• Posted on February 27, 2023
• Unique Submission Team

HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample

Introduction

Management identifies the factors that help to bring competitive advantage within an organisation which tends to plan the strategies that will provide ways to sustain in the market.

Competitive advantages are the factors that provide the company to fetch better products and services to the customers at an affordable price (Noe et.al. 2017). http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment SampleTherefore, it is very important to utilise various frameworks and theories of leadership along with management change models for understanding the human relation for better positioning of the company.

Henceforth, in this report, the leadership, changing management theories, and models along with the various market analysing tools of the Unilever multi-national company will be used to understand the strategies utilised and identify ways to overcome the future challenges.

Discussion

Critically analyse the strategy of the organization

Unilever is a multinational company that is recognised worldwide by people for its products and successful brands.  It is a fast-moving consumer goods sector that was established by Dutch margarine Unie and Lever brothers on 2^nd September 1992 (Gunawan, 2021).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample It started its business as the maker of oils and fats by extending it with the acquisition of Lipton, Brooke brand, best foods, pukka herbs, etc. Slowly in 2010, it shifted the market to beauty products for slow growth in the food sector.

At present Unilever owns 400 brands available in 190 countries and headquartered in London, England. The company includes food, energy drink, baby food, cheese, ice creams, coffee, toothpaste, beauty products, personal care, consumer healthcare products, breakfast cereals, juice, etc. The Unilever business model will be shown here to understand the value of the company and it includes the things below:

Manufacturing: According to Pereira, (2021), the company is number one in the supply chain and 306 factories are found to be invested for bringing eco-friendly and efficiency in the production.

Logistics: It is extending its logistical supply by controlling the cost, improving the service towards the customers, reducing the CO2, and only preferring vehicles that go on track rather than the road.

Marketing: The marketing strategy to penetrate the market is very high and they use various digital marketing which is essential for them and they are making a decision through the advertisements.

Sales: The company works very hard to connect with the customers and they make sure their products are available in every marketplace.

Consumer perspective: The products are cheap but need to focus on the trends to maintain the competitive advantage.

Collaboration: It is having alliances with government, NGOs, stakeholders for improving the society and work with various supply chain partners to bring innovation into the products.

Innovation: The mission is to build brands that provide innovative and sustainable products in the market.

Sourcing: It invests euro 34 billion in annual programs for agricultural and sustainable raw materials used up to 51%.

 

Figure 1Business Model

(Source: Pereira, 2021)

This model helps to understand the position of the company and it involves identifying the supply chain and logistic segment, key partners, and customer segment that will help to increase the customer value by formulating business strategies. But it will be more relevant to apply SWOT analysis and differentiate the competitive advantages and weaknesses.

SWOT analysis of Unilever company:

Strengths

• It is one of the world’s largest companies operating in 190 countries to distribute the products at ease.
• Its research and development is very innovative and trying to bring changes as per the preferences of the consumer with huge investment.
• The most unique feature of the company its is pricing strategy. The pricing is very cheap and other competitors can’t compete in terms of price.
• It combines global strategies with its local operation. The company changes the strategies as per the countries consumer’s preferences.
• It is providing innovative and eco-friendly initiatives with governments and NGOs for better health and environment protection programs.
• The existing employees are resources to them and they are providing an Agile working program where employees can work flexibly from anywhere and at any time (Cheng, 2021). Health and safety measures are also implemented relevantly.

Weaknesses

• The biggest weakness is its competitors. The company operates in a contemporary business environment and nestle, P&G gives a tough competition to the company.
• The products are easily replaced in Africa and Asia where people use local and natural products.
• According to Chiedual. (2017), The employees were working continuously during the pandemic as frontline workers in factories and also supplying the products to the end customers for free.

Opportunities

• With globalisation customers are changing their lifestyle to western culture and due to global reach, the company can capture the market.
• Developed along with developing nations showing concern for health measures during the covid-19 pandemic can now bring changes by capturing the market of the people by introducing health concern products.
• It has a good record of social and environmental responsibilities which will seek the attention of the customers as people are very specific about community protection.

Threats

• The Covid-19 pandemic has allowed the FMCG sector to decline and the company sustained a loss of 73% in the second quarter of 2020.
• It is facing threats from a smaller and larger group of companies operating in the same sector.

Though the company is famous and has a competitive advantage over the social and environmental responsibilities due to digital platforms the works are transparently been monitored by society. They are found to be criticised for their failure of strategies which is threatening them to lose the market.

From the above business model and SWOT analysis the company’s business strategies can be identified. The company is focusing on capturing the market with the focus on 4p’s marketing strategies.

The product price and categories described above showed the style to seek customer attention globally. They are continuously working on capturing the mind of the customer by positioning it as one of the cheapest and eco-friendly products.
The continuous effort to satisfy their employees with various leadership styles is never underestimated (Astika and Suharyo, 2021). http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment SampleThey keep their customers first and they second value their employees. According to the management executive, the changing role of the work can destroy their mindset so they constantly bring creative and innovative styles of leadership to retain the employees.

Thirdly, they focus on the investors. They make sure to keep them constantly updated about various policies and reports that help them to receive a dividend on time. Fourth, is the strategy of valuing the community. The community needs various extensive help for accepting the company and the products. Therefore, various schemes and programs related to social and environmental are considered and almost a billion euros are spent every year for resolving the issues.

The competitive advantages will be distinguished hereafter the utilisation of business and SWOT analysis model to differentiate the value of the company. They are:

It is one of the world’s largest companies operating in 190 countries to distribute the products at ease. The research and development are very innovative and trying to bring changes as per the preferences of the consumer with huge investment (Gichuki, 2017).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample

The most unique feature of the company is its pricing strategy. Huge investment in CSR to bring changes into the society with the collaboration of government and NGOs. The competitive advantages are related to extra innovative efforts made by the company to globally sustain in the market with eco-friendly products.

Critical impact of challenge to the company and drivers of change.

Furthermore, the challenges faced by Unilever during the covid-19 pandemic were very intense.  The countries of the UK, China, India, the US, the Netherland, and Italy are the places that were promised to be distributed products like free soap as a part of the CSR scheme during the pandemic.

But the transformation made it very difficult to distribute the products. The challenges to protect workers in the factories were very hard (Murphy and Murphy, 2018).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample They have to work continuously to keep the promise made by the leader to the community. Company leader Alan Jope decided to distribute free soap, food, sanitiser, bleach to the customers and society with the value of euro 100 million during the pandemic.

But this strategy affected the employees who have to consider walking out of the home door and distribute the products to the end-users. The various suppliers were also helped along with the employees and customers. The constant effort to manufacture, do research and development for delivering the products effectively were some major challenges faced by the employees and the management system.

The changing role from being a normal employee who had flexible hours of working was turned into a situation where they have to work constantly risking their lives to fulfill the CEO’s commitment towards the communities. Another challenge is the water filtration project.

The water is chemically been contaminated by the industrial sites of the company and they promised to reduce 60% by 2018 (Gichuki, 2017).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample But the report showed only a 2% reduction of the water consumption purifiable in 2018. Ethics and social responsibilities are a dilemma for the communities and it been reported in the news recently.

The image of the company is found to diminish with such a huge mistake. The next challenge is the lack of young decision-makers in the management departments. The last young person is 48 years old and most people are not able to connect with the superiors because of the age difference.

The challenges were very intense but Alan Jope overcomes those challenges by utilising the changing style of leadership as per the situation. He understood the reason behind the challenges and wanted a change in the strategies for better results.

He focused on employees to grow the market opportunities. The contemporary business needs contemporary leadership style theories to fulfill the commitment made to the outsiders. The strategy he applied in the pandemic was to utilise the changing role of the leadership style. He implemented the situational style leadership in many cases saying that he was not prepared to be a leader but various situational lessons gave him an idea to change the roles as per the circumstances. During the crisis when he decided to distribute the free soap, foods, sanitisers, etc. to the customers and communities it was very difficult for the employees to work in that scenario.

Jope at that moment adopted the leadership style of a transformative leader accepting the complex changes and bought various ways to overcome the challenges (Chebiego and Kariuki, 2018).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample He tweeted and offered concern about the world and provided various ways to handle the outbreak. He also made sure he invests in employees and suppliers who will make the strategy happen in real terms. He provided euro 500 million as relief money to the workers and suppliers to bring creativity in them to balance the situation.

He also applied the strategy of motivating the employees during the stage when they were found devaluing their work culture because of the challenging environment. He changed the management role in that case by adopting the style of situational leadership.

Situational leadership is a style adopted by the leader when there is a need to bring dynamic strategies for managing the employees to accomplish goals. The Goleman theory of situational leadership considered six leadership style and all of them has a role to play for the changing needs of the workers (Ali and Islam, 2020). http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment SampleThe workers were heard by the leader in the first place and Jophe decided to change the policies of the payment system by paying them more if they acquire the target set to them individually.

Before the competition was generally among the group and it made the work environment very challenging for all of them. The workers who cannot compete were demotivated so to overcome these loopholes he used the affiliated style of situational leadership which was formulated because of the arising need of the workers to feel safe and protected.

He also applied various changing style practices by using the Mckinsey 7s model which made the problems very easy to resolve. He introduced seven stages which include structure, strategies, system, skills, style, staff, shared value. Jope reviewed the structure of the company like how many project managers are allotted for the water consumption work and how effectively it has been utilised. Second, he analysed the strategy.

The plan was a good one but due to a lack of coordination and dedication, the work was lagging (Lawrence et.al. 2019). http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment SampleHe then identified the loopholes in the management system. The technical infrastructure was not up to date and the project machinery was not innovative for reducing water contamination. The skills no doubt was very competent and all the project managers and engineers were creative.

The styles were obsolete and the competition among group members made the environment very challenging and hectic for people. The staff was ethical and value their works but some unwanted competition made it worse for them to continue their job. The shared values were not the same. Every individual was not competing with oneself they are competing with one another which distracted them from the main goal.

The whole structure of the organisation was not appropriate to achieve the desired results. Therefore, he decided to change his organisational design by applying situational and transformative leadership styles to accomplish the water project plan, and by 2020 the water consumption increased. The contamination was reduced by 45% in 2020 which made the water consumable for the poor society living nearby the factories.

Change aspects of the selected challenge to overcome the issues.

The problems faced by the company during the covid-19 pandemic and the community criticism since 2018 were very challenging. The former CEO failed to negotiate the plan of shifting its headquarter from London to Netherland as the majority of the company’s shareholders was not ready to accept the proposal of shifting the company’s headquarter to some other place which will end up their holdings in the company. The succeeding CEO took over the position in 2019.

He is Alan Jope and a marketer who has great market knowledge. The challenges which were discussed above have been successfully addressed by him at every stage but there were hurdles to implement the changes regarding the strategies. He firstly changed the management style of the organisational culture.

Then he addressed the concern for bringing health and safety measures policies for the workers during the pandemic (Caldera et.al. 2019). http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment SampleHe adopted the transformative, situational leadership style theories to implement the strategies that are very important for the changing role of the management system for better teamwork.

He recently also tweeted showing concern about the pandemic and applied many leadership approaches for fulfilling the commitment made by him towards the employees, suppliers, and the communities indeed.

The practices of changing management particularly by using the McKinsey 7s model have given a platform to the company to implement the strategies which showed effective growth towards the communities and employees.

But it cannot be ignored that the company CEO Alan Jope was not able to successfully implement the strategies which will help him to grow the business by differentiating the products from the competitors because employee’s multiple works made the working culture-negative and slow (Lewis et.al. 2019).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample He doesn’t have a strong personal brand like other global leaders. He failed to manage the employees because there is a lack of connection between the company and the customer.

Impact of challenge and business strategy

The first step must be to bring behavioural change among the employees for better human relationships. The human relation can be maintained with a strong personal brand as an effective leader globally. He was criticised by many of the stakeholders for neglecting the human resource that can hold on to the image of the company (Prasad, 2020).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample

The lifebuoy soap is an example where the only focus was made by the management to deliver the product during the pandemic to the customers. The company’s products are already known by customers but due to the negligence of the workers during the pandemic lower the human relationship between the management and the employees.

The campaign to aware customers of the product was a good strategical plan for positioning the product as healthy to use during the pandemic but worker safety was neglected to some extent. The behavioural leadership style is important to apply in a case where the company is surrounded by rivalries (Gorvie, 2019).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample

The CEO of Starbucks can be a good example. He penetrates the market by emotionally connecting with the employees. He proved he value his employees and he combined various ways to resolve the problems of the workplace and community to sustain in the market with his brand image.

His company was known and valued only because of his way of prioritising human relations. The same theory can be applied by Alan Jope, he must use the behavioural leadership style by analysing and imitating the traits of the CEOs to build a personal brand image for building a good relationship among the management and employees.

The second practice must be to apply Kotter’s 8 step changing model. This model will bring an emergency into the environment which will bound them to build a strong connection among the team members that enables them to connect with the workers by resolving the problems.

The changes are a part of the workplace and resisting the work will never let the management system connect with the employees (Lock, 2021).http://HR7002 Organizational Behaviors and Global Strategy Assignment Sample By analysing the 8 steps of the changing management style it will help Jope to create urgency among the management team which will strongly bond them to accomplish the goal with motivation and enthusiasm.

Figure 2Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model

(Source: Lock, 2021)

For example, to build a connection between the management and the workers, the management can visit certain remote areas along with the suppliers and NGOs for understanding the misery of the workers who worked during the pandemic extending the health and safety policies.

The range of the products is very minimal in this company so advertising and many other methods cannot build a position in the customer’s mind for buying the products without specific advantages. The competitive advantages were very imitable and the rarity is least to find.

Sustainability can be maintained by showing concern to the employees by adding value in their life apart from paying money. The competitive advantages will improve if the employees are given more safety and health protection equally like the management team. The feedbacks of workers work like magic and this will help build the image of the company and the CEO.

These are the ways the challenges must be addressed for overcoming the insecurities of the employees towards the employers.

 

Conclusion

From the Unilever plc analysis with the help of various theories, it was understood that the company needs customer emotional connection to build the brand image. The CSR was providing ways to build a better place for the society with various annual investment programs but the water consumption project in 2018 slammed the ethics and social responsibilities to be a dilemma for the community. Since 2019 the strategic change of the changing role of management and leadership style addressed by Alan Jope has brought tremendous growth towards the company. But the relation of the management and the employees need various other theories and model practices for building a positive relationship between the employees and management team for the company’s image-building across the world.

 

References 

Books and Journals

Ali, K.S. and Islam, M.A., 2020. Effective dimensions of leadership style for organizational performance: A conceptual study. International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics, 7, pp.30-40.

Astika, I.M.J. and Suharyo, O.S., 2021. Internal and External Enviromental Strategy Analysis Using SWOT Matrix and QSPM. International Journal of Progressive Sciences and Technologies, 25(1), pp.507-516.

Caldera, H.T.S., Desha, C. and Dawes, L., 2019. Evaluating the enablers and barriers for successful implementation of sustainable business practice in ‘lean’SMEs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 218, pp.575-590.

Chebiego, C. and Kariuki, P., 2018. Strategic firm level factors and performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya: A case of Unilever Kenya Ltd. International Academic Journal of Human Resource and Business Administration, 3(3), pp.243-262.

Cheng, Y., 2021, February. Analysis on the Opportunities and Challenges of Unilever’s Differentiated Competition by Using SWOT and PEST. In 6th International Conference on Economics, Management, Law and Education (EMLE 2020) (pp. 280-284). Atlantis Press.

Chiedu, C.K., Long, C.S. and Ashar, H.B., 2017. The Relationship Among Job Satisfaction, Oreganizational Commitiment and Employees’ Turnover at Unilever Corporation in Nigeria. European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 2(5), pp.370-383.

Gichuki, C.M., 2017. Effect of Agile Supply Chain Strategy on Competitive Advantage of Firms in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry: A Case of Unilever Kenya (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).

Gorvie, F.Y., 2019. An analysis of the impact of cultural diversity on grievance handling: A case study of Unilever Nigeria (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).

Gunawan, F., 2021. The impact of firm size, firm age, and environmental management on the relationship between operational performance and corporate performance on Unilever Indonesia case (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pelita Harapan).

Lawrence, J., Rasche, A. and Kenny, K., 2019. Sustainability as opportunity: Unilever’s sustainable living plan. In Managing Sustainable Business (pp. 435-455). Springer, Dordrecht.

Lewis, C.C., Boyd, M., Puspitasari, A., Navarro, E., Howard, J., Kassab, H., Hoffman, M., Scott, K., Lyon, A., Douglas, S. and Simon, G., 2019. Implementing measurement-based care in behavioral health: A review. JAMA psychiatry, 76(3), pp.324-335.

Murphy, P.E. and Murphy, C.E., 2018. Sustainable living: Unilever. In Progressive Business Models (pp. 263-286). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Prasad, L.M., 2020. Principles and practice of management. Sultan Chand & Sons.