Introduction:

Leadership Management of Unilever will be analysed in this report. Recent business world are very much strategy oriented and such strategies are compiled and implemented by leaders and managers. Leaders are managers both aim to achieve the objectives of perspective business organizations, however, their attitudes, styles, manner are not same. Each leader is a manger because of their inborn managerial characteristics but each manager is not a leader because of lack of features of being a leader. This report is all about leadership, management and their contribution to an organization. The report has been divided in two sections: task one and task 2 where each task is divided in different sub-sections related to leadership, management, operations management, and external business environment. Task one has critically evaluated the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers, management and leadership theories in different organizational contexts. Task 2 has introduced operations management, its role in an organizations, how leaders and managers play important contribution in operations management, external environment forces and leaders and managers affect the forces of the external environment etc. For organizational contextualization and application, a company has been selected and the selected company is Unilever.

Leadership Management of Unilever

Introducing Unilever

Unilever is a UK based corporation which was established in 1929. It offers a varied ranges of products such as beauty products, personal care products, food and refreshment products and cleaning products. The company made a revenue about £45.21 billion Euro in 2019 with net profits of £6.026 billion (Unilever PLC., 2019). Unilever has a global operation in more than 190 countries which is managed by 155,000 employees employed globally. The rationale for selecting Unilever is that it is a global brand having a number of leaders and managers, as a result application of the said concepts will be convenient. Moreover, the business operates business in diversified global environment with huge external forces; this will help to make better application of the theories said in the introduction section.

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Role of a leader and functions of a manager

Difference between a manager and a leader in terms of their characteristics

A manager and a leader both aim to achieve the organizational objectives and aims through directing, motivating, suggesting and mentoring a group of employees. Both of managers and leaders aim to increase organizational efficiency, achievement, revenues, employee turnover and sustainability. The difference between a leader and a manager is in how the lead and manage their colleagues. Saucedo-Martinez et al., (2018) have revealed that a managerial role is directive and authoritative oriented relationship where the main intention of the manager is to get the job done from the fellow colleagues. On the other hand, a leadership is a collaborative, cooperative and mentorship-oriented relationship where the leader leads by example and by serving and showing the colleagues the way of doing work properly and achieving the objectives in best manner.

A critical analysis of the comparison between management functions and leadership roles

Before analysing Leadership Management of Unilever, we will know the difference between management functions and leaderships roles. Leadership and management are different in how the two subjects behaves and interact with employees. Though both leadership and management’s objective is to achieve the organizational objectives, there are some certain difference between the functions done by a manager and the roles played by a leader.

A manager values authority whilst a leader values relationship: A significant difference between a leader and a manager is that a leader values relationship, coordination and serving the colleagues, on the other hand a manger values authority, seniority and hierarchy levels to deal with the colleagues. The same activities can been seen among the leaders and managers at Unilever. A manager cannot think beyond the issues of authority and dignity and they consider themselves as important decision maker of the company, as a result they direct the employees in authoritative manner to get a job done. Whilst a leader at Unilever values relationship by convincing them, by showing them the way to do a work in a friendly approach. They are encouraged by collaboration and cooperation.

A manager shares targets whilst a leader shares vision: A manager is target oriented which implies that managers just copy and implement the targets of the company; on the other hand, a leader sees far beyond the targets, rather they see the long term vision if the jobs and targets are implemented. Leaders at Unilever share the long term objectives of being the best consumer brand worldwide with the employees and leaders inspire them and show them the way how to act. These approaches of leadership are considered far better approaches of leading in an organization then those done by a manager.

Leaders and creative and unique whilst managers and universal: Leadership is service oriented which means leaders invent different motivational approaches to motivate employees, such approaches reflect the creativity of the employees. On the other hand, managers do not generally pose such creativity, rather they follow already established manners, theories and behaviors. Unilever encourages its employees to be leaders and thus the company has kept footprint of Excellency and innovation in R&D, new products, marketing, supply chain etc.

A manager handles risk whist a leader takes risks: A significant difference between a leader and a manager is that leaders faces risks, on the other hand a manager takes risks. Leaders takes risks because they are innovative and apply new methods and approaches which in turn bring higher returns. Whilst managers follow conventional methods and they bring average returns.

Leadership Management of Unilever: Application of Role of a leader and functions of a manager

Evaluation and application of leadership roles and management functions in certain organizational contexts:

In a nutshell, leaders work on broader perspectives, on the other hand, managers usually work in small perspectives. The underlying differences between the roles of a leader and functions of a manager are analyzed below:

Leaders inspire trust: A prominent role played by a leader is that they inspire trust through their competence, capabilities, experience and expertise. Leaders at Unilever also inspire trust because of their longstanding experience and visionary capabilities. Inspiring trust is a difficult job because it takes confidence of employees because of a series of repeated success which require experience, supervision and expertise. The inspiring capabilities thus make emerging leaders.

Leaders create vision: Another vital role that leaders play is that they create vision and visualize in front of the employees only by discussion. This is a significant competence because it inspires others to have the same vision. Leaders at Unilever visualize vision of being the world’s best personal care, beauty and consumer products seller. Such visionary capability and competence inspire thousands of employees in Unilever.

Leaders make and execute strategy: The visionary capability and being above to see in long term has enabled leaders to make strategy better than others. Leaders at Unilever compile the strategies which are achievable, suitable and executable. As a result, employees are encouraged to execute those strategies.

Leaders unleash potentials: The most important role that leaders play is that they unleash the potentials hidden among employees. Leaders capitalize on the potentials among employees and do well both for the company and for the employees.

Managers do planning: a programming perspective: Managers generally plan which is related to executive and programming perspective. By planning, they mobilize the operations and achieve the targets of Unilever.

Managers make decision: course of action perspective: A manager generally takes a number of decision, actually their hole way is all about making small and large decision. Decision making in a company like Unilever requires expertise, experience and competence. Managers of Unilever has those capabilities and skills to make decision.

Managers controls: Another potential functions performed by a manger controlling. They control employees, operations, and the organization. Controlling is an important managerial function because without proper controlling, Unilever cannot achieve the short term goals, as a result long term vision will also be unachieved.

Evaluation of management and leadership theories to ensure sustainable growth

Understanding of management and leadership theories are important both for managers and leaders. In below section, how management and leadership theories help Unilever to make sustainable business decision are analyzed below:

Management theories to ensure sustainable growth:

Theory X and Theory Y: The theories are based on authoritarian and participative the underlying concept of which is that some employees do work only for money and there are employees who work for their maximum satisfaction. The underlying concept and understanding of these two theories is of great importance to manage a large number of workforce of Unilever because all employees of the company are not equally motivated. For example, Unilever should apply the concepts of Theory Y for those who are motivated and work for maximum satisfaction. Thus, they will be further motivated to achieve the sustainable goals of Unilever.

Scientific management theory: The theory implies that jobs should be simplified in scientific manner with the involvement of superior so that the executives and workers at offices and at factories can perform their best through the simplified system. Proper understanding and implementation of this theory at Unilever will bring excellent result in the performance at factories and at offices of the company. These will contribute to achieving the sustainable goals of the company because workers will find the scientific approach of working and thus efficiency will increase.

Leadership theories to ensure sustainable growth:

Transformational leadership theory: Transformational leadership plays the most significant role in diversified and large scale organizations because this is the best style to change and implement large strategies. Transformational leadership is a blend of charisma and skills to bring transformation. Therefore, implementation of this leadership theory will help Unilever to bring about big change with significant impact.

Situational leadership theory: This theory implies that leadership should be flexible with and inclusion of being changeable if the situation demands. Advantage of this theory is that it helps Unilever to make a flexible work environment in which employees will get enough freedom in execution. This may in turn increase workplace efficiency.

Above analysis has revealed that Unilever should implement scientific management theory, X Y theory, transformational leadership and situational leadership theories.

Demonstration and evaluation of the roles managers and leaders play in operations of a company

Exploring the operations management at Unilever:

Operations Management refers to the whole activities of transferring the ideas and concepts to products or services, adding values and doing all marketing jobs and delivering the products or services to the desired customers. Moreover, after sales services is also a part of operations management. Since Unilever has operations in more than 190 countries with hundreds of brands and thousands types of products and services. The company has huge operational tasks from R&D to CSR. Therefore, management of Operations at Unilever is one of the tough jobs. Unilever has to conduct research & development activities in, for example, Netherlands. After the company has examined the viability of the new development, it has to decide the make or bye decision which involves further hundreds of considerations about cost, efficiency, protection of intellectual property, competitiveness etc. All these activities are a small portion of the whole operations of Unilever.

Above analysis has revealed that Operations management of Unilever is a diversified job hwere leaders and managers play the pioneer role. Such management require efficient techniques and tactics.

Operations management approaches at Unilever: how leaders and managers make the best use of the approaches:

Operations management is partially about the utilization of resources such as human resources, physical resources, technological resources, R&D labs, intellectual resources. Management of such varied types of resources require techniques and approaches which are called approaches and models to Operations Management. How the approaches play role at Unilever and how managers and leaders play their roles are analyzed below.

Program Evaluation & Review Technique (PERT): PERT stands for Program Evaluation & Review Technique which aims at identification of the time required to finish a task through scheduling and coordination among all tasks. Unilever must already have applied this excellent scientific model of Operations Management.

As above figure suggests, it identifies the tasks, resources and schedules, then it make sure to add network diagram keeping the most important tasks in priority. It also find the critical path with possible limitations or obstacles. Managers and leaders at Unilever should take the role of implementation of this approach.

Performance Metrics: This is a generic method of evaluating the performance of certain process of employees and taking step to take corrective actions if the result is not satisfactory. Managers and leaders at Unilever should also adopt this approach to find the effectiveness and efficiency of certain process and system, therefore, it will be able to take corrective actions. This will make the system more efficient.

Trade Offs: Another significant operations management approach is Trade Offs. It means evaluating all the available resources and making decision to utilize the resources for best promising and potential investment decision as per the corporate objectives. A company generally has a number of investment decision with limited resources. Unilever should evaluate all the possible aspects of using the resources and should select the most promising ones.  A good leaders can visualize the future objectives and they can make the best decision in regards to investment.

Evaluation of the role operations management play to achieve business objectives and how leaders and managers participate:

Operations management (OM) approaches and tactics play significant role to any business. The same holds true in case of Unilever. In below points, it has been evaluated how the approaches of operations management help Unilever to achieve business objectives and the roles played by leaders and managers in this regard.

Implementing the scientific approach to management operations: Above mentioned OM approaches will help Unilever to significantly improve the effectiveness in the factories of Unilever through application of scientific approaches. Managers and leaders should evaluate existing work process and they should suggest the revised work process for the employees. Managers and leaders can do those with their longstanding experience, expertise and with the use of technologies and knowledge.

Helping to make the best investment decision: One feature of OM approach is that it helps to evaluate all the resources and guide the company to make best investment decision. Thus, the leaders and managers at Unilever will evaluate all the possible resources such as human resources, physical resources, technological resources, R&D labs, intellectual resources. All these issues will help Unilever to make best use of the resources and thus company can make the suitable investment decision.

Helping to better evaluate performance of system and employees: OM approaches also help to critically evaluate the performance of already established systems and of employees. Unilever has a number of operations management systems, knowledge management systems; OM approaches will help Unilever to evaluate the effectiveness of these system, any deviations from the intent objectives will inspire the company to make corrective actions.

Understanding of the relationship between leadership and management in recent business environment

Evaluation of how the macro-economic business environment affect operations management decision at Unilever and how these external business factors affect wider business environment:

Factors of macro-economic business environment involves external forces such as technological environment, political environment, economic environment, socio-economic system, ecological and legal environment all of which have tremendous impact on a company.

Global economic system have huge impact on Unilever because the company has operations globally. Inflation, employment rate, GDP, GDP per capita etc. affect the decision making process of Unilever. Based on these factors, Unilever takes operational decision. For example, the growth of income and economy in Asian countries has motivated Unilever to make more investment in these regions.

Global political factors also affect the decision of Unilever. For example, Brexit will change the competitive landscape of Unilever to do business, now the terms and condition will change in terms of operation and employee management.

Social environmental factors will also affect Unilever in how they do business. Due to COVID 19, there is a trend of maintaining social distance and not going outside. This will inspire people to make online purchase. Thus, Unilever should emphasize on online platform to communicate and to sell products.

Technological environment has huge impact on operational decision of any company. Due to technological development in recent times, company have more emphasized on high techs and tech based production system.

Role of operations management to cope with the impact and in turn affect the wider business environment:

McArthur (2015) has found in his research that operations management should be extrovert and outgoing in nature to forecast the changes to come. This helps a company to better equip the organization systems. This also helps Unilever and any business to cope with external forces and environment.

Operations management continuously looks for optimizing the systems and performance. This helps a company to improve the competitive advantage and be better ready to cope with external competitive environment. The business world is going through rapid changes with industrialization, being competitive helps a company to cope with the industrialization.

Above two instances show how the approaches of operations management can strengthen the competitive strength of a company. There are similar many instances in which a company can adapt with the forces of external environment.

Conclusion:

Leaders and managers both play important role to achieve the organizational objectives. However, their styles of working is different. Leaders generally focus on visionary objectives, whilst managers generally focus on implementing objectives. Management and leadership theories play important role in an organization to lead the employees. Operations management is all about the business operations from idea generations to after sales services. Thus, the range of activities in OM is really extensive. Operations management of a company is affected by the external environment. A company should make effective strategies to cope with the external forces.

Reference:

Unilever PLC., 2019. Annual results 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com/Images/ir-q4-2019-full-announcement_tcm244-543823_en.pdf  [Assessed on 16 April 2020]