Analyzing Unilever's Organizational Culture: A Detailed Report

This report provides an analysis of Unilever's organizational culture, examining two key dimensions: team orientation and innovation and risk-taking. The report begins with an introduction to Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company, and defines organizational culture. It then delves into how Unilever fosters a collaborative environment through team orientation, emphasizing teamwork and joint problem-solving. Furthermore, the report explores Unilever's encouragement of innovation and risk-taking, highlighting how the company motivates employees to generate new ideas and approach challenges creatively. The conclusion summarizes how Unilever successfully cultivates a healthy organizational culture by embracing these two dimensions, leading to increased productivity and competitiveness. The report uses academic references to support the claims.

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Introduction
The purpose of this paper will be to describe the organization of Unilever by using
two dimensions of organizational culture, which are Team Orientation and Innovation and
Risk Taking. A brief about the organization along with the definition of organizational
culture along with the dimensions selected.
About the Organization
Unilever, in this context, can be said to be a British-Dutch organization engaged in
translational consumer products. Headquarter of this multinational organization is based in
London and Rotterdam, which started its business operations in the year of 1929. It belongs
from the consumer goods industry, and is regarded as one of the oldest multinational
organization across the world. The category of products that are manufactured by this
company involves food and beverages apart from beauty products, cleaning agents and
personal care products. It is regarded as the 7th most valuable organization in the region of
Europe, whose products are available in more than 190 nations across the globe (Unilever
global company website, 2020).
Organizational Culture
The term organizational culture includes the shared traditions, principles, values and
procedures of doing tasks that influences the ways through which the employees of the
organization acts and helps to differentiate a particular company with the other (Awadh &
Alyahya, 2013). It leads the people to act and behave within the working culture and possess
a strong influence on the employees or the people who are associated with this organization
(Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). The organizational culture of Unilever motivates the

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employees to follow an innovative way along with increasing the productivity of the
organization as well as the individual employees. One belief is followed by the management
of this organization, and that is winning together. It is the campaign which is followed by the
management globally.
Dimensions of Organizational Culture
There are many dimensions of organizational culture, which are Team Orientation and
Innovation and Risk Taking. These two will be discussed in the context of Unilever.
Team Orientation
The organizational culture is collaborative in nature apart from emphasizing
cooperation among the employees around the world. Regular meetings are held to identify the
sources of problems as well as determining the course of action. Attention is given on team
bonding rather than focusing on individuals. Activities are also organized involving the teams
rather than the individuals. Risks are faced jointly along with solving them, which also helps
to increase the bonding between the team members (Körner et al., 2015).
Innovation and Risk Taking
The global campaign that is followed by Unilever encourages the employees to take
risks while using innovative and fresh ideas in the overall business operations of this business
house. Though there is involvement of risks in these approaches, but the higher management
motivates their employees to follow smart and innovative of approaching their customers and
prospects. It can be stated in this context that competitiveness against the rival business
entities are enjoyed by the management of Unilever by following the risk taking culture and
using innovative ways (Hogan & Coote, 2014).

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that unilever possess a healthy
organizational culture by following two dimensions of Team Orientation and Innovation and
Risk Taking.

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Reference
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Awadh, A. M., & Alyahya, M. S. (2013). Impact of organizational culture on employee
performance. International review of management and business research, 2(1), 168.
Hogan, S. J., & Coote, L. V. (2014). Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A
test of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1609-1621.
Körner, M., Wirtz, M. A., Bengel, J., & Göritz, A. S. (2015). Relationship of organizational
culture, teamwork and job satisfaction in interprofessional teams. BMC health
services research, 15(1), 243.
Unilever global company website. (2020). Unilever global company website | Unilever
Global. [online] Available at: https://www.unilever.com/ [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].