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The assignment provides a systematic assessment of a company in the field of administration and overall behavioural analysis. The report states in detail about the company management approaches to support its analysis. It also mentions in detail about the leadership style practised in this company. The company has a stable approach when it comes to organisation culture and employee motivation. The mentioned modules are significant for managing any repercussions that may arise while handling a project. The assignment also scrutinises the reflection on teamwork dynamics. It is essential to include the mention of conflicts and cultural differences among a particular team and how the team managed to resolve it. The importance of Belbin's role to demonstrate the responsibility of team members is a form of acknowledgment. The assignment also analysed the individual strength and opportunities for ensuring development and betterment.
A company’s personal structure refers to the general practices and code of conduct followed by the company for generating workflow output. The structure ensures that the overall integrity of a project is not shaky while different disciplines work coherently for fulfilling individual functions. Unilever, UK is dispersed into five distinguished groups of Personal Care, Food and Nutrition, Ice cream and beverages, home care and appliances and Beauty & Wellbeing. The individual sectors of the company are collaborated at the base of the organisation. But each business sector of this company is responsible for its individual strategies, planning and profit credibility on a global scale (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Company management approaches
Unilever has strategised the company’s management approaches into generalised forums to ensure full utilisation of its potential (blogs.lse., 2022).
Generic Strategies
Unilever approaches differentiation with generic strategies to attain upperhand in the competitive market. The company has established a secured place in the global market through financial performance in the goods market and competitive advantage. The company chooses to establish an approach to perform qualitatively and not quantitatively. The products of Unilever, though placed at a higher end of price point, attracts the customers due to its unique approach to marketing and product making (unilever.co.uk., 2022). For example, generic strategies are implemented in production of Dove shampoo which highlights not only cleaning but also glossy hair. The company grabs attention in this approach as unlike its competitors it serves a lot more than just cleaning hair.
Primary Strategy
Market penetration is considered as the primary strategy of Unilever (unilever.co.uk., 2022). The company approaches market penetration as an intensive strategy. It visions in catching up with the elaborate revenue and support business expansion through rigorous multitude in sales volume. The company allows production of products in higher quantities to ensure that the surplus demand is met and the business ventures are propelled forward. Along with the unique approach of production of goods, the company seizes the market by selling products globally. This ensures that the global market is aware of their presence apart from that in their home country.
Secondary Strategy
Product development is considered as the secondary strategy of the company management strategies. The company aims at growth in its turnover revenue by keeping their loyal customer base curious. For example, Unilever includes innovation and new products to each of its business sectors in regular intervals. This keeps the customer’s interest in regulating and experimenting with new product lines. This approach ensures increase in revenue margins by increase of sales. Unilever follows its approach of unique and multipurpose thinking while curating new product lines (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Supporting Strategy
Inclusion of diversification is the supporting strategy of the company’s management approach. The company follows the trends and dominance of the market search by allowing mergers and acquisitions of other companies. For example, the company acquired mergers of the personal care section of Sara Lee corporation in 2010. The general motive of Unilever for such mergers remains in targeting the consumer’s interests for unique products. Thus the company expands its business and revenue profits by these mergers (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Leadership style
The leadership style of Unilever is discussed in length.
Code of Business Principles
The code of business principles is followed by the company in tackling the operations of its main body and its subsidiaries in accordance with globally accepted policies. Unilever involves the code of business principles in leading the acceptance of law and regulations, maintaining authenticity of business and acknowledging competition. Corporate governance is accepted in this company as the company’s norm. The company believed in the One Unilever model for leading business growth. It followed the primary leadership practice for decentralised administration (blog.degreed., 2022).
Commitment leadership
The company handles its multiple and diverse international ventures through commitment leadership approaches. This approach provides compassion and inclusivity to the company in supervising issues that are sensitive to cultural representation. The approach also enables Unilever to transfer ethical environment and competence globally. The company relies on disposition of ethnocentric to geocentric strategies and configuration of international to local strategies for releasing cultural shock. The company approaches this leadership skill as an advantage through knowledge of organisational structure (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Leadership Growth Profile (LGP)
Unilever employs the leadership growth profile in securing growth to pathway mode. The approach signifies interlinkage between the prevalent corporate establishment and the company’s leadership proficiency. The path to growth includes customer loyalty, targeted marketing and revenue supply chain. The proficiency in leadership can be utilised to extract employees’ favour for winning clientele base and improving marketing strategies. The LGP approach has aided in seizing the ladder in the global market with b foresights provided by leadership approaches. Unilever has stood out in the leading position as a b competitor in the market (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Leadership Growth Profile has also helped the company in leading human resource development. This approach aligns the vision of the company with the employees’ behaviour as the foundation of development. LGP helps the company in gaining trust of the employees so that full potential is derived from each individual. Unilever has trusted the LGP’s capability in supervising appraisal, development and enhancement of team morale. All these factors influence systematic business growth. This leadership strategy has also given Unilever multiple opportunities for seizing particular global markets (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Organisational culture
The significant features of Unilever’s organisational culture are stated below.
Product type division
Product type division is the organisational culture followed by the company in supervising planning, production, distribution in markets and sales of goods. The product type division is utilised by the managers in thoroughly analysing the market trends for comparing the finished products with the prevailing market demands. Unilever’s core value of generic approach of diversification of products is implemented here. The company’s genetic structure is beneficial for a diversified product processing. This ensures that customers with different approaches to shopping are included and satisfied. Thus, it ensures overall business expansion with seizing diversified clientele base (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Corporate executive teams
Corporate teams serve as the secondary characteristic of the company’s organisation culture. The structure of the corporate teams aligns with the business strategies and expansion intention. Unilever’s team for administering finances and another team for handling marketing strategies make up the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE) group. The ULE group works according to the company's intention for expansion and increasing sales growth. The important teams for propelling the company include chief delegates, human resources, research and planning, supply chain, revenue assessment, legal team and sales and marketing. These teams form the core of the business model for the organisation culture of Unilever (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Geographic divisions
The geographic division attains a minority of the company’s organisational culture. The company encourages local strategies to be supported by its core structural fundamentals. The corporate characteristics of Unilever caters to analysis of financial growth. The company curates individual market approaches that are applied for only specific geographical areas. The market search for European countries does not hold valid for those in Asia and Africa. The company strictly believes in exclusivity for maximum attention to particular market trends (Unilever Success Story: how do big companies get ready to boost their working teams?., 2022).
Employee motivation
The human resource department of Unilever is effective in implementing reforms to boost the employees’ morale (empuls.io., 2022).
Transparency
Unilever practises in providing clear, direct and simplified instructions to the employees. The presence of such precise instructions gives the subordinates a sense of confidence and lets them perform tasks with minimal mistakes. This also improves their relationship with the supervisors. The healthy practice of clear communication solves the problem of misinterpretation and allows us to detect shortcomings more rapidly by talking. The supervisors gain the trust of the employees and thus can be aware of the capabilities of their employees. It allows them to fully utilise their employees’ strength (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Employee engagement programme
This initiative was formulated in 2009 by Unilever with the aim of establishing a good work environment for the employees. The company believed this programme would clear the doubts of the employees about Unilever’s ethics and vision. This would give the employees an insight about the prevailing work culture. The programme also enables the company to take suggestions from the employees which they believe will be reforms for enriching the company’s goodwill. This also makes the employees believe they are included in taking significant decisions. The company ensures that the employees are conscious about the work culture and be prepared for the responsibilities expected from them (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Global People Survey (GPS)
Unilever checks the employee relationship with recurrent surveys that support real time data. The global people survey occurs after a regular interval of two or three years. The prevalence of such surveys validates the employees’ worth and they feel welcomed as an integral part of the organisation. The recent reports of such a survey have showcased an increase in initiative from the employees and refined leadership skills. The senior delegates can interact directly with the employees and thus rapid action can be taken based on emergencies (unilever.co.uk., 2022). Thus, these surveys have proven to be effective in solving communication barriers.
Communication
The company celebrates multilingualism and ensures people from all races and languages are welcomed. Unilever makes full utilisation of technology for easing communication. The company supports fast exchange of ideas and statistical facts through telephones and email. This saves time and ensures reasoning is compact. Memos and other written forms of communication ensure that long and descriptive instructions are followed word by word. This leaves no scope of mistake and mishandling of briefs (unilever.co.uk., 2022).
Conflicts and cultural differences among the team and its solution
The following reflection on teamwork dynamics has been noticed by me as an employee of Unilever. The conflicts and cultural differences among the teammates are prevalent. These cause a negative impact on the overall team morale. The conflicts are resolved by professional discussions and sometimes stoic regulations are to be imposed to ensure efficient working. The work ethics of the company can be hampered by incessant clash of perception within the work environment. Small conflicts can be left alone to deal with time. But sometimes higher authorities have to intervene to resolve prominent conflicts that have disturbed the work balance. The prevailing conflicts and its causes are highlighted in detail. The urgency of solving the conflicts by significant theories are also mentioned in this section (Obsuwan et al., 2021).
Ethnicity
The root of an individual’s background is depicted by their upbringing and their general reaction and interpretation of things as a result. It has been noticed in our team that a clash of interest that arises due to different perspectives was mainly an outcome of diversity in ethnicity. The teammates who have experienced more rigid upbringing are less insightful for embracing changes. I have seen a pattern of adjusting to shifting ideas in individuals who have come from an understanding background. It will be incorrect to generalise or say that every individual who has come from a rigid cultural background is less flexible. But they definitely have the drawback of unlearning all the stoic practices they have grown up with (Semerci, 2018).
Communication
The prominent barrier in free flow of ideas is the linguistic differences. I have seen unavoidable instances of conflict that have arised while working on a project. The cause behind such conflicts was solely misinterpretation of information between two individuals from different language backgrounds . The conflict has often resulted in the hault of work and resolution often took prolonged periods. The healthy work environment is disturbing by such unnecessary clashes. But I have seen my teammates going out of their way to resolve conflicts by either adjusting and learning a language that was accessible to both (Aureli et al., 2018).
Solutions
The conflicts in the workspace were solved by the discussed theories (Boer, Hanke & He, 2018).
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions theory
Geert Hofstede formulated Hosftede’s Cultural Dimensions theory in an attempt to link the differences in culture with a business setting. The five dimensions in which the variation in culture is dependent has been showcased by the theory. Power distance index, uncertainty avoidance index, short term vs long term orientation, collectivism vs individualism, femininity vs masculinity and restraint vs indulgence are the five dimensions. I can relate the dimensions to help solve authoritative intolerance. The theory can also resolve conflicts by giving a clear insight of the extent to which uncertainty and clash of perception can be endured (Minkov & Kaasa, 2020).
Trompenaars model
Trompenaars model compares one culture with preference of other cultures. The seven dimensions of this model are achievement versus ascription, specific versus diffuse, sequential time versus synchronous time, neutral versus emotional, internal direction versus outer direction, universalism versus particularism and individualism versus communitarianism. The dimensions are effective to demonstrate how different cultural approaches influence the business settings in a varied way. I believe that by having detailed information about an individual’s culture through this model, it will be a better way to find a common ground (Shkurko, 2021).
It is important for companies to accept multilingualism. The employees from every ethnicity and beliefs must be celebrated. The models support the company’s agenda for different people to work coherently as a team. The delegates are liable for forming unity among the employees. For every important task to be performed, the company holds together the agendas for multiplying revenue and goodwill. Thus, these models support the company in managing conflicts systematically.
I have experienced that my leadership expertise has propelled the stakes of the company in a desirable direction. My experience of past projects in Unilever company’s marketing has provided a clear idea of the market for me. It has also given me a real time interaction of working with a big team. The ability to resolve conflicts readily and go back to normal is a distinguishing factor in a team. My ability to observe and learn for the years has built confidence to lead a team.
While handling a team with diversified reasoning capabilities I have experienced to ensure the teammates with equality. It is important to acknowledge the capacity of each individual and make them not feel left out. It is important to listen to ideas from every individual and not promote favouritism. As a leader, I have followed the established theories to guide me with team management (Gulati et al., 2021).
Autocratic theory
Although this theory is power oriented, I have gained significant help from it. The prominent aid of this theory is that the leader decides the pros and cons of the ideas finalised. The theory acknowledges all the ideas from the teammates but the power of decision lies in the hands of the leader. Thus it supports faster reasoning which in turn is supportive of reaching targets and deadlines. I have decided to follow the guidelines of this theory mainly focusing on this advantage. It has given me the authority to curb time consumption and has given me spare time to be utilised for other important functions apart from debates (Ritz & Rimanoczy, 2021).
Laissez-faire theory
Although the Laissez-faire theory is in steep contrast with the autocratic approach, this theory has also curated its merits for me. For example, I have allowed my teammates to take control over decisions which are less valued. I have managed to win the trust of my team members and also did not put the project at risk. Thus the teammates felt validated and have proven to be a great asset.
The roles of both the theories are effective in curating particular interests of the team and in turn the company. The leaders and the employees are liable for selecting plans that highlight the revenue profile of the company. The leadership models are the reference point of such real time approaches. The company plans on utilising the full potential of each of its employees. It also validated the opinion of each of them to make them feel validated. Thus, the leadership models ensure both rigid and flexible approaches which serve different emergencies (Gregorovi?, 2018).
The Belbin roles observed in myself and the team are demonstrated. The complementation of functioning of each other as a team is acknowledged. The Belbin Team Role is perceived as a behavioural perception. The role is showcased to be used to interpret the particular positions that each team member is allotted. The Belbin role is a significant form of perception which can be derived for real time application. The importance of harmony in the functioning of a team is also highlighted in this segment. The Belbin model celebrates the difference in perspective of each individual and ensures that each individual is accepted in the module. It believes that the potential of each individual is relevant for uplifting a project. The model leaves scope for scrutinising the strength and shortcomings of each employee in the team (Lynch, Lynch & Clemens, 2018).
My role
Out of the nine roles occurring in the Belbin roles, my part was that of Implementer, Co-ordinator and CompleteFinisher. I have managed and coordinated the administration of the entire team and its respective departments. The task role of implementer has been carried by me for enforcing all the specimens and facts that the research team surfaced. The responsibility of the complete finisher has been regulated by me to perform the finalising priority. It is essential to have authority of every supervision under my control for complete attention to detail. I have curated each and every task to go through my approval before final evaluation of the clients (Ivanova et al., 2020).
Teammates’ roles
My teammates handled the roles of resource investigator, evaluator and specialist. The three signification roles were significant in performing the market search, evaluation, production and marketing of the innovative finished products. The importance of fact checking and aligning with market search is important for market penetration. The teammates are involved in performing the role of resource investigator. The resource investigators analyse the best raw materials that can be utilised for recognising maximum profit with minimal cost. The role of evaluators is involved in scrutinising the suitable audience profile for the finished products. The specialists engage in performing real time research such as surveys to ensure the authenticity of the market analysis (LI et al., 2018).
The strength and opportunities for self development is listed below.
Strength
I have recognised the following strengths while managing my team. I realised that I possess adequate communication skills to resolve conflicts within my team. It has ensured time consumption is minimal and a healthy work environment is resolved. My strengths have benefited my team and maintained a secured environment of work. The strength has secured that maximum revenue is extended from my team’s project. Thus, my strengths have highlighted the team’s b hindsight (Karabashevaet al, 2021).
Opportunities
The collaboration of my team's work resulted in creating multiple opportunities for both my team and me. It is important to state that I acquired a greater foundation by performing well in managing my team. I was able to explore opportunities of working with potential employees in the future. It enriched my expertise and I was able to explore new ventures in this process. The opportunities paved the way for my promotion and ensured that there is stability in my career. It has given a new direction to my career.
Weaknesses
It is important to acknowledge one’s weaknesses along with the strengths to ensure there is balance in the work profile. I have noticed that a sense of power is often overwhelming for me. I overexert myself while managing my projects. It had an adverse effect on my health and gave me anxiety. My obsession with perfection is not feasible while working on real time projects of such magnitude. Thus the acknowledgment of weaknesses ensures a scope of betterment for me (Forleo & Palmieri, 2019).
Threats
The prevailing work lifestyle competition does hamper the healthy work environment. It is important for the employees to maintain a cordial relationship among each other for smooth functioning. Unilever provides regular surveys to ensure that resolution of conflicts is handled professionally. The conflicts and clashes do have an effect on the profit turnover of the company in the long run. Thus, it is important for each individual to be aware of how much their behaviour caters to hampering the company’s image (Ahmad et al., 2021).
The report has highlighted the importance of self reflection for early detection of mistakes and leaving room for learning. The report also demonstrates the role of each teammate and leader through the Belbin model. The Belbin model provides an efficient source of reference when it comes to dividing teamwork. The importance of conducting surveys by cUnilever is highlighted for resolving work conflicts. It analyses the cause of cultural differences in work and how it tarnishes the team effort. The report has suggested minimising such differences through some established theories. The importance of accepting varied ethnicity of employees and making them comfortable is a sign of priced morality and ethics of an organisation. The organisational culture and employees forum of Unilever is mentioned to give a detailed insight of the company’s working. The company management approaches and leadership style of Unilever is also discussed in detail.
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