding the
health and
safety of the
workers.
Due to the
usage of
harmful
chemicals
and
machines in
the process
of
production,
the
employees
go through
health
problems.
The law
regarding
health and
safety of
employees
have
improved
the
 Types of
machinery
that can
affect the
health and
safety of
the
employees
should be
eliminated
.
 Unilever’s
managem
ent of
Unilever
must
come up
with
alternative
ways for
the
productio
11

conditions of
employees.
ns that
were done
by those
machines
before.
Increase
in carbon
content in
the
atmosphe
re of the
UK
External
Change
Leadershi
p had to
search for
new
machines
and ways
that will
create
fewer
carbon
contents.
Production
departments
that use
machinery
that
produces
carbon
contents get
affected the
most and
should go
through
structural
changes.
Types of
machinery
that produce
carbon
affects the
health of
every
individual
employee
those use
them. Poor
health
condition
affects them
negatively.
Eliminating
harmful
machinery
has
improved
their
conditions.
 The
managem
ent of
Unilever
must
organise
training
sessions
for the
employees
to teach
them the
use of
carbon
filters.
 The
machines
that
produce
an
excessive
amount of
carbons
must be
eliminated
from the
procedure
of
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