MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES MGMT6012: ASSESSMENT 1 GLOBAL FMCG COMPANY PREPARED BY: MOHAMAD SKAF T

Transcription

1 MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES : ASSESSMENT 1 GLOBAL FMCG COMPANY PREPARED BY: MOHAMAD SKAF T

2 Executive Summary This project report is based on global FMCG giant known as Unilever. In this project report, the roles of managers such as interpersonal, information and decisional have explained along with functions being carried by them such as planning, organizing, controlling, directing and staffing. The challenges and risks being addressed by manager s in-terms of technology, learning, customers, change, finance etc. have been explained in a detail manner. The impact of values, ethics and diversity on culture of Unilever has been positively supporting the managers in developing a better working environment. The utilitarian framework of ethics has been demonstrated in this project. The behavioural aspects of managers such as perception, learning, personality, motivation and attitude have been explained in a detail manner. Thus, the recommendations are listed below. Managers working at Organization such as Unilever must be moved to strategic leadership positions seeing their superior performances Managers should be regularly trained and developed to adapt with global challenges with effective change management strategies. Managers should be deployed with new kinds of projects to understand their behaviour, ethical aspects and decision-making abilities for creating a sustainable business model by linking their career growth with growth of Unilever. Page 1 of 17

3 Table of Contents: 1. Introduction (Unilever) 2. Discussion Roles and functions of Managers Challenges and risks addressing in Today s changing environment Impact of value ethics and diversity on culture of Unilever Behaviour Performance of Managers with Unilever 3. Research Methodology 4. Conclusion 5. Recommendations 6. References Page 2 of 17

4 1. Introduction This project report is based on global FMCG Company known as Unilever that has been operating in more than 100 countries of globe. It has been offering the products to customers, which have been meeting their household and personal needs. The famous brands of Unilever are Lux, Lifebuoy, Knorr, Lipton, Dove, clinic plus and etc. In this project report, the roles and functions of Managers being performed at Unilever have been explained in a detail manner. The challenges and risks, which have seen in today s changing environment in-terms, have technology, competition, customers changing preferences and change management have been demonstrated in this project. The impacts of value ethics and diversity on Culture of Unilever have been explained in content of sustainable business practices (Ellstrom, P.2001). The behaviour and performance of Managers with Unilever s growth have been explained with respect to mission, vision and future goals of organization. This project report is based on secondary research conducted with support of websites, journals and E-Books (Oladipo K. S 2013). Page 3 of 17

5 2. Discussion Roles and functions of Managers Unilever is a global FMCG company and it has been implementing Matrix organizational structure where reporting is being done by managers to more than one boss or supervisor. The communication channel flows from top to the bottom level (Zhu, W 2012). The Mintzberg managerial roles have been followed by managers of Unilever Company and categorized in three ways such as interpersonal, informational and decisional. The managers are being deployed in training and developmental programs by leaders of company to perform these roles (Agbim, K. C 2013). While carrying interpersonal roles, the manager s act as figurehead of Unilever Company by being social and carrying legal works, they act as leaders by taking higher risks and managers work as liaison by being communicator for external and internal parties of organization (Abbott, L.2011). The informational role has been performed by mangers of Unilever Company being monitor for the employees, acting as disseminator to send right information at top level and being spokesperson for Unilever and its employees by communicating future goals of business. Managers of Unilever Company by managing business as Entrepreneurs, being disturbance handler by taking the charge, have performed the decisional roles. As well, by acting as resource allocator and being a negotiator (Hashem, I.A.T 2014). Managers of Unilever have performed the Different kind of functions by planning the business and shaping it to right direction. Organizing activities to achieve plans, staffing to engage employees in productive work for getting desired results, coordinating with employees on individual or team basis for getting targets of company fulfilled and controlling activities of employees for monitoring the success of business (Majhi, S.K 2015). Challenges and risks addressing in Today s changing environment Unilever has been facing different kinds of challenges and risks in today s changing environment in-term of political, social, economic, environmental, legal, and technological, Page 4 of 17

6 etc. (J. Daugelaite 2013). There changes in demands and buying habits of customers have been influencing business of Unilever and in such situation, the managers can create better marketing and promotional strategies for bridging gaps that emerge in business of Unilever. The managers have been handling challenges and risks by deploying resources in a right manner, minimizing costs of operations and generating insights into problems with creative and innovative ideas by engaging other employees in productive work (Goggins, S. P. 2013). The managers at Unilever Company have been trained with different kinds of skills like excellent communication, knowledge to use technology, working in cross cultural teams, changing mindsets of customers with better knowledge, taking higher level of risks, honesty, working in shortage of resources and managing competition by bringing changes in their business related tactics(todnem, R 2005). Managers of Unilever in today s changing environment also have addressed the challenges and risks by implementing change management strategies and cementing changes with systems, technology and structures of Unilever to manage the global dynamics. Impact of values, ethics and diversity on culture of organization There has been higher emphasis and impact of values, ethics and diversity on culture of organization like Unilever. The values developed by Unilever believes to create a sustainable business model by meeting interests of all stakeholders with support of Mangers. The managers of Unilever Company have been adding value to its business by aligning their performances with mission, vision and future goals of their company. Change management strategies proposed by John Kotter s and Kurt Lewin have been implemented on regular basis at Unilever by managers to meet drivers of business like competition, technology, performance, learning, motivation, finance and customers. The motto of Unilever Company is to improve health and well-being of missions of people. Managers of Unilever have been acting as transformational leader by creating self-interest among them to align their career growth with sustainable growth Page 5 of 17

7 of Unilever Company. The managers of Unilever Company have been respect cross cultural diversities and employees working with them irrespective of age, gender, religion, language, education, social status and etc. The managers can plan out diversity based hiring process which will support in brining talented employees from all across the globe who can provide creative and innovative ideas to grow business of Unilever and it would also reduce the costs of operations. Managers in cross-cultural teams for fostering growth and flowing synergy in businesses of Unilever have deployed the employees. The ethical qualities like maintaining transparency, honesty, openness, loyalty, integrity, and empathy, and time management, risk taking ability, commitment, excellence, accountability and fairness have been developed by managers of Unilever, which will grow their career and business of Unilever as well. Utilitarian Approach of ethical theory has been used by mangers of Unilever that explains the ethical decisions, which have been taken by them, would be based upon good and bad consequences. The culture of organization can be develop with support of Managers by respecting each employee at Unilever and single corporate culture should be develop. The successful achievement of Unilever must be celebrate by managers with other employees and better working environment can be set for different departments of Unilever like Marketing, finance, production, Human resource and Information technology. Managers to engage employees on global basis to develop better working culture can frame different kinds of programs. Task related managers of Unilever Company are entertaining conflicts and personal conflicts are keep away from business of Unilever (Todnem, R 2005). Behaviour and Performance of Managers with organization The managers of Unilever have been behaving in a good way to generate business for their company (Trompenaars. 2003). The behavioural aspects like perception, learning, motivation, attitude and personality have been linked with performance management system of Unilever that would be explaining whether the managers should be promoted, transferred, terminated Page 6 of 17

8 and move towards succession planning for leadership roles in coming future (Kotter, J 2007). The behaviour analysis would be supporting managers of Unilever to improve their weakness and convert their strengths into opportunities for this company (Good, T. D. 1979). There have been different kinds of performance management system, which have been used by Unilever Company for measuring performance of employees and managers. The performance of managers working at Unilever has been traced using 360-degree appraisal system, where manager s performance would be rated by supervisors, leaders, peer groups, customers, suppliers and immediate boss. It is an unbiased kind of rating system, which has been implemented by managers of Unilever Company (Green, K. D 1980). It would be supporting management and managers of company to know about their performances. Different kinds of rewards and recognitions in-terms of vacation leave, paid leaves, bonuses, shares in company, gifts etc. have been offered for managers who perform in a superior manner. Sustainable working practices have been framed by leaders of Unilever Company to deploy managers in different kinds of challenging projects (Katrandjiev, H.I 2000). The legal laws related to employment process at Unilever are strict and it has been trying its best to retain talent employees in a best manner. Page 7 of 17

9 3. Research Methodology The secondary research method has been used to collect the information for project. The information/data has been collected from website, Journals, E-books etc. The information has been collected in a qualitative manner (Moriarty, S.E1994). Sample size Out of 100 managers, 20 managers have been selected as sample size. Questionnaires The five open-ended questions have been framed to gain the responses from 20 managers, which are listed below (Riegner C 2007). 1. What are the roles of manager do you think? Interpersonal Informational Decisional All of the above 2. What functions do you perform if you are been a manager? Planning Organizing Controlling Directing Staffing All of the above (McMains, A 2007). 3. Are you able to manage risks and challenges of your organization? Yes No 4. Are ethics, diversity management and culture important for growing business? Page 8 of 17

10 Agree Strongly agree Neutral Strongly disagree Disagree 5. Is your behaviour link with your performance at work place? Agree Strongly agree Neutral Strongly disagree Disagree Data collection The data has been collected using the Bar Graphs and pie charts What are the roles of managers do you think? No of Respondents Interpersonal Informational Decisional All the above 2. Page 9 of 17

11 8 What functions do you perform if you are been a manager? No of Respondents Planning Organizing Controlling Directing Staffing All of the above Are you able to manage risks and challenges of your organization? No of Respondents Yes No 4. Page 10 of 17

12 Are ethics, diversity management and culture important for growing business? No of Respondents Agree Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree 5. Is your behaviour linked with your performance at work place? Agree Strongly Agree Neutral Strongly Disagree Disagree No of Respondents DATA Analysis The first graph represents that maximum Managers have been stating that interpersonal, informational and decisional all are their roles to be performed in an Organization. The second graph represents that maximum number of managers have been stating that all are their functions of management such as planning, organizing, controlling, staffing and directing. The Page 11 of 17

13 third graph represent that Maximum number of managers are able to manage risks and challenges of their organization (Cawley, B. D. E 1998). The fourth graph shows that maximum managers strongly agree with ethics, diversity management and culture, which are important for growing business of an organization. The fifth graph represents that behaviour of managers have been linked with their performance at workplace. Page 12 of 17

14 4. Conclusion Thus it can be concluded in this report that Unilever has been growing their business in a sustainable manner with support of effective managers who have been performing three roles such as interpersonal, informational and decisional(eddy, E. 1999). The managers also have been performing function like planning, organizing, controlling, staffing and directing for meeting drivers of business such as competition, finance, technology, learning and customers (Leonard, N. H.1999). The positive impact of values, ethics and diversity on culture being managed by managers of Unilever in dynamic manner has been explained in a detail manner. The behavioural aspects of managers such as perception, personality, learning, attitude and motivation have been linked with performance management system of Unilever measured with 360 degree of feedback mechanism has been described in this report. Thus, it can be concluded in this report that Managers are key assets of Unilever and they have been supporting to create a sustainable business model by being a bridge between top and bottom management (Leonard, N. H. 1999). Page 13 of 17

15 5. Recommendations The recommendations are in the list below. Managers working at Organization such as Unilever must be moved to strategic leadership positions seeing their superior performances Managers should be regularly trained and developed to adapt with global challenges with effective change management strategies. Managers should be deployed with new kinds of projects to understand their behaviours, ethical aspects and decision-making abilities for creating a sustainable business model by linking their career growth with growth of Unilever. Page 14 of 17

16 6. References: 1. Ellstrom, P. (2001). Integrating Learning and Work: problems and prospects. Human Resource Development Journal, 12(4), pp Oladipo K. S (2013).Review of leadership theories and Organizational performances. International Business Management Journal, 7(1), Zhu, W. (2012). Relationships between transformational and active transactional leadership and followers' organizational identification: The role of psychological empowerment. Journal of Behavioural and Applied Management, 13(3), Agbim, K. C. (2013). Spirituality, ethical behaviour and ethical business: The impact of relatedness. Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research, 2, Abbott, L. (2011). a systematic review of the empirical literature evaluating IRBs: What we know and what we still need to learn. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 6, Hashem, I.A.T. (2014). The rise of big data on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information Systems, 47, Majhi, S.K. (2015). Challenges in big data cloud Computing and Future Research Prospects: A Review. The Smart Computing Review, 5(4), J. Daugelaite, (2013). Big data, Hadoop and cloud computing in genomics. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 46(5) Goggins, S. P. (2013). Group information: A methodological approach and ontology for socio technical group research. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64, Todnem, R. (2005). Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review, Journal of Change Management, 5(4), Page 15 of 17

17 11. Trompenaars (2003). A new framework for managing change. Journal of Change Management. 3(4) Kotter, J. (2007). Leading Change, Why Transformations Efforts Fail, Harvard Business review, January, Good, T. D. (1979). The Missouri mathematics effectiveness project: an experimental study in fourth grade classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, Green, K. D. (1980). An assessment of the relationship among measures of children's social competence and children's academic achievement. Child Development, 51, Katrandjiev, H.I. (2000). Some Aspects of Measuring Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), Economics of Organization, 1(8), pp Moriarty, S.E. (1994). PR and IMC: The Benefits of Integration, Public Relations Quarterly, 39(3), pp Riegner C. (2007). Word of mouth on the web: The impact of web 2.0 on consumer purchase decisions, Journal of advertising research. 47(4) McMains, A. (2007). Why clients withhold AD spending online. Adweek. 48(33), Cawley, B. D. E. (1998). Participation in the performance appraisal process and employee reactions: a meta-analytic review of field investigations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, Eddy, E. (1999). The effects of information management policies on reactions to human resource information systems: an integration of privacy and procedural justice perspectives. Personnel Psychology, 52, Reid, M. (2005). Performance Auditing Of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Actions And Outcomes, Journal of Advertising, 34(4), pp Page 16 of 17

18 22. Leonard, N. H. (1999). Information Processing Style and Decision Making. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 20, Page 17 of 17